Malaria!

Another experience to add to the list…malaria! Granted if you ask my parents they will say that I have been through that wonderful experience as a child… but now I get to have very vivid memories of my own!

I had been having some irritating headaches for the last two weeks that kind of came and went (depending on how often I popped an advil :)!) and it all led up to a few days of unpleasantness. Last Friday after work I came home feeling not so great and went right to bed…feverish. Saturday I was fine until we went out in the evening and then the headache was back with a vengeance and I just felt thoroughly exhausted. After a trip to the medical centre on Sunday the doctor told me that without a doubt I had malaria and my blood was FULL of parasites!

He gave me a bunch of drugs to take to kill the malaria, get rid of the body-aches and fever and deal with the nausea. Malaria is not a fun experience!! I think I lucked out because I wasn’t throwing up or violently ill but I definitely felt awful and entirely drained of energy. The big excursion was getting out of my bed to go lay on the couch in the living room!

Wednesday we went back to the clinic for a follow-up test and woohoo! All the parasites were gone! It was a little funny because I was there to have a malaria test, my roommate Sarah wasn’t feeling well so she came as well, and Sergine (my other roommate’s sister who is visiting) was also sick! I think the doctor thought there was some kind of epidemic in our house!!

The unfortunate part is that Sarah was really really sick and ended up staying overnight at the clinic! The verdict on her sickness? Dengue Fever! Incredibly rare here in Burkina Faso. It is transmitted by mosquitoes, like malaria, but mosquitoes that bite during the day. It is less dangerous because it can’t affect your brain (malaria can be fatal if not treated!), but it lasts twice as long and, after seeing Sarah go through what she did…Dengue is NOT something I would like to have.

Essentially there is nothing you can do to treat it so you just have to wait it out with incredibly high fever for 3-4 days…body-aches…headaches…nausea…vomiting…sore eyes…and when the fever goes away, it is replaced by a red rash all over your body that may or may not be itchy! And the fatigue stays throughout the whole ordeal. If you are extra unlucky the fever comes back after the rash for another 3-4 days!

Anyway, at this point she is doing much better with the rash going away and no new fever starting! The doctor at the clinic said they see 2 or 3 cases of Dengue a year…maybe. So Sarah was just really unlucky!

But all is almost entirely well in the house now and we can all get back to our regular routines!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend (to those who celebrate it!)