Okay, now it is official. I am presently infected with the Chikungunya virus.
While Mam is in her last days of recovery from Chikungunya, I went home from school last Thursday complaining of increasing pain in my left wrist. The pain became so bad that eventually I could not use my left hand. At first I wondered if I had somehow hurt my wrist by hitting it or putting it in a compromising position, but I couldn't think of anything I'd done to hurt my wrist so bad.
Eventually I began to notice that "all over achy feeling" like when you are coming down with the flu, except as the feeling progressed, all my joints began to ache, signaling I had been infected with the Chikungunya virus. Mam and I live deep in the forest, where it is virtually impossible to avoid mosquito bites unless you walk around in a space suit.
Thursday evening I spiked a fever and woke up shivering. By Friday morning I could barely walk, my joints in my body sore and swollen. I managed to get through the day at school and once I got home Friday afternoon, I was a wreck. Luckily for me, Mam had overheard a woman at the local pharmacy complaining of having aching joints from the Chikungunya virus, noting the pharmacist gave her some special pills. So Mam went to the pharmacy and asked the pharmacist what pills might help me, and they gave her two packages.
One pill was a big, square, purple pill called Nabesac containing 500 milligrams of Paracetamol (same as Tylenol) and 35 mg. of Orphenadrine citrate. The other pill was a small, round, yellow pill called Sefnac 50 containing 50 mg. of Diclofenac Sodium. The most important thing is they worked. I went from barely being able to walk to almost no pain or ache at all. I have to take them every four hours along with Paracetamol (Tylenol or Acetaminophen) and some Tramadol pills I used to use for pain in my left lower leg after having surgery last year.
As I mentioned in one of my recent posts, the symptoms of Chikungunya are severe joint pain, nausea, headache, high fever, rash and itching. I have had all those symptoms except for the headaches, whereas Mam had all the symptoms except for the fever.
I sure hope I get over this quickly, as it is a miserable disease. I'll keep you posted as to my recovery process.
-Jeeem-
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