i probably set a few records in my three weeks in army. maybe my body's too weak or something, but i got a 3-day light duty, and 2 attend C (aka MC, rest at home) in just this 3 weeks. i don't even know if my body is trying to keng or not, but it doesn't feel like i intentionally did it
when i first entered, i was somewhat excited actually. got shaved, screamed at quite alot in the first 3 days for being too slow, tekan-ed quite alot too, but it was somewhat different and entertaining in a sense. i found that my section and platoon mates were friendly, even though i ended up in kestrel, which was like damn shiong or something.
at first it din't feel like it was a shiong company, we had admin time, time to rest and stuff. so the first week went by without much problems, mostly introductions to many new activities, and we bookout just six days in. damn shiok cos i managed to shop and go to huang's house to play mahjong, then relax abit in just that one day, so our confinement period ended up being shorter as well.
thought everything was going fine, even tried to be platoon ic, cos it looked like quite a fun thing to do (cos the previous platoon ic was a joker, but yet a good one). basically give simple marching commands, and reporting strength (which was quite a hassle, cos alot of status-es started coming in). fked up alot, but thought that it might help me make less mistakes in the long run. i became somewhat of a burden though, cos i was blur, forgetful, even if i din't forget certain things ppl still thought to remind me anyway.
and training started going full blast. it was quite tough, but i cheated quite abit in order to cope, otherwise i'll be too shag for the other activities. but i still felt like i was getting trained, water parade seems easier now, so were pull-ups.
then suddenly alot of ppl started coughing and shyt. everytime we were in the lecture hall, at certain moments suddenly alot of ppl start coughing at the same time that it makes u go 'wtf'. i thought was a psychological thing or what, until one or two of my section mates got it too.
then just last last sunday, i got a headache that probably started from soc, probably not used to wearing the helmet or it restricted my blood flow or something. then i still stupidly went for ippt skills training, which made it worse, especially the shuttle run section. even with the 1.5 hours of learnet time (aka sleep time), my headache din't go away, so i skipped the last activity (cadence run, which was supposedly quite lepak), since everyone told me just report sick to be safe.
the stupid thing is my headache seemed to cure just waiting for my turn to go mo. and then i got 3 days light duty (LD) cos of that. i was like crap, that's damn dumb. plus my sergeant told me before i reported sick that it was all in my head, so it made me regret reporting sick. but that's where all the crap started.
either it was that i really had something on that sunday, but i just dint feel it for the next two days during my LD. i thought that there was nothing wrong with me, so went to do all the saikang and stuff, being bored and all. or maybe its cos being with the statuses spread the 'tekong cough' to me.
on the morning when i was finally able to resume training, then i suddenly felt that my mind was a bit groggy. i thought was normal, since we always wake up so early. realise i had phlegm in my throat as well, wasn't that much the day before. my temp after first water parade was 37.6, but i din't report sick, since i din't want to miss training again, i lost two practice sessions of SOC cos of my 3 day LD.
first activity that day was ability group run (AGR), and my temp has gone close to 38 just before the exercise. i showed my buddy, but still din't report sick. i even asked one of my section mate who did BMT before whether i should keng abit, do the shorter 17 min run, but he told me if it's bearable then just tahan ba, the training is good for me. so yea lor i did the run.
it felt quite ok during the whole run actually, abit of headache, but it was milder than expected, stitch came once but i resisted it too, maybe my pain tolerance increased. but actually looking back now, it was probably cos of adrenaline. i managed to complete the 20 min run, and tbh the pace was pretty slow, i could probably tank it normally before even entering army. then there was a lecture after that, which i tot was great since there was rest time. i felt quite ok, since i manage to tank through a run even with headache.
things started getting worse from there though. i slept a lot during the lecture, since i looked so shag like i was going to die, headache started to come back also. then i barely could eat anything during lunch. next time i took my temp it was 38.5. the head thermometer they used showed 38.9. so i suffered quite abit in the mo, waiting for so long, and then only went in for like half a minute before they gave me 6 types of medicines wtf, and also attC (which was just 1 day before bookout day. that sucks la of cos)
for the next 4 days, i was almost always in my room, maybe went out to see doctor or eat breakfast. i din't follow the western course of medicine since i kinda doubted that it was proper if they suddenly gave 6 types. ended up eating chinese medicine cos my mom feels like it will cure to root cause of my sickness, and i was also given like 6 types, but it wasn't very effective either, fever dropped for awhile then go back up to 38 again.
i was bored since i spent so much time sleeping so i burn some time using comp or my phone, but i din't feel very good after that, so i end up sleeping again. anyway, in that 4 days, my cough developed and i suffered quite a lot. on sunday my temp dropped to 37 range, but when i went back, i did not manage to sweat at all, my body just kept heating up, my boots felt like there were heat packs inside.
i din't feel extremely uncomfortable or anything, just knew that my body was very warm. and my section mates kept asking me if i was ok. but my temp went from 38.0 during last parade to 38.5, and finally 39.3 in the mo. i was like 'fk, im so screwed'. got attC on the same day i went in and waited for 40+ mins for the last ferry, was very terrible, i suffered quite alot.
i think yesterday my temp was never below 38, but i finally went to see western doc to confirm the medicine the mo gave me, turns out they gave quite good ones, so i finally started treatment. was like shyt man, cos i coughed up so much phlegm, when it doesn't come out it feels quite pain. my head was also permanently warm and i felt quite groggy, but i tried air-con treatment, which worked a little.
but finally, today when i woke up, i din't feel like there were tons of phlegm hidden in my throat, or my head burning or very groggy, which usually was the case since the medicine effects often wore off at night. did a morning walk, it has been like 5 days of me lying down in the bed all the time, after feeling like i would never recover. it felt quite different la, abit like a rehab from not doing anything for so long, walking abt 800m to the park, doing the 'elderly gym' on the playground for abit to sweat out, then walked to loyang point to buy stuff and come back.
i might be able to recover by the end of today i hope, but i still don't feel like my body is back to normal. there's like a bit of weakness here and there, a bit of a numb feeling on my head and stuff. and i need to return to army tmr morning, and probably have to take tmr easy as well, definitely not in the shape to resume training immediately.
but after my illness, i know not to stupidly push myself now, since my body really like paper like that, tank a bit become real illness. but im also like 'how bad can it get' from here. i'm one third through bmt, probably lost all my ambition to become an officer (i'd probably become a burden anyway), but i hope i can cope through the remainder of training and see where i get posted to ba. scs would mean another 6 months of being treated like shyt, but it'll probably be more satisfying as well i guess.
at the very least i hope that from now i won't fall sick again, or be some huge ass burden to my section and platoon. i troubled my section mates and family more than enough already. maybe i'll get stronger both physically and mentally in this next few weeks. and just looking forward to pop ba.
