Tiring weeks

The last two weeks has been very tiring for both me and my wife. We were in the middle of arranging a jazz workshop for June when we both got sick and hospitalized. It took us the total of three weeks to fully recovers and during the time we didn't have the strength to contact the people with whom we worked with.

Days passed and finally we are fully recovered. We straightaway continued our work and contacted everyone in this project but only to found that everyone turns up on blaming us for not doing our job seriously. The venue for the workshop and the gig were unjustly cancelled and again everyone put the blame on us. I took all the blame and thank Jesus I was strong enough. Some of my friends who knew about this told me to tell the truth, but I don't think that'll work since empathy does not exist in the kind of people who knew too much.

Later on we got the plan modified and the workshop is still running as scheduled. But then again, I don't feel like doing this at all!
Besides our health problem, this workshop plan has met obstacles from the moment it came out as words. I've given my best opinion based on my observation of Jakartans and Indonesians in general to correlate to the idea. They are the biggest obstacle and the second is the incoming workshop instructor. He may a great music educator and composer but no one here knows about him and that would not compel people to come. To make matter worse, there's no single tag line about him that we could use for the promotion.

Since my words fell on deaf ears and our partner insisted to move on, all we got so far only problem after problem, headache after headache.

My wife and I will wait until this workshop over and afterwards, we just want to fly and do our postponed dreams.

Dengue fever ordeal Pt II

Well, I promised to tell the rest of the story right? But after I thought about it, it's just too bitter for me to remember.


Two days after I got admitted, my wife was allowed to go home. My older sister also admitted to hospital on the same day as I was and the bed next to mine was then taken by my sister. We stayed in that room from Sunday and by Friday morning on May 30, we've been told that we can go home because our thrombocyte level have climbed. The info was right, for my sister but I got my blood taken again since my lab result was inconclusive.
By noon, the lab result concluded that my thrombocyte level still dropping and I couldn't leave hospital.

I was so angry and having nosebleed in the process. The thing with dengue fever is that you need to remain calm, but I was so angry, so upset that I kept on moving to express my emotions. It took me sometime to get a grip on myself.

On Saturday and Sunday, I felt that I'm strong enough to walk to the bathroom but the nurses weren't share my opinion and gave me strict order to stay in bed, reasoned that if I move to much I''ll be having a shock and could be fatal. I don't know if it was a paranoia of dealing with dengue fever, but I don't think that helped me a lot.

By Monday, June 2, my thrombocyte jumped up to 160.000 and I quickly asked my infuse to be removed. I went home that day and I felt aches in all over my body because I haven't used my muscles for 9 days!!!

My drumming is becoming very very poor, my hands and feet still felt numb, my coordination is messy...oh Lord, so many things I got to do to return my playing state to normal. Thanks to 9 days of hospitalization!

Seriously people, don't ever catch a dengue fever, it's not good at all!!!

Dengue fever ordeal Pt I

So,

As I promised, I'll share my experience of these couple of weeks. Sorry for the lack of pictures or videos, I really want to add them so everyone could see what I'm talking about, but I still haven't got my own camera or cam video. Without further intro, here is my story....


The last two weeks were hard for my wife and I; she was having high fever for two days and on the third day I’ve waited long enough and quickly took her to hospital. She was then diagnosed with blood dengue and straightaway admitted for treatment in hospital. She was hospitalized at Hospital Cinere.

I’m so deeply sad, but I didn’t let my wife see me sad or else she would become sad too and won’t recover quickly.
My wife was admitted to a 1st class, which has two beds for two patients. When we arrived, there was already another patient that from my observation is an old woman of a pretty wealthy family. Wealthy but still bound to the conservative mindset of a family, where image is much more important than fact…ah, what ever, most Indonesian people who consider themselves wealthy are actually trapped in “village” syndrome. “Village” syndrome is, “You can take a boy (person) out of the village, but you can’t never take the village out of the boy (person).”

On the first night in hospital, my wife and I received the first shocking moment. A nurse came and asked me, as the husband, if I agree with the medicine proposed for my wife. It was an antibiotic and the price really shocked me, it was 194.000 rupiah/gram (about US$ 21) and the dose needed for my wife is 2 grams/day, it means we’ll spend about 400.000 rupiah/day (about US$ 43). The dose will be given for 5 days and that will be 2.000.000 rupiah (US$ 217) in total just for the antibiotic.

At first I felt helpless. I don’t really care about the numbers if I’m paid in US$ or other strong currencies, but we are still living in Indonesia, where the capital income is low. We quickly called our uncle, who is renown, doctor in Malang and we found that there’s generic medicine, equal in quality as of the patented medicine, available. I ferociously countered the doctor, expressed my disagreement and asked about the generic antibiotics. Without further delay, the doctor gave us the generic antibiotic that cost only 15.000 rupiah/gram! So what the heck was that ripped off antibiotics???
As soon as the generic antibiotic administered to my wife, the effect soon visible and felt, so my uncle’s words are true, the generic medicine is as good as the patented ones.

On the second day, the old lady next to my wife was allowed to leave hospital and there were nothing really happened, except that my wife’s thrombocytes level drops to 53.000 where the normal level is above 200.000. It was a normal stage in blood dengue. Around 7 pm, a lady is placed on the bed next to my wife’s. She seemed pretty ill. My brother came and brought a bed cover and a thick blanket for my sleeping needs, since the air conditioner in the room is awfully cold! Make sense? I don’t know…

The third day, I abruptly awaken around 5.30 am by the nurse who came to take blood of my wife. I stayed awake then and checked on my wife, her body temperature climbed again to 38 degrees C and had mild headache. No need to wait for the blood test result, I knew her thrombocytes level has dropped again. Three hours later the doctor came and confirmed my suspicion, the thrombocytes level dropped to 45.000.
The doctor then gave strict order to my wife to stay in bed and only got to bathroom for solid secretion.
I went home for a bath, checking emails and buying apples for my wife. I got back to the hospital around 11 pm and after rearranging the stuff around my wife’s bed and set the alarm to 5.15 am, I went straight to sleep.

The fourth day, I was again abruptly awakened but not intentionally so. A nurse came very early to check on my wife’s blood pressure and body temperature. Although she tried came quietly, my ears and sense still could detect sudden her presence and when you’re in hospital waiting for your loved ones, your senses will become ultra sensitive!
It was 4.30 am! I was thinking something had happened, since the nurse came an hour earlier.
“Oh you’re awake, I thought I was quiet enough” The nurse commented when I woke up.
“Clearly you’re not.” I said back, a bit annoyed but I knew she was just doing her job and thank God she did!
One hour later the activities started, collecting blood sample, washing my wife, administers medicines, delivering breakfast and so on. I took refuge to my car since I’m still sleepy.
Around 7 am, I feel like having chicken porridge as breakfast and I found one just before the hospital main entrance. The writings on the chart was “Bubur Ayam Cirebon”, means Cirebon chicken porridge. Cirebon is a city 4 hours from Jakarta. I didn’t really want a specific porridge and looked around the area for a common chicken porridge. I couldn’t find any and I returned to the porridge chart at the hospital entrance.
After I finished off my porridge, I had a little chat with the porridge guy. I asked whether he came from Cirebon and he told me that he’s from Kuningan, another city 4 hours drive from Cirebon to the south. Funny eh? Just like an Indian guy selling an authentic Italian Pizza in New York!
I then returned to my wife’s room and tidied up several more stuff, the doctor came at 9.15 am and informed us that the thrombocytes level dropped again to 37.000. But as long as she remain calm, she’ll be fine.
Around noon, I checked on the recording project that was being mixed by my friend and found out that I made mistakes on the audios files, wasn’t really serious but they’ll have to wait until I’m free to bounce the audio files again, which is when my wife recovers. But after I rethinking about it, I decided to return home, working on the files and delivered them to my friend’s place. I didn’t return to hospital to take rest at home.

The fifth day, I woke up pretty late and my wife was calling from hospital, waiting for me. I quickly rushed to hospital and drove madly since I was worried about her. As I approached the hospital, my wife called me again and told that her thrombocytes have started to climb. I arrived a moment later and as usual accompanied my wife in the room.
There was nothing unusual that day, except that I felt more tired than ever. Around 3 that day, my body temperature suddenly climbed to 38 degrees C. I knew something was wrong and quickly went to my car to take a nap. Not long afterwards, my dad, sister and brother came to see my wife, so I returned to the room and asked if we can drive along, since my head was already spinning.
We returned home that evening and as I got home, I took flu medicine and went to bed straightaway. I took the medicine again around night and early morning, but to no avail.

The sixth day my wife in hospital, I myself got a high fever and that morning I took a cab to the hospital where my wife was admitted. The nurse quickly took me to the emergency and took my blood for a lab check. My mom came along later to help me in case I got hospitalized.
At around 10 am, the lab test read that I also got contracted by dengue fever and will need to be admitted for treatment. And so there was, I got hospitalized too and placed in the same room with my wife. It was the beginning of my 9 days ordeal in that room.


That's the first part of the story...I'll continue the story by this weekend...