Well, in case you feel like keeping count, I’ll provide the current tally:
Jenna: 0
Tropical Diseases: 3
1. I, er, pushed my way through the unpleasantries of living several weeks as the host of an intestinal amoeba without commenting on the matter in this public forum. It didn’t exactly seem necessary to share details, although really the worst of it was just a chronic, mono-style exhaustion. I’m pretty certain I started my job as happy hostess rather shortly after arriving here, and failed to acknowledge the reality of my parasitic infestation for an extended period of time. I expected much more concrete (or, perhaps, liquid) signs of a digestive tenant, so when Sheila mentioned off-hand one day that amoebas mostly just suck all of your energy, it suddenly clicked. When the effort required to get out of bed, eat breakfast and return to your room requires a nap to recharge, maybe there’s a problem there. She put me on a five-day course of anti-gut-bug medicine, and I started feeling better immediately. I have to wonder if that didn’t have something to do with my immense frustration at the start – after all, dealing with 5 huge classes like these would wear out a healthy person!
Although I readily recovered from this situation, I ironically developed my next malady the day of my last amoeba-cidil pill.
2. Monday morning, I noticed a strange mark resembling a burn on my chin. “How does one burn their chin?” I wondered to the mirror. I certainly had no recollection of such an event occurring. It was about quarter-sized, and stayed on my face like a large Popsicle stain for the entire day. A bit embarrassing, but without a mirror in front of me it was easy enough to pretend it didn’t exist.
Until I awoke on Tuesday. There, where once a strange red mark had been, was undoubtedly the largest, ugliest blister I have ever seen. The original spot hadn’t hurt or been hot at all, but it was definitely angry at my face now. Not only that, but it had spread to other, non-contiguous locations near my lips and other parts of my chin, and a familiar looking red-spot was forming on my hand wear I habitually rest my face while sleeping. This, I thought, is just great.
Reluctant to play the part of hypersensitive, sheltered American, I tried to will it away for a few hours. Eventually, however, I called Sheila, and described the condition to her. She was immediately convinced that a visit to a doctor was in order, a response which made me feel both better and worse.
The doctor in Santo Tomas glanced at me from across the desk and said “You don’t have herpes, do you?”
“GOOD LORD!!! I HOPE NOT!!! HOW??!?!?!” (Accompanied by a brief panic attack)…
...was my level-headed response. Hallelujah and glory be, an actual inspection of my swollen pustule eliminated that consideration. Although it probably is a viral condition, he declared it to be contracted from a bug bite, and not herpes. That’s more like it.
I was sent home with a cream made in France and told to return on Friday. The blister disappeared by the next morning, and has now been replaced with a giant brown scab. I’m still trying to decide which is worse. I considered taking a picture, but to be honest, I don’t really want to share this embarrassment through visual aids. I’ll let you use your imagination.
3. Kidney Infection (OK, so technically, this isn’t a specifically “tropical” disease, but since I’ve never had any sort of urinary track issues previous to being here, and this one has hit me like a head on collision with a brick wall, I think I’m going to count it.)
I spent the second half of this week trying to ignore fever chills, weakness, aching muscles, nausea and a general feeling of yuckiness. On Friday, when I hurt so bad I stayed in bed until noon, I decided that maybe I had come down with a little illness. Luckily the doctor in Santo Tomas was expecting me anyways, wanting to check up on my skin condition. After suffering through my classes, where just taking role call was nearly enough to wipe me out, I jumped in one of my favorite covered truck transports to Santo Tomas. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant ride; I spent all of my energy focusing on not vomiting on the polite man trying to talk politics and immigration with me.
It didn’t take the doctor long to determine that my skin seemed to be healing fine, while my liquid excretory system was another story. I was just happy to have some pain medicine, and to get started on antibiotics. Theoretically I’m on the path to wellness now, although my intense fever chills and sweat-soaked sheets last night make it hard to believe. I had no idea something as normal sounding as a kidney infection could be this miserable!! Thank God it’s the weekend, at least!
Although I don’t exactly look forward to maintaining this scoreboard, I have a sneaking suspicion it may continue to receive updates. I’ve yet to determine how I’ll win points…
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3 comments:
Oh, Jenna, you poor thing. I, too, was very sick in Guatemala on two different trips. I contracted what I refer to as the Guatemalan Poo flu during my last night at the children's home in Solola. I know exactly what I did wrong - I used tap water to make soup and did not boil it long enough. I was up all night with my best friend the toilet (we had two). The water was shut off at night so there was no flushing beyond the first flush. Then, we ran out of TP, so I had to switch to baby wipes that clogged both toilets. I had a 2.5 hour car ride back to Guatemala City the next morning. Fortunately, the Cipro and immodium that I carried with me were fast acting and provided enough relief to get to GC without any embarassing pull of the side of the road problems. I returned to the country 6 weeks later to bring my son home. During my 9 day stay at the GC Marriott, I had a bad case of Mono. I had a fever, swollen glands in my neck, a sore throat, nausea, vomiting, a swollen, tender spleen and I was exhausted beyond words and I had a new baby to care for.
Take care of yourself and try to stay healthy. Can you carry purell or some sort of hand sanitizer with you?
Merrill
Jennn--naa...(spoken like your mom) - If you remove said unwelcome guests from the confines of your physical self, then I would have to say that you won in the end. Thus, I correct the score to Jenna 2.5, Tropical diseases with a shaky, soon to disappear, lead of 3.0
I like Merril's suggestion - just ran across two of those small sized Purell things in the back closet - will toss them into the box, that has accumulated guitar music and ear plugs....
Lotion from France? More on THAT later -
Mom
Jeez Jenna,
Nurse lecture:
1. Wash your hands alot
2. Stop waiting it out
a. rash, blister suddenly forming on face is rarely benign
3. Early signs of UTI good to know so it doesn't progress to the bladder/kidneys
a. s/sx: burning, feeling like you had to pee more than you did, urgent feeling of having to go out of no where, having to go to the bathroom alot, but little each time, strange odor from urine, mild pelvic pain
Take care,
Love your RN
P.S. take those antibiotics as prescribed and to completion for maxium results and to decrease antibiotic resistant organisms
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