Since childhood I seem to have been plagued with the
constant ability to attract the strangest of medical situations. Between having my skull chipped while
playing flag football, cutting off the tip of one of my fingers on an exercise
machine, and spending a majority of my first week of camp as a child in the hospital
for some unknown illness…it was only a matter of time before something random
and ridiculous would happen to me while traveling the world.
9 needles jabbed into my skin, 9 different medications, 6
tests, and 4 doctor visits later…
I was a good little girl and got all of the proper
immunizations needed to travel to the ends of the world. However, when I started to feel
abnormal and researched the signs of Malaria I became concerned. Shortly thereafter I found myself receiving
the fastest medical care in my entire life. In and out of the clinic in a matter of minutes I had seen
the doctor and gotten a blood test drawn.
I quickly put fears regarding the lack of sanitation out of my mind and
was not in the least bit surprised when the test came back positive. I had Malaria.
After I finished the medication and was still not feeling
like my chipper self, I went to a different clinic just to make sure all was
kosher. To my surprise the blood
test (which is really just a man looking at my blood sample under a microscope)
showed negative for Malaria and positive for Typhoid. After seeing the doctor and a few more tests later, the
words kidney and Black Water Fever and getting shots in my butt for five days
made me want to cry. So I started
taking the new string of medication, still unsure of what was actually wrong
with me.
We traveled to a hostel to meet up with the rest of my
squadmmates and prepared to raft the Nile, the one tourist thing I was really
looking forward to all race.
Unfortunately, instead of getting better with the medication, I ended up
getting a lot sicker. And so
Jeremy, Sarah and I made the overnight trip to Nairobi early in hopes of
getting better medical treatment, which became the wisest medical decision I
have made all race. After more
needles and tests, I do not have Malaria or Typhoid. In fact, the reason I had become so sick was because I was
given the wrong medication at the second clinic I went to. So how do you undo the damage of the wrong
medication? A shot and more
medication, of course.
I AM NO LONGER SICK, praise the Lord!!! COMPLETELY HEALED!!! And have come to appreciate a few
people and things over the duration of the past few weeks. And so, please imagine me in an
incredible ball gown (which is difficult for me to imagine due to the current
state of my clothing) giving a speech after receiving my third Oscar (might as
well shoot high) of the night. I
would like to first and foremost thank God for complete healing and
provision. Second I would like to
thank my fabulous family for supporting and loving me through the ups and downs
of traveling around the world for the past eight months as well as supporting
the cost behind my horrible and expensive medical habits. Third I would like to thank Tiffany who stayed up with me
many nights when I was sick and endured almost two weeks of endless whining and
crankiness. Next I would like to
thank Jeremy and Sarah Pena who left the hostel early and endured the worst,
bumpiest, and scariest bus ride of my life in order to get to Nairobi a couple
of days early, as well as sitting with me at the clinic for many hours. I would also like to take this time and
thank everyone from home and around the world that faithfully prayed for
healing, comfort and wisdom. Also,
words cannot begin to describe my thankfulness for sterile environments and
western toilets. And finally, I
would like to make the depth of loathing known to the mosquito that started it
all.
