I go back and forth, finding it difficult to believe it is already the end of July, but simultaneously confused that it is still July. What a month.
We were hit recently with what I’m calling double-dengue.
I came home from Flour & Flowers deliveries on cinnamon roll week, after we had delivered 33 pans of cinnamon rolls all over town, in addition to 180 hand-rolled tortillas and a basket of bread loaves, exhausted and with a fever. It seemed reasonable to be tired, waking up at 5am, baking until 3pm, and jumping in the car to make deliveries until 7pm. But the fever persisted on Saturday, and I thought I was fighting some sort of virus.
We left on Sunday for a trip to Bangkok with friends, hoping I’d be over whatever it was soon. And for the record, they were contributing hand, foot & mouth to the car from their daughter, too, so it wasn’t just me! Unfortunately, we learned the very next day that I had dengue fever; and then two days after that, Stephen did, too. Dengue is absolutely nothing to joke of–it is a beast. The fevers are high, the rash is red and horrifying and itchy. And the body aches! Someone asked if it is in fact like you’ve been hit by truck, and it is. Every joint and muscle throbs like you’ve just run way too far and swam too far and sat too long and been hit by a fast car, all at once. You want to sleep and sleep some more, but you ache like you can’t find a comfortable way to sit or lay. And if you do happen to sleep, you’ll wake up in fever fits before too long.
Ten days of that.
For us, we went to Bangkok with friends to drop them at the airport, which left us to drive back to Mae Sot. We ended up taking it slow–very, very slow. We would get up late, around 9am, to catch the end of the hotel’s breakfast. Then we’d go back for a nap, because eating a few pieces of toast can really take it out of you. We’d wake up to check out at 12pm, and take turns driving, about 1 1/2 hours each, before we’d pull into the next hotel and go to sleep, about 3 or 4pm. So for multiple days in a row we were sleeping upwards of 16 hours a day.
We also got checked to make sure we didn’t have internal hemorrhaging, which can come with dengue. And we found out it can also lead to hepatitis, or swelling of the liver, which I had toward the end.
What a mess of a disease.
We both were all-cleared for the bigger risks–dehydration, hemorrhaging, and hepatitis–last Sunday, just in time to cross the border for a new visa stamp on Monday. We were up and out of the house by 10am, and walked across the bridge at the edge of town, only to walk back for a new stamp. And then we went home to take a rest, because it plum wiped us out.
But alas–still another week after that, we’ve now made it through two days in a row without a nap mid-afternoon, so we seem to be on the up and up!