Everybody gets sick on the Race, right? “Nope not me”… at least that’s what I used to say. “I lived in a fraternity house the last 3 years, my immune system is unstoppable.”
After a visit by our new friend Dengue Fever and 5 days in hospital later… turns out I was wrong.
Assuming you (like myself a week ago) have no idea what Dengue Fever is, allow me to enlighten you. It is a mosquito-transferred virus that is very common in this area. It causes your internal organs to swell and blood platelet levels to drop down to very low levels. The reason it is so dangerous is because if you begin to internally bleed your blood can’t clot to fix it… but as terrifying as that all sounds its really not that serious. We just had to stay in the hospital so they could keep an eye on our platelet levels and keep our fevers down. On the outside symptoms looked like a fever, never ending headache, and sensitive eyes that made me feel like a vampire every time someone turned on the lights. Most of the time we weren’t feeling too bad though.
There is too much to sum up about hospital life to fit into a blog, so here are a few things I learned through this whole experience:
- Hospital livin’ ain’t so bad, at least when everyone has positive attitudes. I was so grateful for the positive attitudes of my roomates Kristen (also a Dengue victim) and Laura (our care taker/lifesaver). It would been easy to be down and complain about being trapped in a room, strapped to an IV for 5 days straight, but instead we turned it into a kind of fun experience. We had a TV which made things a little easier. It even had two whole English channels!! This led to watching a lot of Friends, Modern Family, and Big Bang theory. We got to watch Armageddon, not just once, but twice in 24 hours. Also Meercat Manor is my new favorite comedy… even though I’m pretty sure it’s not supposed to be a comedy.
- Being sick is humbling. As men we don’t like to be taken care of, and when we when do it better be by our sacred mothers, and when that happens…. We don’t tell anyone. However sometimes you just can’t do it on your own and when that happens you have to allow people to serve you. I had an incredible caretaker, which brings me to my next point…
- LAURA GAMBLE IS A SAINT. I mean it. My squad leader turned into my mom this week. From the day James was checked in (which was the day before I was) the only time she left the hospital was to get us something. She had her computer mopped, ate double digit bowls of Romon noodles, and slept on the floor every night… and she did it all out of love and with a great attitude. Someone give this woman a trophy… or maybe a new computer. Seriously thank you so much Laura. We literally may not have survived the week with out you.
- Turns out that men can get ultrasounds too. Thankfully, no babies were discovered… only a swollen spleen and liver.
- Lincoln Vallett has many alternate spellings that I never knew existed such as: Lincoh Vallete, Liacon Vallehe, and Liacoln Valleth. There were countless other combinations. The only way to misspell my name in a Nicaraguan Hospital, is by spelling it the correct way.
- What is the #1 priority of Nicaraguan hospitals? Clean floors. They are serious about it, mopping our room upwards of 10 times a day. No spec of dirt is safe, not even at 2 in the morning.
- Who knew getting an IV taken out could be such an epic moment, but after 5 days of having the plastic leash on I felt like a was being freed from bondage. I wanted to dance, do karate, rip a drum solo, and do every other activity possible that includes my hands… but instead I just began to flail my arms around in circles in celebration, and what a glorious moment of flailing it was.
So even though my time at the hospital wasn’t exactly ideal, it was full of joy thanks to good care and great company. The experience has definitely taught me not to take my health for granted though. Frat house training won’t be enough to protect me from the things we will come across this year. Only the Lord can do that. Even though the battle has been won, the war is not over. We have been told that we won’t be back to 100% for a couple more weeks, so we have to be very intentional about taking care of ourselves. Please be praying that our side affects don’t start coming back so that we can get back to ministry!
The Lord gave me an opportunity to practice patience and shown me that I have a lot to be thankful for this week. Now its time to get back to our Unsung Heroes campaign. We will be meeting up with a few different ministries this weekend around Leon, so please also pray for those meetings to go well and for us to find our way to other places that could use some help! I’ll try to give you guys another update sometime soon, with hopefully better news to report next time. Until then, adios amigos.
