Stop looking in my ear, please take my blood!

So you know I've been sick, here is what happened:

Day 1-3
Dec 13-15,sat, sun mon

High fever (38.5-39) which started suddenly around 2am on Saturday morning. Really really bad headache and whole body
sore. I’ve had the flu before, and that’s also a temp and body aches, but these aches were worse. I couldn’t find a lying or sitting position that was comfortable. So between that the really really bad headache I couldn’t really sleep from Saturday morning until I think it was Monday night.

I realized these were all dengue fever symptoms, I have some info on it from when I first came to Cambodia. The travel doctor I saw in Australia told me to watch out for it as there is no vaccination and no cure and it can be fatal. Its spread by a particular type of mossie that bites during the day.

So its always something I’ve been trying not to get, but I didn’t want to jump to conclusions and think any fever I get automatically means I have dengue.

Took heaps of ibuprofen and para. The ibuprofen was a French brand so Kimsoeun had to try to remember his French so he could tell me how much/often to take it. I wanted to take the max without overdosing.

I couldn’t read or sleep or eat. I did eat a bit, but it took a lot of effort.

Day4, Tuesday Dec 15
I felt much better in the morning after finally having a sleep! And my pain and fever were gone. But now that I stopped taking all those pain killers my sore ear was back, it had been really sore for a week before I got the fever.

So we went to the doctor. He said I had an ear infection and sold me some antibiotics. Told us you can get a fever from having an ear infection. We went home.

Later that day my fever came back! But not as bad as before.

Day 5- fever got a bit worse than day before but only around 38-38.5, aches didn’t come back, felt like I wanted to vomit and had diarrhea. Still felt really tired and gross and a bit sore, esp near my knees. Didn’t want to eat and had strange taste in my mouth. I was still thinking maybe I had dengue or maybe an ear infection and side effects from antibiotics.

Day 6-
When I woke up my arms and legs red and itchy. Hmmm… this is not an ear infection symptom, but it could be from antibiotics?? The leaflet (which was thankfully in English) said a rash could be a side effect.

I rang an international clinic we have membership with. I wanted to know if I should go to the doctor again. She said if the rash is itchy its not dengue fever. (I don’t know why she said this as other I know have had dengue were itchy and a few places on net said dengue can have an itchy rash, but non itchy on face and chest).


I went to the doctor again. I told him now I have a rash and asked him if he could do a blood test to see if I’m allergic to antibiotics or if my platelets are low, which may mean I have dengue.

He looked in my ear and told me I should use eardrops.

I was a bit frustrated about this as I hadn’t mentioned my ear at all and it wasn’t sore, I had come about the rash, and the fact that I’d had lots of dengue fever symptoms.

He kind of laughed and said dengue fever isn’t a big deal for adults. I was also a bit frustrated about this as it is actually a big deal for expat adults, even if its not for Khmer (an Aussie doc told me they all pretty much have it when they are kids and if they don’t die from it they become almost immune to it, much hard for them to get, whereas it can be serious for expats,). I tried to tell him this and finally managed to convince him to do the two blood tests I thought I should have. (hmm.. that’s not how a doctors appointment is supposed to work??)

Even though I had a temp for about a week, both times I went to the doctor I didn’t have a temp.

Day 7 and beyond

The next day he rang me with test results. He said my platelets were low so it’s likely I did have dengue.

The rash and temp were gone in a few days, and not more aches and pains. But its taken almost 2 weeks to feel normal (and I still haven’t tried a long bike ride yet- I used to spend 30 min- 2 hours each day riding, just rode a few min on Saturday).

The last two weeks I’ve still had nausea so trouble eating. As well as feeling really tired. For awhile I was having multiple 2 hour naps throughout the day, and going to bed at 7.30pm. Couldn’t get much done, I kept falling asleep.

But recently I’ve been able to walk to the market, buy food, and come home and cook- and then eat it. It felt like a major achievement, and like I had so much more freedom than when I was sick.

Its been interesting hearing people’s reactions- Khmer and expats so different.

Other expats tell me about their dengue experience, and we compare symptoms and especially talk about their recovery time, as it can take a long time to get better, like you can feel tired ages after you feel fairly normal.

But Khmer people are surprised. The lady who changes my money at the market said ‘but you’re and adult, can adults get dengue fever (Lit: fever blood/blood fever)?” I think some Khmer people don’t believe that I had dengue, they keep telling me that adults don’t get it.

So that all happened in the last 3 weeks, I think that’s called a mild case of dengue.
I hate to think what its like to have dengue bad enough to warrant being evacuated to Bangkok as sometimes happens to expats (we have membership with a clinic in case this happens- I’ve heard it can cost up to 20 000usdfor medivac).

The downside is they say after you’ve had it once, the next time you get it its worse. The upside is, there are 4 strains of it, and once you have one strain you are immune to that strain. (So one down, three to go?) I’ve a few different versions of this- like someone told me that once you have it you are immune for a year.