I fought Malaria and the malaria won!
I wrote an e-mail about my experience with malaria once we got back to Luanda in hopes of sending an e-mail – a hope which never materialized.
“I fought malaria and (let me assure you) the malaria won. And the malaria may still be winning. If it is indeed truly malaria. That is a constant question here. Malaria looks like 50 different things in 50 different people. By the time I had a test (which was negative) I had already been on a treatment regimen for three days. So, besides the fact that the test only tests for one type of parasite, it probably wouldn’t even have shown positive because of the medication. I think I am on the road to wellness now. For several days I tossed Jonah at least once an hour, usually more frequently. Since yesterday afternoon however, I have only thrown up after actually eating something. This is a vast improvement for which I am very thankful. I can now obtain a little sleep/rest. I am now simply longing for the day when I can eat again. And on to the silver lining: while malaria is not very pleasant (to say the least), it is much more effective than the diet I was going to go on when I got home. I should be fitting into all those clothes I was hoping to wear again.
And another blessing was that the day I came down with the worst of the side effects we were in a town with no guest houses, so we had to stay in a very nice hotel where I had my own room. We were there for three days, so for three days I had a very comfortable bed, air conditioning, a room to myself, and a clean bathroom with running water (both hot and cold). All of these things are quite rare, and in combination I have not yet had them during our travels in Angola. So to have them when I needed them most was a huge blessing. Needless to say I saw nothing of the town called Malange, except what was seen going to and from the airport. I did watch lots of Portuguese television in a half-alert state. I am waiting to see if all those studies about learning a language in your sleep prove to be effective in my case.”
When I wrote this we had returned to Luanda and I was still in a semi-exhausted state which caused me to take a nap about every other hour. But the next day I bounced up and began eating everything on site and in sight. I was blessed with rejuvenation of both body and spirit. I was able to finish the rest of our trip with a renewed interest and with renewed energy, which is normally so low at the end of such a long period of travel.
“I fought malaria and (let me assure you) the malaria won. And the malaria may still be winning. If it is indeed truly malaria. That is a constant question here. Malaria looks like 50 different things in 50 different people. By the time I had a test (which was negative) I had already been on a treatment regimen for three days. So, besides the fact that the test only tests for one type of parasite, it probably wouldn’t even have shown positive because of the medication. I think I am on the road to wellness now. For several days I tossed Jonah at least once an hour, usually more frequently. Since yesterday afternoon however, I have only thrown up after actually eating something. This is a vast improvement for which I am very thankful. I can now obtain a little sleep/rest. I am now simply longing for the day when I can eat again. And on to the silver lining: while malaria is not very pleasant (to say the least), it is much more effective than the diet I was going to go on when I got home. I should be fitting into all those clothes I was hoping to wear again.
And another blessing was that the day I came down with the worst of the side effects we were in a town with no guest houses, so we had to stay in a very nice hotel where I had my own room. We were there for three days, so for three days I had a very comfortable bed, air conditioning, a room to myself, and a clean bathroom with running water (both hot and cold). All of these things are quite rare, and in combination I have not yet had them during our travels in Angola. So to have them when I needed them most was a huge blessing. Needless to say I saw nothing of the town called Malange, except what was seen going to and from the airport. I did watch lots of Portuguese television in a half-alert state. I am waiting to see if all those studies about learning a language in your sleep prove to be effective in my case.”
When I wrote this we had returned to Luanda and I was still in a semi-exhausted state which caused me to take a nap about every other hour. But the next day I bounced up and began eating everything on site and in sight. I was blessed with rejuvenation of both body and spirit. I was able to finish the rest of our trip with a renewed interest and with renewed energy, which is normally so low at the end of such a long period of travel.
posted by Jordan Yarbrough | 1:39 PM
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