Day 47- 49 - Tao diving and hospitalisation

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Up early to lay claim to my lounger by the pool! It was time to get some sun!!! I did a few laps of the pool and then relaxed with my book- this was the life I had been planning!

Joey and I were booked on dives at 12.00 so we headed down to the front and grabbed our kit. Afeter a 5 min speedboat ride we were on the diveboat and ready to head off. I was still feeling pretty rough but put this down to the travel sickness the day before. Fortunately the best place to be if you are travel sick is in the water so I kitted up!

The boats here were bigger than in the Gilis and so had higher sides to enter the water from. We had a choice - either a giant step forward or a James Bond entry. Obviously I opted for the James Bond entry!!! This pretty much entails doing a forward summersault into the water! Great! Except I think I landed on my head!!

The visibility was pretty low compared to the Gilis but we are in a different season over here so it was expected. We saw a fair amoun of stuff and there was a lot of seaweed/ reeds which I hadn't seen before and kept making me jump by being all slimey!! Lol! All in all the dive was pretty good, however I got really cold towards the end.

Once back on the boat, I was freezing, feeling pretty rough and was sick again. I started to think that this was a little more than travel sickness, but put it down to tiredness as I hadn't slept well for the last few nights.

Joey went down for the next dive and I stayed on the boat hidden under a towel and sarong. By the time she came back I felt awful and headed straight up to the hotel. Once there I had the fan on and was under 2 quilts as my temperature was all over the place. By the time Joey came back, I was in full on fever. She called the doctor and by the time he arrived I had hyperventillated so much I had lost the feeling in my arms and had strong pins and needles in my legs. On one had, my thumb was between my index and middle finger and was stretched as far as possible and the other hand was gripped together like a vice. I couldn't feel anything from my hands to my elbow and just painful pins and needles from my elbow to my shoulder. I was roasting up but couldn't get the quilts of my so was just getting hotter. I had minimal movement in my legs by this point to couldn't even kick it off. I am not joking, I was so scared. Sod the psycho taxi driver etc. This was pure and utter panic. I thought I was paralysed.

When the doctor arrived, he was trying to take my temperature but I couldn't focus properly and thought he was trying to give me an injection and kept trying to fight him off. Sneaky doctor managed to take my temperature under my arm without me realising and I was just over 104F (40C). They took me to a hospital in a taxi, but I had to 'walk' from the hotel room and down some stairs. This was very difficult as my legs wouldn't work properly and I couldn't support myself with my arms as I couldn't move them. Funny now everyting is working properly, but not at the time.

I was hooked up to a drip, had blood taken and dosed up with paracetamol. Turned out it was Dengue fever and the next coupls of days were spent trying to sleep and control the fever. This was not how I had planned this week!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dengue

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Photos

My hospital bed
Check out the oxygen tank!!