Dengue Is A Bitch: Patient Care, Cure, Management,
I’ve been in the hospital for a week.
This is the short answer to where the hell have I been all this time and the long answer is that My Man suffered from dengue hemorrhagic fever and was hospitalized last Thursday. It felt like moving to a totally rad condo only that My Man was tied to an IV stand, looking like an aged banana. He is still in the hospital actually but he is all better and set to be discharged tomorrow. 
What I found from this experience is that there is not much literature that helps when it comes to dengue. If you look it up online all you would see is a stress on hydration. I even rummaged in my old college books but there was no detailed discussion of dengue. Bummer.
So I decided to share a few tips and tricks on how dengue is a bitch and some points on patient care, cure, and management. Not to prepare you for a dengue attack actually, because really I would not wish it on anyone, but it just pays to know, you know?
First of, dengue is a virus, meaning no amount of antibiotic can cure it, in fact, there is no exact cure for the dengue virus. To understand dengue, compare it with the common flu. If you are unlucky, it finds you, makes you sick, but it leaves on its own. The medications are not exactly to treat the virus but the symptoms, get it?
Now the uncool part is the huge stigma attached to dengue. It is very scary for the most part because it is as if everyone with dengue dies. 
Well, you can die with dengue but it is not really necessary. The trick is early detection. If you are experiencing two or three days of high grade fever without signs of infection, have a go at the hospital and get tested for dengue. There is a rapid dengue test now that can tell whether you are positive.
You do not have to wait for the blanching and petechiae or rashes to appear on your skin before you decide to go to the hospital and get tested. That is the late stage of dengue already and you have lost a mighty number of platelets by then for sure if you do not bother to do anything about it quickly.
Speaking of platelets, this is the blood component that is destroyed by dengue. The low number of platelets is the reason why some dengue patients bleed spontaneously. It is not fun, I tell you. The bleeding can be internal or external so careful watch for any signs of bleeding is important. However, what you must understand is that in dengue cases, the platelet will really fall no matter what you do because it is the natural course of the disease, but as you build your immunity, the platelet count should naturally go back up again.
Also, not all dengue patients need blood transfusion. If you do not have massive bleeding and your immune system is able to naturally fight the virus, there is no need for blood transfusion. But if you suffered from dengue, you cannot donate your blood anymore. I am saying this because it is true and not to encourage you to lie about suffering from dengue if ever you need to donate blood. 
With dengue, there is really not much that you can do but to wait for your platelet to drop and go back up again (normal count is about 350-100), sleep and rest, and get well hydrated and receive good nutrition (you can eat anything except dark colored foods or those that can induce itchiness on the rashes). The idea is to build up immunity as fast as you can. There is no telling how quickly the dengue will resolve. Some finish in three days while others take a week or two.
The information shared here on dengue hemorrhagic fever, patient care, cure, and management are not intended to replace medical advice, but as they say, better to have something on your brain than be an idiot. Ever heard of that one before?
Special thanks to all the doctors and nurses who attended to My Man at the couple of hospitals we went to, to my cousin Dr. Saroca, to Mother Goose and Don Domeng, to my sisters, to Roke and Hobbe, to Madam, to Mommy, to Tita Kite, to Denoy‘s mom, and to everyone who wished and prayed for My Man well. It worked!
mom sends her regards
dalaw daw kayo mali bay
=)
raft3r
February 3, 2012 at 11:06 pm
salamat
oo matutuloy din yan 
PM
February 4, 2012 at 9:33 am
[...] number 7 is The Tiger’s Wife by T. Obreht. I started reading it January 19, but as dengue rudely interrupted, I only finished today. With death reeking of The Tiger’s Wife from cover [...]
The Tiger’s Wife Book Review: Life, Death, And Some In Between « Prinsesa's Anatomy
February 2, 2012 at 9:06 am
[...] we are officially out of the hospital and on the road to put dengue behind us. Have I told you dengue sucks? Now any mosquito is suspect and a single one spotted brings paranoia to another level. It is [...]
What I Learned When Dengue Is Your Bedmate « Prinsesa's Anatomy
January 27, 2012 at 10:41 am
eat healthy. excercise. vitamins and minerals. para mataas ang immunity.
cheesecake
January 27, 2012 at 3:54 am
yes doc!
PM
January 27, 2012 at 8:31 am
nice to hear that your man is now okay. thanks din sa tips.
apollo
January 27, 2012 at 1:11 am
oo buti na lang okay na siya talaga. may lamok ba diyan?
PM
January 27, 2012 at 8:33 am
.. good thing he is now okay. nakakatakot yang mga mosquito dengue carrier na yan, and you’re precisely correct na symptom management lang and there is no specific cure for it.
rob
January 26, 2012 at 10:17 pm
nakakatakot nga, nakakainis pa sila
PM
January 27, 2012 at 8:34 am
glad to know he’s okay. thanks for sharing, this is very informative.
LJ
January 26, 2012 at 7:11 pm
yep, thank god he is okay. so many things could’ve gone wrong but with god’s help, they didn’t and all is well.
PM
January 26, 2012 at 10:00 pm
noong high school nagka-dengue na rin ako. second stage na, buti na lang naagapan. dun sa room namin, iba -iba kami ng stage kaya kitang-kita ko kung ano ang puwedeng mangyari sa akin pag nahuli pa ako, scary.
kailangan talaga mag-ingat… yung isang kapit-bahay namin in one week tigok. sayang yung bata, bright pa naman sana ang future.
hitokirihoshi
January 26, 2012 at 7:00 pm
wow ingat ka! kawawa naman kapit bahay mo. yung anak ng kaibigan ng nanay ko nasa ospital pa din eh. hay nako. uso yata talaga. malapit din yung bahay nun sa bahay ni my man. tsk, tsk, tsk.
PM
January 26, 2012 at 10:01 pm
awww, thank God he’s ok! peste talaga ang dengue!
thanks for the info PM!
KG
January 26, 2012 at 9:46 am
peste talaga so careful with mosquito bites kg, especially to wendy. mas common ang dengue sa bata kasi low flying ang mosquitoes and they usually bite from 6am-6pm.
PM
January 26, 2012 at 6:05 pm
hope your man is doing better now.
thanks for the tips. i now have an excuse not to donate blood.
gillboard
January 26, 2012 at 7:38 am
kalalabas lang niya kanina gb, ayos na pero may rashes pa din. mawawala naman na iyon magisa. sasabihin mo nagkadengue ka?
PM
January 26, 2012 at 6:05 pm
nyahaha
panalo ka talaga, gibo
hehe
raft3r
February 3, 2012 at 11:07 pm
ibang klase ano? hihi
PM
February 4, 2012 at 9:42 am
this is very informative. i learned a lot from this post. thankful to know that he’s going to leave the hospital tomorrow. tell him to get better.
btw, how do you contract dengue?
Ewok
January 26, 2012 at 7:01 am
thanks ewok. hopefully everything will be alright now. you get the dengue virus from infected mosquitoes called aedes aegypti. they are day biting, usually from 6am-6pm. they are also low flying so dengue is very commonly seen in children. prevention is better than cure so no stagnant water around, no over growths in gardens, and always use mosquito repellent. better safe than sorry right?
PM
January 26, 2012 at 6:08 pm
scary.. I think here we call it West Nile virus here. A world class golfer, Rory McIlroy contracted a mild case dengue when he played in China. hope your man is better now. thanks for the info.
bw
January 26, 2012 at 1:57 am
yes, it is also called breakbone fever. it’s a bitch. malas naman ng golfer na yun. minsan pumunta sa ibang lugar nadengue pa.
PM
January 26, 2012 at 6:09 pm
I’m glad to hear that he’s all better now, my cutie patootie sister had dengue some time last year too and yes, dengue’s a biiiiiiiiatch.
aylablahs
January 25, 2012 at 10:56 pm
wow buti naging ayos na siya. tell her to always wear mosquito repellent. you do not build resistance to dengue and it can happen and usually second attacks are more serious so careful there right?
PM
January 26, 2012 at 6:09 pm