Caffeine caffeine caffeine caffeine la la la la laaaaa.
My ovaries are at war with whatever the hell chemo does to the body to make it be pseudo-menopausal so I think I'm trying to go through puberty again. Fuuuuuck. Isn't once enough?!?! Anyway, since my hormones are all messed up right now, I've been getting a lot of migraines lately. I have never had them so frequently in my life! I hope this all calms down once I'm done with chemo and my body figures out I am neither a menopausal woman nor a preteen. Anyway, I was about to go out with mum earlier today when I started getting an aura. It was a weirdly shaped one. Kind of eyebrow shaped with a big blob of swirly sparkly mess to the far right. My auras always seem to be on the right side. Huh. So I retreated to my dark room, took tylenol, advil, and Aaron was kind enough to make me a (delicious) coffee drink for the caffeine. Luckily, the headache portion of the migraine didn't really amount to much, so yay for that! Just like someone was squeezing my left eyeball with an occasional tiny punch to the left temple. Much better than squirming in bed all day, in a dark room, randomly whimpering from the ouch. But now I'm quite awake because of the coffee, despite having imbibed it over 9 hours ago. My body does not metabolize caffeine quite right, nor consistently. Blerg. Awake awake awake! And time to eat cake! Genius poetry right there.
Since several of you inquired about dengue fever, I thought I'd just write a bit about it. Two years ago, I did a trip with several of my schoolmates to Nicaragua through an organization called VIDA. They send vets and vet students to undeserved, impoverished areas in Central America to provide wellness exams, vaccines, neuters/spays, etc. It's an amazing organization and the people they help out are so grateful. I was down there for 2ish weeks and it was so amazing. I learned a ton and really felt like I was making a difference to these people and their animals. We traveled to various sites throughout Nicaragua and were able to do some fun touristy things like ziplining, swimming, exploring markets, horseback riding, etc. It was glorious. Plus, Nicaragua is such a beautiful country, so tropical, rainy, and green. I loved it all so much despite my (and everyone else's) GI tract not knowing what the hell to do.
I was diligent with wearing insect repellent, but still managed to get a few mosquito bites. Honestly, overall, not THAT many. I feel like I got fewer than 20, which, for staying in a mosquitoey, tropical country for nearly two weeks, doesn't seem like that much, especially since my host family's house was completely open to the air (and amazing! They had chickens coming into their kitchen and living room from their inner villa and it was so homey and wonderful). Towards the end of the trip, I was kind of dizzy but thought it was more from dehydration or something like that. I was also really tired, but I blamed that on not sleeping very well. It was hot there and the place made me have to pee really frequently at night. Plus, we had long working days and sweat buckets (my skin had never looked so beautiful or clear as a result).
After being home maybe 2ish days I was still tired and my mom knew something was wrong with me when I told her I was too tired to shop. At home, we checked my temperature and I had a fever. Mum was rightly concerned about tropical diseases so we went to the ER. They did tons of bloodwork to test for all the things and, much to my luck, an infectious disease specialist happened to be on the floor, so he checked me out and almost immediately had a hunch it was dengue. A few days later, I went to his office to have a titer drawn for it and it eventually came back positive. I was one of 3 people in the state of Minnesota to have dengue that year and my infectious disease doctor was quite pleased by the whole thing.
The disease itself wasn't anywhere near as awful as it could have been. In severe cases, you can get the hemorrhagic form and bleed to death. Luckily, nothing of the sort happen with me. I had fevers which were annoying, but not awful. I was incredibly exhausted and slept a ton. I was dizzy for a while too. And, like one PBer mentioned, it was a great weight loss program! Ha! I had such a hard time making myself eat. I wasn't nauseated but I didn't feel right in the stomach either. And then I'd go so long without eating that I'd get nauseated from being hungry. It was weird. No worries, though. Shortly after recovering, I went on a road trip to Yellowstone with Aaron, Kat, and Genevieve and ate so much delicious, fatty road food that I gained everything I lost back :)
The absolute worst part of having dengue, though, was the nerve itchiness. It only lasted for maybe 2 days but it was so awful. The palms of my hands and soles of my feet were itchy, painful...Kind of burny. It kind of felt like when you clap your hands for too long and they hurt but with an itchy component to it. And it was constant. Nothing I took or put on them would help the sensation go away (though cool baking soda soaks helped a little and for a small amount of time) so I had to benadryl myself to sleep. It was bizarre and I am so glad that stage didn't last very long.
Apparently, having had it once, getting it again predisposes me to the hemorrhagic form, so no tropical traveling for me until they develop a vaccine. There's one that's being worked on now and looks promising, but it won't be available for a while. I am quite curious if I had a very mild form or if my immune system was just working really well to combat it. Infectious disease doctor was pretty surprised by how well I was doing with it, but I do, under normal circumstances, have a pretty good immune system. ::shrugs::
So that was my dance with dengue. Good times. I think I need to stop getting interesting diseases. Dengue and Hodgkin's are enough. Couldn't my body just settle for a garden variety sinus infection or something?
Ok, I definitely think it's time for cake now. Om nom nom
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