An Unorthodox Pandemic

Yesssss, finally my horrible ordeal has finally come to end. I have just recuperated from my chicken pox infection. But something is really peculiar about my recent chicken pox infection. According to what I learnt in Biology and the rumours I heard from elder people is that there won’t be any recurrence if you have been infected once. Once our bodies have developed immunity against the chicken pox infection, the virus will be eliminated from our body system and remain dormant in our ganglion which is located at our spinal cord. In rare cases, the virus might reactivate if our immunity systems are compromised. The recurrence of chicken pox will lead to the eruption of shingles which forms painful blisters instead of itchy ones during the first infection. However, I remembered that I was infected once when I was in Standard Four. So, this was supposed to be my second time of infection but my condition was not deplorable. I was infected by my friend Jian Shi who came to our tuition class even though he hasn’t recovered from his chicken pox infection. At first, I have only a few blisters which I thought was mosquito or insect bites. After a few days, the blisters boomed and spread all over my body. Even my head scalp and mouth have blisters too. It was an ordeal when I was eating my food. There were so many restrictions which I have to abide when I chose my meal. I was not allowed to eat any meat, and was told to eat more fruits and vegetables. The blisters at my tongue were painful especially when I ate salty food because most of the blisters are at the sides of my tongue which are sensitive to any salty food. The situation was aggravated when my parents ate ‘sweet and sour pork’ in front of me. The smell of that delicacy was so tempting that I couldn’t resist it anymore. I decided not to follow the restriction and started to follow my normal diet. I opine that it wouldn’t cause any harm just to eat some meat. I just couldn’t consume vegetables and fruits as my meal. My meal would be tasteless and dull if that happens. Life was torture when I endured a week of torment when I had chicken pox. My body was covered with blisters filled with fluids. They were so itchy that I couldn’t restrain myself from scratching the blisters and ending up bursting them even though my parents told me no to do so as I would get scars all over my body. The blisters were so itchy that I felt like scraping them off. After few days after the blisters appeared, they turned yellowish. Some of the blisters grew so big and hideous that I burst it purposely. At that time, I looked so hideous like a monster. I think if anyone saw me during those days, they would certainly run away. ~Sigh~. Consequently, I couldn’t go anywhere during my holidays because of the risk of infecting other people with chicken pox virus. I have planned to go to Sungei Wang to search for delicacies or watch some movies but all that planning was in vain and I have to stay indoors until I have fully recovered. Most of the time I would be sleeping to restrain the itchiness of my blisters. I also couldn’t go to Kah Meng’s house to play games together with my chums via LAN. How I wish I could obliterate them in the game Unreal Tournament 2004. Worst of all, I couldn’t even take my exam during the last day of the test. Of all the days, why must the chicken pox aggravate on my last day of exam? I shouldn’t be sulking over such trivial matters because there was an advantage for me too. On the positive side, I have a week for me to revise my Physics and Additional Mathematics before sitting for the exam. This proves to be beneficial to me because I got the same marks as the smart alec in our class, Liew Hui in Physics. In fact, I almost got 1 mark higher than him but it was because I left out the word ‘one’ in my answer which caused one of my answers to lose mark. Noooooo. Surpassing him in any academic test would be an honourable achievement in my life. I don’t care I surpass him by how many marks. Even by 0.1 marks, I would be proud. This reminds me of how I surpassed him in the English test we took last year. I was able to surpass him by 0.8 marks. Yessssssss. There is also another person whom I would like to surpass in Account, Pei Wen. She is always excels in any subject that involves calculation. She is very good in Accounts and would be an excellent rival to compete with. Unfortunately, the first test comprised of the 3rd chapter in Account which I haven’t learned at my tuition class. In addition, the Head of Department of Account seemed to be busy. So, we won’t be able to sit for the exam this time even if I have learnt the chapter. Therefore, I am anticipating the next mid-year exam to sit for the Account test and surpass her in the test.