Don't Touch My Body

Don't touch my body, because I've got chicken pox.

Three days ago, I went to the doctor because of fever and headache and lethargy. It was rather scary because I don't think I had been lucid since the previous evening. Strange though it may sound, I felt drunk, or should I say, drugged. Everything was inexplicably surrealistic.

Instead of picking up the brush and starting to paint something to the likes of The Scream, I was quickly brought back to my senses. I mean, come on, unless you've just eaten some mushrooms bought from some hippie in the back alley, unexplained light-headedness calls for serious attention. Besides, what worried me more was the red spots on the chest. I might have been stung by some mutant mosquito from outer Mongolia and was now infected with a deadly tropical disease.



"Ahah, chicken pox!" proclaimed the doctor after examining the hideous red spots on my chest and stomach.

"That's it?"

"Yeah. There's no mistake," confirmed the doctor.

"You're not going to run an MRI or do some biopsy test or put me on the kidney transplant list?"

"No."

Okay. Too much House can be as bad for health as suspicious mushrooms and mutant mosquitoes from outer Mongolia.

It didn't take long before the news sank in. In a few days' time, I'd be so itchy all over that I'd be crying for mercy. Oh the horrors!

It also didn't take long before I came to terms with it; I realized I have a long holiday ahead - one to two weeks, depending on my recovery. Whoa, a blessing in disguise, huh? Besides, probably because I started taking medicine early, my condition didn't get as worse as I expected. Except for the second day, when the itching was the worst - refraining from scratching was as hard as holding back your pee.

But since yesterday, I'm fine again. In fact, I've been able to do what I didn't have time for: dramas, books, manga... And I've slept more hours in three days than what I can usually afford to in a week.

"You only get a week off for H1N1. How can chicken pox beat that?" a friend complained. Oh yes, it does beat the flu. Jealous, aren't you?

But I've finished my supply of dramas. Although I still have a couple of books and a manga series left, I'm not sure they can keep me at home long. Who knows, I might get bored enough and start to wander outside to spread the love? For another week or so, I'm a walking weapon of biochemical warfare.