Okay folks. Here it is. Kenya’s blog post.
I went into Kenya hoping it would redeem the hard month that was Uganda…and it started out looking very hopeful. Our hosts and their kids were so great, and the Grace Family kids were precious beyond what I can describe. We spent the first week helping out with a pastors conference that they were running. So many pastors from surrounding villages were there and we got to worship with them, sit in on the teachings for the purpose driven church, eat meals with them, and begin to form relationships that would become ministry later in the month.
(Playing with kids during Sunday church)
(Sewing reusable pads with women from the conference)
Soon after the pastors conference (literally like 4 days later) I woke up Sunday morning and could NOT stop shaking. I was so cold. I put on pants, long sleeves, my beanie, and got under my sleeping bag and like 3 blankets. My fever was 102 and since other people on the squad had gotten sick I decided to go ahead and go to the doctor. We got there and I got some blood tests done – the doctor says I have typhoid. Yikes. So he tries to give me 2grams of ceftriaxone IV push…my body said NOPE and I passed out. Then he gave me some antibiotics to take home and said I’d start feeling better once I started them.
WELL. I started them at dinner that night…but somewhere around 3am I woke up with a 103 fever and shakes SO bad that I couldn’t sleep at all. We went back to the doctor that afternoon because I felt 10x worse than before. He gave me some fluids and reassured me that I’d feel better the next day. I feel good after the fluids, but I get home and the same thing happened. My fever spiked in the middle of the night and I was so sick feeling that I actually felt like I might die. I slept from maybe 4am to 8am, and when I woke up I started throwing up. I could hardly sit up because I felt so weak and dizzy and nauseous…we decided that I needed to go to a legitimate hospital at that point. I spent the morning in bed and LET ME TELL YOU about the biggest blessing of 2019. A group of 3 girls from Florida were also at our ministry serving for the week and one of the girls happened to be a nurse. I sent my teammate Lauren to ask her for a thermometer because mine died…and then the blessings started pouring out.
Terrill was her name and blessing was her game. This girl! She came into my room and spent literally probably an hour or two taking care of me. She gave me cold rags for my head and wrists, she put peppermint oil on my feet, she fanned me because my fever was so high, all the while she was playing worship music and reading scriptures over me. YEAH, I’m serious. But that’s not all. When it came time for me to go to the hospital she helped me pack my bags, she gave me vitamin C/zinc/and juice plus pills since I couldn’t eat, I mentioned not being able to eat the food they have and she gave me Clif bars and Lara bars…. SERIOUSLY. The Lord knew that I needed someone who could take care of me and y’all he provided. Oh, and besides all that she did for me while she was in Kenya, she donated to me via Venmo once she got home. Terrill coming in hot as the biggest blessing of the race!!!
We went to a nice hospital and turns out I had malaria and typhoid, so I spent 9 days there getting tons of IV fluids and meds. I for sure got worse before I got better…on night 3 I was up every hour puking and was having some weird hallucinations/dreams. Then the next day it got scary. I woke up feeling alright, but around 11am I got SO sleepy. Not the kind of sleepy that just needs a little rest, but more like passing out sleepy. I couldn’t keep my eyes open and I would fall asleep against my own will. At one point I woke up and I couldn’t sit up and in my mind I was very distressed, but I couldn’t get my words out and then I just fell back asleep. My nurses came in to take my vital signs a little bit later and my oxygen was at 70%!! They kinda went into panic mode, they had me sit up and they put an oxygen mask on me – and even though I work in healthcare and I knew what was happening, I still was so confused and halfway delirious. My doctor came in later and told me that I needed an IV infusion of platelets (for my nurse friends, my platelets were at 24,000), but they didn’t have enough so they asked if my friends could donate. Immediately my team leader Michael volunteered to donate some, so they took him off to the lab. Some time later my nurse comes in and tells me that Michael is a perfect blood match and they want to give me a whole bag of blood! YIKES. I’ve never been admitted to the hospital before, nonetheless gotten blood products… but I did it. And I was spooked the whole time. I woke up the next morning feeling so much better so it was totally worth it, but still scary.
The rest of the time after that I felt lousy, but ok. They had taken a chest X-ray earlier that same day and I ended up having a little case of pneumonia by the end of my hospital stay. So malaria and typhoid came back negative – hallelujah – I just was a little winded and had trouble breathing without getting dizzy and lightheaded. BUT day 9 came around and I got discharged YAY!
When I got home I don’t think I left my bed for 2 days straight. The doctor told me to rest and I took him very seriously on that. I also was having a lot of trouble eating – I barely ate anything while in the hospital because I couldn’t stomach it, and when I got home I seriously only ate like one meal a day of plain noodles, for a week.
Being sick in Kenya was by far the most challenging part of my race so far. Without a shadow of a doubt. I’ve never felt that sick in my entire life, and it really did feel like I was never going to get better. One night before I was in the hospital, I felt so sick that I really thought I might die. In nursing school they teach you about impending doom – if your patients feels like they might die, then they probably will so keep an eye on them. So for a hot minute I seriously thought I was going to die. No joke. But my teammates and squad leaders rallied around me and even though I was miserable 98% of the time they made things so much better. Now I’m back to 100% and ready to take on Ethiopia full force!
SO there you have it folks! That’s a wrap up of my time in Kenya – thanks for reading!
