Pain, Thy Name Is DeLite!

Is this Chikungunya or Dengue or Viral Arthralgia or a variant of any of these? Or of a new strain? According to one doctor I met,  it is neither Chikungunya nor Dengue but a common virus  mimicking  them (mimicking them!?) and according to another  it could be  Dengue/Chikungunya  virus mutated to a form which tests negative to either of lab diagnostic tests and whose symptoms are similar to Dengue/Chikungunya's, although milder. My doctor somehow assumes my illness to be a milder version of Dengue (I didn't have the drop in platelet count or bleeding gums or skin rashes). AS of now, there seems to be no specific name for it. So, let me call this facetiously as DeLite (Dengue, a lighter version) for reference. Since the symptoms of all the above mentioned ailments overlap, my illness could also be a diluted version of Chikungunya . To avoid confusion let me retain “DeLite”as the name for my distress.

 Naming it as DeLite (soda or a beer!) would be a cruel joke on me or anybody who has experienced it. This disease is anything but its homonym Delight.Truly, oxymoronic! Here is my experience with this nasty illness. If you are one of the many who went through this agony and come out stronger (I guess), you can relate to me or if you are still soldiering on to come out of this debilitation as I am and thousands of others in Bangalore are, you have my solidarity and if you are neither these two, pray extra hours that you will not contract it.

 One morning when I woke up, I had deep-seated pain in my thigh which was not uncommon and which I usually attribute to previous day’s workout-overkill. The pain otherwise, by and large, is welcome in the mornings as it would be a good reason to avoid the workout. But, this pain had a gradual increase in intensity and had me worried. Despite this, I went to my work. There, I completed treating a case and while getting up from my seat my both legs started to hurt like hell. I could barely stand.  I cancelled all my further appointments for the day and decided to head back home.  I sensed the fever was developing too. I somehow managed to get back home on the bike (I was later upbraided for riding back while I had fever). Reached home, climbed stairs to my room, changed and lied down on the bed. It was only three days later I could come down-stairs. Extreme body ache and fever were the reasons for this. Fever was around 102 degrees for two and half day. Body pain was dreadful, never had I felt anything like it before. Agonising pain to stand and excruciating to walk.

The pain came down noticeably as the fever reduced- in about 3 days.  Just when I thought I was on the recovery, pain returned. Though the intensity was not as earlier, it was bad nevertheless. The pain was always there in my wrists, knuckles and legs. It may not be in the same area. Here and there, deep seated and painful on slight pressure. Mornings, it’s less severe. Little exertion would aggravate it exponentially.  Pain is most in the night. Pain killers barely worked.This intense painful condition lasted more than a month.

 Some other features (although less mentioned) of Dengue as I understand, are, insomnia, psychataxia (inability to concentrate) and depression. In my case, I experienced the first two for about a month. So, while I was unable to sleep, I could neither read nor play a game, solve a puzzle nor play an instrument or do anything to pass time. You add pain to these two demons  and it is a highway to hell!  Insomnia is a real “nightmare” here!

 Also, this DeLite gave me a postural problem while lying down. I could lie in bed on my back only. Turn to my right side, I would feel intense pain exploding in a kind of “slow-mo “ from my hip joint and would remain for at least 3 minutes. Same if I turn to my left side. But, this time, the pain is from left knee. So, I had to get used to supine position almost entire night! It used to ease a bit in the early hours. This mummy style sleeping lasted for about month.

And depression !! I read somewhere and am reassured that only people with mood disorders or with some kind of pre-existing neurosis are prone for this ( Shubha isn't that reassured  though). I have been down no-doubt, but have been hopeful from the beginning.There has been  plenty of room for optimism: this DeLite is non-lethal and is self-limiting. I perceive improvement every other day if not every day even though it is a minuscule. Very importantly, here is one good reason.  When I  take my dog for my painstaking morning-walk, many people would enquire about my limp and I would explain them the reason. I would soon be amused and enlightened by many. Almost everyone seems to have had a personal experience with this disease or knew someone who had experienced it. Sometimes, if it was group of people you would come across, it would be a virtual”group therapy session” on the road. Free of cost. Every one pitches in his experience or has something to say on DeLite. Even at work (I could work half my potential only!) many patients share their encounters with this. All these experiences are therapeutic for me, lift my spirit and drive home the fact that I am not the only ill-fated soul in the world. This probably stopped me (in the early days of this ailment, at least)  from a possible act  of  looking up at the sky  screaming, “Why meee??”

In the beginning I was looking forward to the day I would get back to my  "running-routine". But now, I have scaled it down to just-be-able-to-walk -straight! This is the worst ailment I have ever had.  I remember, to some degree, few of the painful conditions I have suffered : Herpes-zoster, back-pain, ligament tears, muscle tears, and yes! tooth pain, root-canal treatment, wisdom tooth removal. But, believe me, even when you put all these together it would simply pale in front of DeLite. If you ask me, it is mother of all the non-lethal pain ailments. DeLite, as it appears, not only keeps the agony  going for eternity but the recovery from there is agonisingly slow.

It's been two month today and is too long a period to be without affected by common ailments in a congested city like our Bangalore. So, I had bouts of viral gastroenteritis and viral bronchitis, each for couple of days.  During that time DeLite was at its” darkest “ form.

It is even worse to be an afflicted dentist or for that matter, any professional where finger dexterity is the essence of the metier. Funnily all the pain seem to drift from other parts of the body to the extremities-fingers, wrists, and feet. Fingers cannot take pressure. If they can, your wrist fails. Most of work at the clinic are done by my daughter and assistants. 

 Of all the treatments I render, pulling out a tooth is most painful as the wrist is strained most! This is probably only time when dentist experiences pain while working on a patient!  Role reversal time probably!

All my passionate pursuits are indefinitely on the back-burner, except for my bar visits. End of the day lifting a pint of beer is as painful to hand as drinking it is delightful to my soul.

According to my doctor DeLite is currently very rampant in the city . In about 60 odd percentage of  affected people symptoms vanish in a week. Rest will have face the ordeal in varying degrees of severity .This, I believe, is a result of body’s defence mechanism tricked by virus to be destructive to the body itself (autoimmune response). Till the “truce” is reached there is nothing much the affected can do but endure the suffering. There is no definitive treatment, only symptomatic. Currently, various alternative medical treatment s are in vogue. One popular alternative “medicine” is the Papaya leaf extract. In fact, I was surprised to notice the neighbourhood papaya trees going bald from missing leaves at reachable heights. So prevalent is the disease around. 

I contracted this disease probably through that daytime mosquito of genus Aedes, also known as “Tiger mosquito”. It is vector for this DeLite. I, in general, am mildly paranoid about mosquitoes. At home, I battle them more than anybody. I use my arsenal of repellents, zapper-racquet to kill or to be away from them. Yet, I become the first casualty. I know now that you cannot out-beat them and few bites (some say, just one!) can get you infected. No matter what you do, they laugh last. These Tiger mosquitoes are very hardy. You cannot scare them away nor run away from them! They  CHASE you!

Tiger mosquito.   (Google image)

I always felt Mosquitos target me more than others. While I am scratching others seem relaxed. I have a friend who swears that she barely gets bitten by the mosquitoes. Now, are some really that lucky?! Here is an article which says no (http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/why-mosquitoes-seem-bite-some-people-more). But, this one says otherwise: http://scienceline.org/2007/09/ask-knight-mosquitoes/

Is it possible to end this mosquito menace?  I am sure there is a noble prize, from a long time, probably ear-marked too, for such an invention/discovery( Melinda and Bill Gates is believed to be generously funding the malaria  research). I guess just that mosquitoes do catch –up with man’s ingenuity every time he outpaced them. There is a hope that rapidly advancing technology would achieve the desired in this regard.  
  

Can we, Bangaloreans, in current state of affairs, ever be free of mosquito bites and its ensuing consequences? According to my doctor, personal immunity is the only protecting factor for Bangaloreans.  Divine providence may be the other!

On 45thday  I wrote this paragraph.  
Now, what’s all this got to with my Tiger XRX?!
While this Tiger mosquito floored me the bike Tiger XRX is brooding in my garage and itching to be ridden. My pain filled legs and knuckles are in no state to handle it. I feel little edgy when I sit on it.

Luckily, I have been able to ride my Duke200, though not for a long stretch. Pain in Knuckles and writs would soon flare up. DUKE, being a lighter bike is more manageable.
Driving  too is precarious. Steering reflexes are hampered by pain.

60 days! Recovery seems to be under-way. No painkillers at all for almost 48 hours. There are still some remnants of  pain in my legs, post-walking.  Those deep seated agonising spontaneous pains have gone. Left are pains triggered only on pressure or exertion. So, while resting you are almost devoid of any remarkable pain. It’s pretty painless under the effect of pain-killers which wasn’t so earlier.

I am seeing pain-affected - blurred life fading  away and normalcy coming to focus, although sluggishly.

I had a short ride of about 80 kms on my Tiger few days back. Legs could take it pretty well but not my fingers. Knowing the course of this Delite it would be a wait before Tiger and I have a chance to go “on a roll” and I am set to wait it out! ..As if I have a choice!