The medical encyclopedia is the most used book in our house. The covers are torn, the pages coming loose.He uses it as a catalogue for all the illnesses he can choose from, should the mood take him.
Dengue is not in the index. Too foreign. Too obscure.
It's not dengue, he says about the fever, the aching joints, the pain behind the eyes. It's appendicitis/ temporal athritis/ mumps / chicken pox / food poisoning. He thumbs through the pages, weighing, deciding.
Dengue, I insist. I've had it twice before. I know how it goes. Don't argue.
Not dengue. Why do you always want to be right? Why didn't you become a doctor if you wanted to play medical detectives?
His blood platelet level is dangerously low but the private clinic doesn't bother to give him the result until he calls up at 10p.m.
We dash to the hospital where he's admitted at once, and hooked up to a drip.
He feels a little better this morning. Well enough to start creating trouble for the nurses. His fever's down and his platelet level up a shade.
Told you it was dengue, I say, a little smug.
You didn't say that at all. Or I would have come to hospital straight away.
10 comments:
what a stubbornly loving couplehood drama. Ok I couldn't find a better word.
But I guess it's funny in a way yet stressful, depends on how we take it. lol!
Geez... medical encyclopedia?
hmm.. all the fonts in your blog suddenly became really BIG :)
Anyway that's one clinic you don't want to be going to in a hurry :)
I think I know what it is - either manjalitis or degilitis. Both quite difficult to treat - and they are recurring.
A man with a wooden leg
Sits down to read a book.
The book is not about men,
Or wooden legs,
Or sitting down.
Not all books are.
Some books are about women,
Fleshy legs,
Or gymnastics.
But not all books are.
This one isn't.
This book is about
Rocket science.
It has big friendly writing
And lots of pictures.
And there is an interactive section.
You can pretend
That you are an American,
And you can shoot
Laser-guided rockets
At unprotected
Third World civilians,
In the war on terror.
It is good to interact.
i love this post! if only more people could be wryly humourous in tough times, less of them would need prozac.
oh sharon this is sweet and funny! will you be off to the uk then?
yvonne - thanks - you put that rather well!
anon - i don't have much faith in private clinics esp. where dengue is concerned - my dengue was diagnosed both times as 'flu and i was given no warning that it could be dengue at all - when i finally got to the hospital i needed a blood transfusion ...
jane - exactly!
kak teh - "manjalitis or degilitis" - the latter i think - will keep that up my sleeve for the next time ...
alcuin - very nice poem ... thanks for reminding me to slip back and read you
little ms d - i changed my flight yet again this time to thursday - am so sad becasue i've missed a whole week of my sister's kids being on holiday from school and going christmas shopping with them ...
starlight - just pass me the prozac before i lose all my hair!
Dear Sharon - at least there are still seats on the flight you postponed to. You will be with your sister and her kids soon.
An early Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you.
Um.. got any still water ? better to check I think.
Oh, I've had dengue too, Ms. Sharon. I pray that I don't have to go through another, as well as another flood (that got into my home knee-deep recently!).
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