Well, the last few days have been completely insane, but I’m gonna back up a little bit so you can get the full story.
A little over two weeks ago, the girls on my team decided that we were going to do the Daniel Fast (veggies, fruits, and beans. basically vegan with no carbs or anything processed) for several reasons, but mainly to challenge ourselves and grow spiritually. We planned on doing it for three weeks, but doesn’t look like that is happening any more. We were a little tired, but I was constantly wiped out. I assumed it was just from the activities we were doing and lack of protein and food I am use to eating. (spoiler alert – it wasn’t.)
On Friday, we came to help out at a children’s camp another team was running at the massive Christian college campus here that also has a clinic. Several teams were helping to share the fun of worshiping Jesus and giving them a new perspective on what it can mean to be a Christian. (The camp went so well, and hopefully it will be continued by the college next year!) We got here around noon and instantly went into a flurry of activity to finish prepping everything for the camp. We made flags, cut headbands, got dressed up like insane people, blew up balloons, and so much more. Camp started three hours later. The band (my squad mates are mega talented) played some really upbeat worship songs and we all danced and sang as loud as we could in order to hype up the kids. We played some capture the flag after we all got hype, and about halfway through I thought I was going to pass out. I figured I was dehydrated (cause that happens often in Africa) and so I drank as much water as I was able to over the next two hours. The other camp teams played the game, and I sat with my camp team (Go Beta Squad!!). While the kids were eating dinner around 5, I was getting more light headed and nausous and I was completely wiped out. I called my dad to see if he could help figure out what was wrong with me and we came to the conclusion it was low blood sugar because of our fast. When camp was over and cleaned up, I ate two nectarines, a clementine, and three cups of (somewhat fast acceptable) apple juice. I started getting a terrible headache, I couldn’t see straight, and one of my team mates said I looked incredibly pale and I was running a very high fever. I tried to take my heart rate, and it was a little high. I could feel I was burning up, but I was so cold I was wrapped up in every blanket I could find. I kept getting worse and there was pain pretty much everywhere in my body; muscles, skin, head, eyes, you name a part of the body and it probably was in some degree of pain. We were spending the night at the college the camp was at, so after discussing for hours with friends and family, I decided to go down to the clinic on campus in the morning and see what was going on. On Saturday morning I went with one of my squad leaders, Mckayla, around 10:00 to the clinic. She helped there for a month as her ministry and knew a lot of people and how to bypass the system to get it all figured out faster. After about 20 minutes, we got blood results back that I did have malaria.
Now I’m gonna give you a little info. Malaria is split into four stages. +, ++, +++, and ++++.
+ means it’s bad but not the worst. ++means it’s really painful and rough and you’ve probably had it a while and are in a lot of pain. +++ means you should definitely be hospitalized for a while, and ++++ is basically on your deathbed. This is based off of the amount of parasites in your blood, and it can take a couple weeks to get from one stage to the next. I had ++. We saw a doctor, and he admitted me to the clinic right away. I had to be given an IV, but none of my veins were big enough for them. I was pricked five times (each time taking a few minutes because they went digging for my veins and I have the bruises to prove it) before they finally got one that worked on the inside of my wrist. I’m not afraid of needles or anything like that, but I almost passed out at one point and was saved by Mckayla giving me some of her coffee.
I was given my first dose of medicine and taken (eventually) to my own room. There were about four teams on campus that popped in and out of the room to say hi and talk for a while and bring me anything I wanted or needed. I got messages from so many people saying they were praying for me and sending lots of love and hugs. I felt so loved and comforted by my team and my squad, I had to promise Courtney and Keia several times that if I ever needed anything, no matter how big or small, I had to call them and they would get it for me. The nurses would come in every couple hours to check my vitals, and besides a fever around 9 pm, I was pretty normal. By mid afternoon, I was feeling significantly better. I took a nap for a few hours, talked to a few people on the phone, and read half of a book. When the camp that all of the teams were helping with was over around 7, almost my whole team and a few others came in to talk and hang out for a while. The night nurse, Nassim, is from Pakistan and one of the sweetest ladies I’ve ever met. She brought me anything I needed to be more comfortable. One of my squad mates and Mckayla spent the night in my room with me, and we had a blast together on Sunday morning. We had coffee and muffins, another friend came in and there were lots of laughs, music, and funny stories. We watched a movie, got my last dose of medicine, and a saline drip because I was a little dehydrated. I had been cleared by the doctor to leave as soon as I was done with that, and the nurse came in to take out my IV. Nassim (the nice nurse) left early in the morning, and the morning nurse didn’t seem to understand not only how to actually inject me (I had to walk her through how to do it) but ended up causing a lot of pain in the process. The next several hours were a crazy mix of confusion, pain, encouragement, love, and many tears (both good and bad). Courtney and Keia (the girls on my team) bought me flowers and chocolate and wrote me a note from them and talked to my parents to get a note from them, and the guys on my team brought me a smoothie.
I was finally discharged from the hospital around 4 pm.
Even though I am out of the hospital, I am not completely normal yet and I probably won’t be for about six weeks. Here is a moment of vulnerability to help you all see how much this recovering from malaria thing totally messes with you – I cried for ten minutes last night because I lost a game of uno. I wasn’t sad or mad or anything, but I just started crying my eyes out for ten minutes. I teared up today when Courtney told me she was going to pay for me to get my nails done with her and Keia tomorrow. I cry at the drop of a hat (literally) and walking a few blocks feels like I ran a marathon.
Throughout this whole process I’ve had so much time to think about things and the more I think about it, the more I see how much the Lord had His hand in the whole situation. The weekend I actually started showing bad symptoms, I was already staying at a college with the clinic I would go to anyway. If I hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have gone for at least two more days. According to the malaria test, I should have been way worse than I was. I recovered so quickly and only had to be hospitalized for 32 hours, not two or three days like we originally thought. The meds worked, I feel so much better, and hardly have any side effects. Not gonna lie, this whole thing was really hard. I was exhausted, in pain, and would have been completely miserable if it weren’t for the people around me. They encouraged me so much to hold to the Lord. I prayed with some people, we listened to worship music most of the time, and I was surrounded by my people that were filled with the Lord. I know that is why I was able to stay so positive through the whole thing, everyone around me came with so much joy and peace in their spirits, and it would have been so much harder without it.
Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement, they are very much welcomed and needed. Also thank you for taking the time to read this very long blog, and remember that if you ever go somewhere that you may get malaria, please please take your malaria medicine.
