Getting from Malaysia to Singapore, Sri Lanka and back home was more exhausting and difficult that I expected…
After a sleepless night in Kota Bharu, city on the North-East side of Malaysia, we headed for Singapore. At this time I felt very sick and I knew I had a high fever. I was really looking forward to visiting a doctor in Singapore. An emergency on board forced us to land in Kuala Lumpur instead of Singapore and we spent almost 2 hours in the plane at Kuala Lumpur’s airport before departing for Singapore. I had such a high fever at that time that I started to have hallucinations sort of. We landed at Singapore’s airport 2 hours after schedule and instead of spending the rest of the day discovering the city we went straight for the doctor.
I had such a headache and was partly hallucinating that it was difficult for me to talk and explain my condition to the doctor. He understood after checking my fever of 41.5 degrees centigrade, made both of us very worried. I got an injection and after some time I started to feel again like in the real world. The doctor told me to go to hospital, but since I felt better I promised him to take care and visit him next day. Finally I could sleep and felt pretty good next morning, with temperature only 38 degrees. As I promised I went to visit the doctor again, got some pills and blood test which we agreed on communicate once they have the results. As the doctor told me I could go out and see the city I did so. So even with a higher temperature I didn’t want to lose opportunity to see the city.
During dinner with Alberto and Itziar, our amazing Spanish friends and hosts in Singapore, nurse called me with some bad news. My leukocytes and white blood cells were dangerously low and they wouldn’t advise me to fly. But we didn’t have another option. Just 3 hours after this phone call we had to go catch the flight to Sri Lanka. At the time of landing in Colombo it was around 2 am and we were both tired and really looking forward to rest. I tried to deal the price with 3 taxi drivers from which just one agreed on my amount. The streets of Negombo were empty and not exactly looking too safe. Taxi dropped us off outside the house where 3 guys were already waiting for us. It looked a bit creepy and I must admit I wasn’t even sure if we were in the right hostel, but all the men kindly helped us with the baggage and showed us the room. Next morning the same ritual like in Singapore. Instead of sightseeing, I had to go to doctor. The private clinic looked really different like you would expect, reminded me of TV show M.A.S.H. But the doctor was very friendly and after a short blood test in just 10 minutes he told me the big news…
„YOU HAVE A DENGUE FEVER“
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease with symptoms like high fever, headache and muscle and joint pains. Dengue fever is common in South-East Asia, Africa and South America. Just in Malaysia was 77.000 people infected in 2014, and 149 died just in September. Of course at the time he told me about it I had no clue what that means. I was told to wait for another 2 hours to get my blood results. While waiting, doctor told me I might have to stay in hospital in Colombo for some time, because it can be extremely dangerous to fly or just travel in general. I couldn’t believe his words. My Leukocytes and white blood cells were too low but luckily I was still able to fly, so again just 3 hours before our flight to Dubai and from there to Prague, I was released from private clinic in Negombo and headed straight for the airport.
Finally arriving to Slovakia, first stop for me was hospital in Bratislava where I stayed for 6 days being patient number 15 in Slovakia with Dengue fever. After some time in hospital I felt much better and safer. Back home from hospital, I was asked if I don’t regret going to Asia. Dealing with Dengue fever was difficult and still is, but I don’t regret anything we did, because it was the best trip I have done so far. I have seen amazing places full of great people and even spending some time at doctors made me a richer person full of new experience.
