So I managed to get degue fever and spend a week in the hospital. Dengue is identified b/c your platelettes go down to abnormally low levels and something about the red blood cell volume of your blood.

Dengue fever is carried by mosquitos that bite in the day time. The symptoms I had were aching, sore, tender joints and muscles especially my lower back and a high fever that kept spiking. I also lost my appetite. Wanting to vomit at the smell of food makes recovery difficult. I had no energy.

I would probably still be there if my doctors wife hadn't brought me some fruit and made me some oatmeal and pasta (not together).

I had a great doctor. He was American and he visited me twice a day and generally stuck around for a bit of conversation because he could tell that I was feeling very isolated.

Being in the hospital in a foreign country is incredibly depressing. I had no one to talk to. It seemed every time I ran into a westerner they were getting out of the hospital after only being there for 2 days.

I was there for 7 days. I'm not even completely recovered.