El Dengue

Two weeks ago I made the plan to be in Santo Domingo to help my good friend Kirsten move into her new apartment. My plan was to go on Monday and come back on either Thursday or Friday. On Sunday night Kelvin and I tried out a new pizza restaurant in Samana that was delish, but I could hardly enjoy it because my back hurt so bad. I almost couldn't stand to sit in the chair. Weird huh? I told Kelvin, "It feels like that time when I had dengue." Well I just shrugged it off, went to bed, and traveled to Santo Domingo the next day to help Kirsten.

Monday i felt so tired and achy but was still running around with Kir doing errands; by that night I was flat on my back with a fever of 102.5 under a comforter in Santo Domingo's balmy 90 degree weather. It was the "gue" and all the lovelies that go with it (fever, severe headache, vomiting, abdominal cramps, chills, pain). Now, I have no idea what I had before, but it certainly wasn't dengue. They call it the breakbone fever because you feel like all of your bones are breaking. Thurday night my fever finally broke and on Friday morning I woke up with this lovely rash that has now spread to all parts of my body. 

Rash-smash right? WRONG! It itches so bad I want to jump out of my skin. The rash is said to last about five days but shouldn't itch the whole time. Here's hoping! The WHO estimates that there are between 50-100 million dengue infections annually worldwide, and that a vaccine may be available as early as 2015. That's not soon enough for me or my fellow volunteers, many of whom have had dengue in the past 6 months. I hadn't heard of any cases of dengue here in Samana, but then I got it, and a woman from my old town of Arroyo Barril was taken to the hospital yesterday with the same symptoms. I'm so grateful that none of my family or friends got it while they were here because I honestly wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

On the up side, while I was running around Santo Domingo with Kirsten I finally bought a couch and my wonderful husband delivered it to the house while I was convalescing. Now I just have to make a slip cover for it when I'm feeling better.