The Last of my Hospitalisation Leave

Today marks the last of my 11 days of hospitalisation leave. I will be back to work tomorrow. I was down with Salmonella Enteritidis Infection. For those of you who do not know what that is: it is something similar to Prima Deli's case in late 2007. Nope, I did not get it from Prima Deli. Until now, I am not sure where and how I got this . But with some reading up, it is something to do with eggs. You can say I tried catching up with the trend, but was slow.

Long hospitalisation leave you may think. Boi, I tell you this was no fun. The first symptom was the slight stomach upset that came on 13/1, at about 6.30pm. This stomach upset later upgraded itself, without my consent, to diarrhoea and vomit. And the fever started. All these took place well within 3 hours. It was my personal record of running to the toilet for 8-9 times and vomiting 4-5 times within 3 hours. Later on in the night at 10 plus, bf drove me to TTSH. Upon reaching TTSH, I was being "quarantined". I was classified as a suspected bird flu case, due to my business travel to Batam. But also because of this, I received immediate medical attention. I was put on drip, given ECG test (for my higher than usual heartbeat), urine test and X-ray, while I waited for the blood test results of the preliminary bird flu test. I was later admitted to the hospital CDC2 for treatment at 1 in the morning.

Sleepless Nights in CDC & the Medical Treatments

That night, I was running high fever of 39.5°C. Normally when I have fever, chills come. I had 4 blankets on me, yet I was still feeling cold. My blood pressure was constantly low (Low:55, High:88). Another reason for my sleepless night was the hourly checks that the nurses had to do for me (BP, heartbeat, temperature). I fell asleep only when the effects of the Paracetamol set in at about 5am. I woke up at 7am, because of the returning chills. I was shivering in cold when the doctor came to check on me. During my first day, I had blood tests, body checkup, hydration drips, urine and stools collection. And so my fever came and went lingering around 38.8°C. Likewise on the subsequent days, I had more blood tests, hydration drips, potassium drips (painful), Vitamin B12 injection, etc until my report came out on the 17/1, the day I was discharged. During this hospitalisation, I was unable to sleep for 3 nights out of the 4. Imagine the panda rings that I had. On the day of discharge, I still had watery runs, fever and felt nauseous. My condition did improve but not fully recovered.

Mini Health Check

During this stay, it was like having my health check. The last report showed I am deficient in Iron, Vitamin B12 and Folate, implying I am anaemic. Folate level is something I have to watch out for before getting pregnant in the future. This serves as an alarm for me to take good care of my health from now on. Now, I am a good girl taking all supplements given to me. There will be several follow-up doctor appointments to ensure I have fully recovered.

Gratitude

All in all, a blessing in disguise, although the feeling was not at all pleasant. A big Thank You to my family (esp. sister), bf and his family for coming to visit me and took care of me during this hospitalisation period. Appreciate that.