Dengue Fever

The end of the story first:  Lillian is fine, mostly.

While traveling in Singapore and Malaysia for our holiday break Lily became quite sick.  We'd spent 5 days in Singapore and then traveled to a little island off the coast called Tioman Island.  Or first full day there was rainy and overcast, leading me to overlook the need for sunscreen.  Both kids got completely sunburned.  Painfully, blisteringly sunburned.  The next day Lil was feeling bad, running a fever and really tired.  I assumed it was sun related, a side effect of my oversight.  We bought the resort's last bottle of children's pain/fever medicine (liquid, for ages 1-6) and began dosing her every 6 hours.  The fever would break but them come right back.  All she wanted to do was sleep, so, we let her.  The island was pretty sleepy itself, being monsoon season and all.  There wasn't a lot going on and we couldn't really go out and explore much anyway - the island is all thick forest and the only paved road is a short strip that runs from the ferry terminal to the resort we were staying at.  (An interesting fact, the road was started by the military in WWII and later finished by the resort so that guests could get there more easily).  To see the island you usually get a boat and go from pier to pier.  There is supposed to be some beautiful scenery there, but because of the rough waters of monsoon season, December is not really the time to see it.

Anyway, we were scheduled to be there on Tioman for 5 days.  Lil was able to enjoy the first one and slept through the last four.  At this point Jason and I are worried because she is as hot as either of us has ever felt a person be and she isn't eating and isn't drinking.  We flew to Kuala Lumpur, checked into our hotel, and drug Lily around for a day figuring she needed to get out, get some fresh air.  Everywhere we stopped she'd plop herself down on the ground and would often fall asleep.  She kept complaining of pain in her muscles and would wince in pain walking down stairs.  We bought some more fever meds and were giving them to her in the corridor of a mall.  A man told us there was a clinic there, just upstairs.  (Kind of cool to have a clinic in the mall, along with a pharmacy).  The next morning we took her in.  Her fever that morning was 39.6, or just above 103.  The doc drew some blood and said he suspected Dengue Fever.  The doctor was a very nice man with pretty good English. He wasn't so great at drawing Lil's blood, which he apologized a million times for.  The visit, blood work, and 3 medicines cost $50 (US dollars, no insurance).

While we waited to for the results Lily slept and we read about Dengue.  It's a virus transmitted through mosquito bites.  You find it mostly in subtropical climates and there are many, many cases every year. There is no prevention (other than mosquito control and not being bitten) and no real cure, just treatment.  Treatment is basically fever control, forcing fluids, and rest.   Symptoms are sudden high fever, fatigue, body aches, a rash, etc, etc, etc.

Several hours later the test came back, positive for Dengue.  He sent us to the ER of a local hospital.  We waited for a hour to see the doctor who was on his lunch break.  Lil was miserable, achey and hot.  But, the doctor (an ancient Indian man) was so great, really over the top kind to us.  He let her sleep on a gurney while waiting for test results.  After running his own blood work he wanted to admit her over night.  It would have been quite expensive and he admitted he wanted to do it more to be on the safe side than anything so he let us go home, as long as we promised to come back in the morning and drink, drink, drink.  Total bill, $55 US.

That brings us to today.  We went to the hospital this morning as promised.  It's Saturday here so everyone in Malaysia seemed to be there too.  After waiting over an hour the same kind doctor from the ER came to find us waiting outside the pediatrician's office.  He moved us along, got the paperwork so Lil could get another blood test, and probably shaved a couple hours off our wait time.  Love that man!  Results in hand, we went in to see the pediatrician and she was also wonderful. She walked us through Lil's results, number by number, and explained all the changes that had occurred overnight.  Basically, her body has been working super hard to fight this virus but she is on the mend.  The biggest indicator of healing is that her fever is gone and the classic Dengue rash showed up.  Now Lil is covered in a red, itchy rash.  It goes nicely with her peeling sunburn.  She isn't completely out of the woods yet, we still have to force fluids as her blood is a little too thick right now, and have to watch for signs of internal bleeding.  That sometimes occurs at this point in the recovery.  So, that is where we are.  Lil is of mostly sound body.  Her mind? Well, she's a bit of a hypochondriac and somewhat dramatic so we are fielding a lot of "what if" questions and some "I'm still worried" statements. I get it.  we were really worried ourselves. Today's bill, $50 US.

I have to say, this was scary.  This is the first time we've faced something serious-ish since leaving the US.  I really didn't like being on unfamiliar soil and being without insurance.  I also didn't like not having family around to lean on.  It wasn't major, but, scary enough to make me really appreciate the value of support.  But, the care we received was excellent.  Also, it felt really great to be able to communicate with the doctors.

Jason, Lily, Jaxon and I are thankful to everyone that sent positive thoughts Lil's way.  We have one day left of vacation and she's fever free!  Still, low energy, but, fever free!  We hope to make the most of tomorrow.  Something we should all do more of.