Never done a blog before. But now that I have time to fill with thinking about things I ‘ll give it a try.

This space to think and reflect comes to me courtesy of  an Aedes Egyptii mosquito and the arbovirus  she left behind as a forget-me-not. That I won't,  for sure, though I cannot put a place or time on our intimate encounter as dengue fever is more a disease of  built up areas and not the jungle proper though it can occur there as well.

I started feeling not well just after coming out of a nice little patch of regenerating forest with the kids so it wasn't contracted there at least not on that trip.

The old name is "break bone fever" a rather dramatic description of the aches and occasional stabbing pains in the joints. In my case, this is an exaggeration as it has just been very uncomfortable but with no agony. The worst thing has been the splitting headache and retro-orbital pain (behind the eyes) Its sounds like a stage of space flight re-entry and maybe it is. If you cough, your head explodes and your eyeballs bounce on the floor

However we are only in the second stage. Dengue is like a ridge walk. Start with the fever and aches increasing as you climb the ridge. It then peaks and the fever reduces and  goes away as you descend into a saddle. Walking down hill is always easy!

It makes use of this break to plan your fate as there is no cure. You then start climbing the other peak and possibly a whole additional series of complications arise as you wait to see whether its plan was  to just make you mildly ill, ill, very ill or drag you to the gates of death where you and your doctors spin the coin "Heads you win; Tails you lose"

So you wait, going about your (much restricted) life. Each day a new blood test. The first quarter was pretty much to the virus as my side did not field a full team (or, more likely, already had taken casualties) -  the white blood cells and platelets (blood clotting agents) were low.

The following test was mixed. A thin red line of platelets held their ground , and advanced (at bayonet point?) to gain a small increase. On the flanks, however, the white blood cells were overwhelmed by the alien horde took casualties and they are now below  normal range

The rest of the time you amuse yourself reading books, logging on BCUK and those sites you never had time to browse fully.

No work of course but who cares about that! You should not let mosquitoes bite you in case it transmits to your little ones and the rest of the household. Scrub the Dog is okay though.

Above all you must stay hydrated and keep on drinking fruit juices and water. (juices preferably). Which reminds me it orange juice time.