About a month ago I was infected and sick with chikungunya virus, a viral disease transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes. It hits me by surprised because it wasn’t viral yet in our village and I didn’t hear any one had it, in neighboring village yes but to ours none.

I have visited a herb doctor thinking I was bewitched by unknown being, I felt better after doing so but the next day, upon waking up I can’t get up, my legs and my knees are very painful.  I was in severe pain and feverish as well, my family doesn’t believe me, I guess they are thinking I am making up things. It was a very hard for me to get up and dragged myself to the bathroom, I can’t get up without crawling and looking for something to hold on to.  I have told my family that I have chikungunya virus but they insisted I am only brewing a flu. My sister even get angry when I keep insisting that I have the mosquito virus, I think they can’t accept the truth that I am sick.  I have never been sick this grave so I guess they have the perception that I am made of steel so they are on denial that I am indeed sick because at first, they wanted me to get up and do things like I usually do.

They knew that I never failed to attend church during Sunday so things sink in to them that I am really sick especially when I show them the rash that are developing, my mother even says they looks like measles rash. Anyway, I have asked my sister to buy paracetamol tablet for me I took it after they force me to eat lunch.

Chikungunya Virus Infection Symptoms & Treatment

Symptoms of Chikungunya usually begin 3–7 days after being bitten by an infected mosquito and below are some of the symptoms when you have the virus –

• The most common symptoms are fever and joint pain.
• Other symptoms may include headache, muscle pain, joint swelling, or rash.
• Chikungunya disease does not often result in death, but the symptoms can be severe and disabling.

When I took paracetamol my fever subsided but the pain in my feet and wrist still there so I research more about the virus and I have found out that there is no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat chikungunya virus. All you can do is rest well, drink plenty of fluid and take paracetamol to reduce fever and pain.

The pain is really disabling, it feels like you just had a stroke. I experienced a lot of pain on my right leg and knee, I read somewhere that when you are sick with chikungunya virus it will ache a lot in the part of your body you had an injury, my right leg was hit by a motorbike in Jeju while crossing the street so imagine my horror when I can’t walked and felt a severe pain on my right leg, I got so anxious and almost got panic thinking my feet will be cut.

On the second day of getting the mosquito virus my skin was quite dark, bit feverish and feet, legs, knees and wrist is still painful but I can move a bit.  I heard my younger aunt asked my mother if I am already well and what is my sickness because an older cousin has it too, he has red rashes all over his body but no fever.

On the next following days I was covered by red rashes that looks like minor burns and on the sixth day the rashes became worst  and when I was accidentally got wet by drizzling rain I felt itchy so I thought the rain drops were just so dirty so I took a bath and there I itched even more, I have thought again the water in our bathroom is dirty because it was so itchy that I don’t know which part of my body should I scratched first, and there I found I have rashes all over me.  I dry myself immediately and pour lotion into my body and uses the ointment I have bought online for treating allergies, the itchiness wasn’t that severe anymore.

My fever was gone after 2-3 days by taking paracetamol tablets, the pain didn’t disappear right away.  When I wake up in the morning my joints felt so painful, even until today.

You know what is ironic? My mother who keep insisting I only have flu also got the chikungunya virus the after two days I had it, it was terrible when she had it because she suffered stroke a year ago and she was disabled for a day that my father didn’t go to work so he can carry her.

Anyway, when I was a bit well and can go out I have found that an older cousin was sick too before us but they didn’t know it was chikungunya because they just said he has a high fever, and less than a week after, another older cousin had it, I thought he didn’t suffer a fever but he did actually before me.

Maybe if  we only knew that a cousin in the neighborhood had chikungunya infection we are able to do some prevention not to be infected as well.

For so many years, J and I have eaten to fast food restaurants especially when travelling.  We are so tired eating burgers and fried chicken, that we always look for Subway Cafe in every city we went too, we prefer their sandwich than eating burgers.  So, I have never eaten burger for so long when I came home, it was only when I got tired of eating local food.

Anyway, nothing special to dine out, a relative came home from abroad but my grandmother looks like a bankrupt Chinese all looking sad with matching teary eyes, so I guess she didn’t received any present and now she is seeking for attention because she only hang-out outside the compound looking blankly at people with her very sad face when she needs it.

With this, I decided to bring her to Jollibee Odiongan she was never been there since it was built and opened, so imagine how wide the smile on her face when she was told we are eating dinner at Jollibee. It was around seven in the evening when my family and grandmother went to Jollibee, and it was a bit busy and there was no vacant table to accommodate five people so I have asked if it is possible to eat upstairs but I was told just to use downstairs to my initial disappointment because the table that was given was a small round table for four people and the fifth chair will be positioned along the way blocking other people.  It wasn’t the first time Jollibee Odiongan made me feel bad, when we first dine in I was given a meal in a box when every body else was eating on their plate, dunno what is this fast food against me (lol). Honestly, I was asked that time if possible they could just served me a meal in the box because it was already available, I was surprised and because I don’t want to create a scene for being picky and stalling the line up, I just said ok but deep inside I felt bad (lol).

Since, they disappointment me for the second time I dine in, I just mentioned what to order and let my sister order it for us.  Gladly, a more spacious table was vacated so we moved.  We ordered five of their chicken joy super meals and pineapple juice as drink since cola isn’t allowed for my mother, five halo-halo Sundaes and extra order of Jolly spaghetti for me.

My grandmother was very happy being able to see and eat at Jollibee Odiongan, her smile is priceless. While eating I realized I am acting out and being childish, I am eating in a fast food restaurant and not in a fine dining so I should not expect a better table and maybe they have already clean and sanitized the second floor so it wasn’t allowed to use, but it is a way too early to clean isn’t it? Oh, well maybe they’re saving operational cost. I let my disappointment go and just enjoy the quality time with my family.  I was given a survey card and I didn’t vent out my disappointment in it, I shaded all positive reviews.

Since eyes is bigger than the stomach my sister and I ordered another set of a meal consisting rice and chicken with free cola which we just brought home after failing to consume it and realizing maybe we are not fair I have also ordered extra burger for my family which they also brought home since they’re all full.

JOLLIBEE ODIONGAN
Barangay Liwayway, Odiongan, Romblon
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JollibeeODIONGANbranch/

Disclosure: This is NOT a sponsored post. Above written post was my own personal experience and might be different from yours.

Monina has five new kitties as what I have mentioned on my previous post, four of them are male and only one female and among the five kitties there is one kitty I liked the most, the only black kitten. I called him “blackie” but knowing my family they might named give him a Korean name again.

Blackie is the smallest and frailest among the five kitten but he is the cutest.  He loves to go inside our house and follows Jinja, hopefully he won’t be trained by Jinja on how to steal food (lol).