Dengue Fever in Bali: My Symptom Journal

It’s 6am on the island of Bali, Indonesia. I’ve just woken up with a thrashing migraine.

At first, I think it’s just the aftermath of passing my first-ever kidney stone a few days prior. But it’s actually something much more threatening: Dengue Fever.

Prior to my arrival to Bali, I had spent weeks drifting around the country villages of Java, Indonesia. While there, I briefly volunteered at a coffee plantation where I was bit by many mosquitos while working in the coffee tree forest. I wore pants and bug spray, but it was not enough to protect me from the blood-hungry bugs.

What is Dengue Fever?

Dengue fever is an illness transferred to people via mosquito bites that causes flu-like symptoms, and in severe cases bleeding (dengue hemorrhagic fever (or DHF)). What once used to be exclusive to southeast Asia and Africa has spread dramatically over the past decade. According to the CDC, around half of the world’s population is now at risk for dengue fever.

Falling Ill with Dengue Fever

At the time I contracted dengue fever, I was dealing with much bigger problems than just mosquito bites. I passed my first-ever kidney stone while under the care of a Javanese family and had no idea what was happening to me. I had woken up one morning peeing out blood and vomiting from the sharp pain in my kidney. 

The Javanese family had done everything right. They rushed me to the hospital as soon as they saw my pain, and watched over me in the hospital bed as I drifted in and out of consciousness…

Startled by the whole ordeal of having a medical emergency around people who did not know any English (including the hospital nurses), I was eager to leave Java and re-enter back into a slightly more westernized society- just in case I had any further health complications.

This turned out to be a fantastic decision. 

Two days after getting out of the hospital in Java for my kidney stone, some of my Javanese friends drove me four hours to the closest airport in Yogyakarta, where I promptly departed Java on a flight to Bali.

**Fun side fact- turns out 100+ Buddhist Thai Monks had the same itinerary as me. Hundreds of Monks were also at the airport after having completed the annual pilgrimage from Thailand to Borobudur Temple. The monks were not flying home to Thailand but were on my flight to Bali. 

Evidently, monks need a vacation too. **

I arrived in Bali on a Friday evening. Hours later on Saturday morning, I woke up with a high fever. I assumed this was the resulting aftermath of my kidney stone and that it would go away on its own.

This was the first of my dengue fever symptoms

I prescribed myself more sleep, but instead of going away- the boiling fever and splitting migraine worsened.

My Symptom Journal

This article is a comprehensive timeline of my dengue fever symptoms, up to present day. This is not medical advice, but merely an honest record of my experience. 

I am writing this because I wish I had a first-hand account to read when I was in the thick of dengue fever (DHF, as it turns out). I had a difficult time understanding what was happening to me while in the height of the illness. 

If you are reading this article while you have dengue fever, I hope that this post brings you some comfort in that you might be able to better understand what to potentially expect.

Everyone who falls in with dengue fever has varying symptoms. This is an account of all of my symptoms in order, as well as the post-fever complications that I am still dealing with present-day.

Day 1

Day 1, I woke up with a migraine, so I went back to sleep. This was my first full day after arriving in Bali the night before. As the day progressed, so did my migraine. The migraine felt like sharp pain behind the eyes. It was so painful that I took the maximum amount of Tylenol that is still safe. I slept the entire day.

Current Symptoms:

• Migraine
• Fever

Day 2

I stayed in bed with a migraine. Every time I stood up to go to the restroom, I felt dizzy. I was unable to walk more than a few feet. I started to realize I was having additional health complications that were not related to the kidney stone.

I layed in bed all day until around 5pm, when I mustered up enough strength to call a bike taxi to go around the corner to the clinic. I was too weak and nauseous to even walk the five minutes there. 

At the clinic, I took a blood and urine test. There, they found traces of my post-kidney stone infection through the urine test. From the blood test, they saw the platelets in my blood were very low, a tell-tale sign. I was officially diagnosed with dengue fever.

They hooked me up to an IV drip and administered fluids and vitamins through my arm. Once the IV was finished, they broke the news to me that there is no antibiotic for dengue fever. My only option was to go home and drink as much water as safely possible, and hope for the best. 

I was warned that if I started to have any bleeding, I had a severe and dangerous case of dengue fever called “dengue hemorrhagic fever.” It is strongly recommended to go to the hospital if you are experiencing bleeding as a result of dengue fever. 

I went home and started very heavy dengue fever-induced menstruation that same night.

Current Symptoms:

• Migraine
• Fever
• Dizziness
• Bleeding

Day 3

I called the clinic and told them about my new dengue symptoms. I was bleeding from everywhere by Day 3. My gums bled just from a gentle brush of the teeth, and my nose oozed blood throughout the day. I was terrified, but too weak to take any action towards helping myself.

The nurse told me to drink more fluids and wait until the next day to have another blood test taken. On Day 4, I would go back to take another blood test to check the status of my blood platelets. I stayed in bed the entire day and drank as much water as safely possible. 

At one point, I ordered fresh pressed papaya and orange juices (with no added sweetener or flavor) for delivery to help with hydration. I tried to eat, but everything tasted horrible. Any food I ate tasted just like licking burnt salt. I gave up on food after a few bites and stuck to just water. 

Current Symptoms:

• Migraine
• Fever
• Dizziness
• Bleeding
• Altered sense of taste

Day 4

I went back to the clinic in very poor condition. My platelets were dangerously low, and I received a transfusion and two bags of IV fluids with extra vitamins. This actually helped with some instant relief, and I finally was able to break my high fever and get down to an almost-normal temperature. I went home feeling a bit better.

Unfortunately, this is also when the severe insomnia started. That night, I was only able to sleep for one hour. I laid awake in misery the entire night, beyond tired with a splitting migraine and nosebleed. 

Current Symptoms:

• Migraine
• Fever
• Dizziness
• Bleeding
• Altered sense of taste
• Insomnia

Day 5

On day 5, I developed the full-body dengue fever rash. And it was miserable.

The rash looks like a slight discoloration of the skin, but when you apply pressure it leaves a light color (similar to pressing a sunburn).

It is also extremely itchy. Honestly, itchy is an understatement. This is not regular itching. This rash irritation was painful. When I tried to ignore it, it would sting and make me twitch until I finally gave in to scratching. 

I did not sleep that night. I stayed awake all night trying to control the itching, but it was relentless. I scratched up and down my body the entire night. Especially the palms of my hands and soles of my feet. I took a hot shower around 4am to see if it would offer any relief. It did not. I even put my hands inside of socks at one point to try and stop, but I twitched in pain from the rash until I surrendered myself to the itch all over again.

Current Symptoms:

• Migraine
• Fever
• Dizziness
• Bleeding
• Altered sense of taste
• Insomnia

Day 6

Day 6 was yet another day of nausea, itching, and insomnia. The condition did not change. The bleeding was less, but still ongoing from the mouth. At this point, my diet consisted of 4-5 liters of water and ice cream. My days and nights were dedicated to scratching my entire body and trying to fall asleep.

Current Symptoms:

• Dizziness
• Bleeding
• Insomnia
• Rash/ Itching

Day 7

I tried to take myself on a short walk this day, since I had been in bed for a week. Afterwards, my whole body felt sore as if I had just done an intense workout at the gym. The lymph nodes in the neck were very swollen, and it hurt to turn my head. The current symptoms of insomnia and rash persisted. I finally stopped bleeding from the mouth and nose, but the heavy menstruation continued. 

Current Symptoms:

• Dizziness
• Headache
• Bleeding
• Insomnia
• Rash/ Itching
• Muscle soreness
• Lymphadenopathy

Days 8-10

My rash finally went away on Day 10; however, I was still struggling to fall and stay asleep. I constantly felt very sleepy but could not actually fall or stay asleep. I was becoming irritated over everything from pure exhaustion. It could be argued I entered into a state of situational depression over my sickness.

Current Symptoms:

• Dizziness
• Headache
• Insomnia
• Rash/ Itching
• Muscle soreness
• Lymphadenopathy
• Situational depression

Days 11-30

So much insomnia. At this point, I had left Bali and moved on to the Philippines. I still had a very limited appetite, but I was trying to eat as healthy as possible and go on walks everyday to improve my condition.

Around the end of the 30 days, I began experiencing pretty severe hair loss. My hair was coming out in clumps, even without brushing my hair. I was constantly sleepy, and I was depressed and frustrated about never sleeping.

Current Symptoms:

• Insomnia
• Muscle soreness
• Intermittent Lymphadenopathy
• Situational depression
• Hair loss (telogen effluvium)

Days 31-60 (Present day)

I am still dealing with pretty severe aftermath two months after contracting dengue fever. I still have significant hair fallout and continued intermittent insomnia. Some nights are better than others, but none ever involve more than 2 consecutive hours of sleep. It takes a pretty severe toll on your mental health dealing with these symptoms. 

During Days 31-60, I started noticing circulation problems, yet another complication as a result of dengue fever.

The circulation problems wake me up in the night and bother me throughout the day. My arms constantly feel numb. It has become too difficult to sleep on my side because now my circulation is no longer strong enough to sustain this. My arms sometimes feel like foreign objects attached to my body. When I rub the numb arm after waking up, I can’t move it or feel anything.

Present-day Symptoms:

• Insomnia
• Hair loss (telogen effluvium)
• Circulatory/ lymphatic system complications

The Aftermath

I am still navigating life post-dengue fever. 

Just as some people experience with COVID, be prepared for the possibility of experiencing ‘long hauler’ symptoms.

Dengue fever can cause a range of long-term effects, including a group of symptoms known as Post-Dengue Syndrome (PDS). PDS can significantly impact a person’s quality of life. Symptoms of PDS can include:

fatigue, joint pain, muscle pain, vision problems, hair loss, depression, weight loss, and cognitive impairment.

NIH National Library of Medicine

Anyone reading this who has had dengue fever, or currently has it, I understand your discomfort. The symptoms and aftermath can feel very discouraging at moments. Despite the complications, I am living my very best life. The worst of the dengue fever is over, and at the time of writing this blog post I am sitting happily in a cat-cafe in Taiwan while drinking an iced americano. 

Life goes on. 

My friends tell me I have bad luck, but I say this is just the debt I owe to the universe for having so much fun. 

Stay healthy, travelers. 

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