Week 28 - Caught the Bacterial Stomach Flu while preganant... ouch!

Sigh, I really have the worse luck...

Due to having to work OT a bit on Wednesday night, my hubby went ahead and dabao some economy rice for me. He bought the rice from the econ rice stall that I didn't like :/

That said, he bought chicken feet, pig's liver, and long beans. 

Anyone who's preggo will tell you that's a terrible combo, mainly because 1. chicken feet is a fav food for flies to stand on; 2. there's a chance that the pork liver isn't cooked well-through; and 3. even if they are well-cooked, pregnant people shouldn't eat so much pig liver (or any other animal's livers).

But, being the "unwasteful" person I am, I finished everything. To be honest, I was ravishing anyway. 

Lo and behold... the very next day at around 2 am plus, I woke up to intense abdominal pains and had my first (of many) diarrhea. 

The whole night was a nightmare for me since I literally had to wake up every 30 mins or so just to rush to the toilet after a bout of intense stomach pain to get rid of watery diarrhea.

Come morning, I was so weak and had intense headache from the severe lack of sleep. Still, I head to work as usual after letting my hubby know about my night-time "adventures".

By around 10++ am, I couldn't stand it anymore and my hubby came over to bring me over to the doc's.

By then, I started to feel rather "heaty" and the crazy heat outside (it's almost noon after all) is not helping a bit.

Because he insists on using his company's med card, we had to shop around for a doc where the queue isn't too long - since my case seems rather urgent (diarrhea isn't something you can hold for too long).

Ended up at a clinic where I was the only patient - awesome! 

See the doc and he noticed I'm running a slight fever. 

Managed to snag a host of meds, a 2-day MC, and came right home after dabaoing some porridge.

Ate some porridge (maybe less than a quarter), took the pills, let my bosses know that I'm out of commission, and KO on the bed.

We didn't have a thermometer so I had my hubby buy one from the pharmacy on his way back and, to my anguish, he sent me a screenshot of a stupid thermometer gun from shopee... I'm like... "Hello? Your wife is running a high fever here and you want me to wait days for a useless and inaccurate thermometer gun to be delivered ah?" Really face-palm that time...

Anyway, finally got into his head that I need that thermometer NOW because well, high temps can affect the baby and that we don't want... don't we?

Thankfully, he also took emergency leave for Friday just so he could take care of me, which is wise on his part. That night, he also went to Tesco to buy some ingredients for sweet potato porridge as instructed by his mum - I think he has never needed to take care of an ill person before in his life tbh haha.

Anyway, he made it, got the stuff, and the porridge on Friday is actually quite good. The porridge is plain, which is great for my really upset tummy, and the salted egg really add some flavour to the bland porridge.

But my condition didn't seem to become better since my chills came back with a vengeance - imagine my teeth chattering non-stop while I'm underneath the covers plus a jacket, all balled up in fetal position - and my temperature hit 38.8C... insane! 

I was seriously considering admitting myself to the emergency then. 

But thankfully, under advice from his sis, who's an actual doctor, we continue to take the meds. The acti-fast panadol really did its work well, quickly lowering my 38.8C to a more manageable temp so I can sleep some more.

Basically, my routine is like wake up, eat and sleep, minus the times I woke up to go to the toilet lah ofc. By then, my stomach pain's still there and I'm still having diarrhea (plus nausea; and at night after dinner, I vomited my dinner :/).

On Saturday, we went back to the clinic for follow-up and a blood test, and surprisingly, from just that blood test, the doc can confirm I have bacterial infection (of the tummy, obviously). By now, my fever seems to have broken; just left diarrhea and intense but infrequent stomach pains.

She's reluctant to prescribe antibiotics though since 1. I'm already immunosuppressed due to being pregnant; 2. my immune system is already further weakened by the infection; 3. it might end up opening me up to further unwanted infections.

So, instead, she ask me to take probiotics instead and not the Yakult kind... the kind that's many more times stronger than Yakult. I'm fine with it but gosh - probiotics are expensive! RM42 for just 30 pills and I have to take 2 pills per day.

Good news is that it seems to work or at least my body is winning the fight against the infection without antibiotics... slowly but surely.

Currently, it's Day 5 since the onset of the infection and I'm back at work. Still getting the few stomach pains and nausea, but no more diarrhea since yesterday and my tummy does seem to be strengthening... as in I can finish half my usual meal portions now... haha! 

Fingers-crossed that this whole hullaballoo didn't affect the baby. We'll see during the next scan I guess! Baby's still very active and moving a lot though.

Adding that I seem to recall a similar experience in the past where I had the stomach flu, but back then, I wasn't pregnant and was able to clear everything up within just days (2 maybe?), thanks to antibiotics. 

Sigh, my poor body and immunosuppressed immune system have to do most of the heavy lifting this time around!