After a long stint of almost 26 hours travelling from Indonesia, I arrived in a small town on the East Coast of Australia, desperate to lay my head down on a pillow. The second I did, I suddenly felt very hot. My forehead was burning up, and my head started pounding. I couldn’t really see properly as there was such an intense pain behind my eyes.
A horrific night’s sleep ensued. I was supposed to go on a camping trip around a national park on a beautiful secluded island for the next few days. Not wanting to miss out, I went on the trip, loading myself up with painkillers and reassuring myself that I actually felt okay. That night in my tent I barely slept, kept awake by intense pain all over my body. Over the next few days I was bed bound and experienced body aches, rashes, headaches, nausea and spent most of my time lying down.
When I finally got blood tests done, they came back positive, as I had suspected, for dengue fever. Dengue fever is an illness spread by mosquitoes that can be debilitating at best and fatal at worst. It's referred to as the bone breaking disease as the body aches it causes can be so bad it feels like your bones are breaking.
Whilst my experience was unpleasant, I feel immensely lucky that it was not more serious. The worst of the symptoms have now subsided, but what lingers is fatigue and brain fog that I’m told could last several weeks, something referred to as post dengue syndrome. It means I get tired easily and don’t feel up to being anywhere near as active as I normally am.
But this is something I must accept. I must accept that it is part of life, you can’t always be in your optimum state of health, setbacks are inevitable. It can be hard to see when you’re in them but sometimes these moments can really be a gift, and give you the chance to reevaluate where you put your energy, which parts of life you can’t wait to get back to, and which parts you actually don’t miss.
It has also been a reminder of how fortunate it is to be healthy.
I dedicate my life and career to optimising my health and that of others, and all it took was one mosquito bite to wipe me out for weeks.
It is all too easy to take living without pain or discomfort for granted, to have your health is the greatest blessing of all.
Life is so incredibly precious and so painfully fragile.
Appreciate when you feel good in your body, knowing that is not always promised.
For the moment, I am doing what I can to look after myself without pushing it too far, gentle movement, little bits of work, nourishing myself with the right foods and doing my self-care routine. But also not putting too much pressure on myself to be healed right away, I know it will take time to get back to my normal self.
I’m accepting that it is time to rest, and trust that when I am healthy again I will be so much more appreciative of wellness.
If you are reading this and can say that you feel healthy, know that you are truly blessed.
I hope that you continue to look after yourself, and relish the feeling!
P.S Also please wear mosquito spray if you are in the tropics, dengue is wild
Comments