Dengue – because covid is not enough

Last year I was walking down the streets of Port of Spain in Trinidad. Quite a nice neighborhood… Bay Road, West Main, Bengal Street, Finland… and out of a sudden – BAM! Dengue street*! No kidding! Was it like a warning sign? Or maybe I missed Zika Street, followed by Chikungunya Road, across the Yellow Fever River… Anyway, almost a year later, TA-DA! my very own (and another 1600 people on the island) tropical experience – dengue…

It all sounded so exotic and scary to our friends and family that every second person asked if I was already in the hospital. Hospital? in Covid times? No way!

Dengue is quite popular here. As much as it sounds like a little sister of dreadful malaria, it is basically the tropical flu that can go mental. Just like tropical storms turn into hurricanes, because in the tropics everything has to be super intensive. It is not pleasant, though. I was lucky to have some light version that put me in bed for only a week and sucked the energy out of me for about 4 more. Funny enough, famous zika (check epidemic 2016) or chikungunya are basically softer versions of dengue with quite similar symptoms (I am not a specialist, so I probably mix something here), but the doctor said: “nope, everybody in this area has dengue. Zika or chikungunya is not on the menu for you, now go back to bed and be sick!”.

I started to read what to expect. Bla, bla, bla, some ugly stomach stuff up and down the pipe, muscles, fever, headache (that sh^!@%$#^ was the worst, and paracetamol didn’t help!), then 48h crucial to know if you have a light version or you gonna die bleeding internally. Fantastic!
So, check this… here I am: fever is gone, 24 hours later, I feel like a newborn. After few days in bed, I obviously HAVE TO start cleaning. Boys-kingdom is at the stage of mild chaos, so I just can’t resist. All-day long, just me and the mess. Then… at night, still within 48 hours, I feel that my gums are swelling. In the mirror, they look like they are about to explode, sore like crazy. I wake Marcin up…

– I have THE symptoms! Don’t wanna die! What if I am bleeding inside? Check my gums, my nose, my ears!!!! I am too young to die!!! Waaaaaaake up!!! 
– Sleep, you shout way too loud to be dying!

———T H E    E N D——–

from the dengue-land, reporting to you,
yours sincerely,
Kasia, The Survivor

*Dengue Street – haven’t found a reasonable explanation for this street name. The disease is not named after any scientist. Can anyone help here?