out of the miry clay

after a week of being sick,

i'm better now!

almost 100%

:D


malaria occurs so frequently here that it's spoken of almost casually.

"lisa has malaria," "manuel has malaria."

still, it doesn't make the experience any less unpleasant.


i came home from home-based care last friday with a sudden massive headache. i went to sleep immediately, at around 1:30pm-2:00pm, and woke up at 8pm. -_- by then, i felt i had somewhat of a fever and felt unusually tired/fatigued. no vomiting. no diarrhea. 'ok. so i might have the flu. couldn't be malaria.' i went back to sleep after having talked to my nurse housemate about the symptoms for a while.

i woke up saturday morning with the same piercing headache and my body burning up. i still felt extremely tired, even after having slept for that long. my housemate needed to go into town, so i stayed at home in bed sleeping. at some point, i felt i really needed to get up and move around -- 'maybe i feel tired because i've been sleeping so much.' i saw dirty dishes in the sink. 'hey, i'll wash the dishes.' i walked into the kitchen, turned on the water (we have running water now!), and started scrubbing dishes. after two dishes, i felt too tired and found myself panting and went back into the dining area to sit down. after a couple of more attempts to finish washing the dishes, i just went back to sleep. ^^;

carlos actually came later that night and tested me for malaria (or the most common strain of malaria around here). negative. but we speculated the results might come out negative; the doxycycline i had been taking for malarial preventative medication may mask the results. carlos and my housemate agreed that i should take the medication for malarial treatment: 4 tablets of malarone for 3 days (which i had luckily saved!). i was somewhat skeptical; i'm not big on taking any medication in general. i decided to wait another night and see if the symptoms would die down. bad move. sudden chills.

nana, my 80-year-old next door neighbor, came over next morning to see how i was doing. she's a retired nurse who's been practicing in maforga for a very long time. she touched my face and immediately said, "you have malaria. you need to be on treatment. " "couldn't it be a flu?" i asked. "flu in mozambique = malaria." good point.

she took out the malarone i had beside my bed and handed over the tablets to see me take them down. "after 12 hours, you'll feel better." and like clockwork, i did! i felt better enough to eat a banana, although.. i felt like throwing up the banana for the rest of the day -_-

come monday, i didn't feel as tired! come tuesday, i was sitting up/walking around!

wow.

i probably had one of the milder forms of malaria. i probably had one of the shortest spells of malaria.

still, i wouldn't want to go through it again.


i guess it just.

comes with the package.


t.i.a.


sorry for all the worries i've caused.
and thanks for all of your prayers!