Being Sick in Africa Sucks

Driving into camp

Our communal tent

Waiting for lunch

A Maasai Villager giving us a talk on the Maasai lifestyle

So I’ve been sick for a little…well, try more like a lot.  Sunday night I got back from the Ethiopian restaurant Damascus and puked my guts out the whole night.  I finally broke down and called my parents at two in the morning crying because I felt so awful.  I assumed it was food poisoning since my stomach felt like lead.  I didn’t sleep much that night but managed to go to breakfast the following morning.  I somehow kept a bowl of cornflakes down and then we headed off for our 1.5 hour drive to a Maasai Village.  I crossed my fingers that I wouldn’t get sick during the car ride and managed to sleep through most of it.  When we got to the campsite near the Maasai village, I curled up in ball on one of the mattresses in the tents and pretty much didn’t move for 24 hours.  I tried to drink some crystal light and eat a piece of bread, but that failed miserably as it just came right back up.  I slept a lot just so I wouldn’t have to think about how badly my stomach hurt and how achy I felt.  By Tuesday morning, I hadn’t eaten or drank anything for about 2 days and we decided it was time to bring me to the clinic in Arusha.  One painful hour long drive later (cars are the absolute worst when your stomach hurts!) and we were there.  They admitted me, ran some blood and urine tests, and started me on an IV.  I was pretty weak and didn’t really talk all that much.  At one point I tried to go to the bathroom to get them a urine sample and almost passed out.  I was so dizzy and lightheaded, plus I had a fever of 100.7 and was so achy that I couldn’t find a comfortable position to lay in without having some part of my body hurt.  And on top of that, it felt like someone was stabbing my intestines with a knife every time I moved.   The doctor gave me a dextrose IV, then a sodium/potassium IV, along with three different antibiotics to treat any bacterial infection I may have.  He ruled out food poisoning since I had a fever and said it was most likely caused by some kind of bacterial bug.  I stayed overnight in the clinic with a sweet little nurse who tucked me in at night and kept tabs on my blood pressure, temperature, and pulse.  I slept through the night (surprisingly, seeing as I had already slept about 20 hours the previous day) and in the morning, the doctor came in with the test results.  He said that I had a bacterial infection since the bacteria counts in my stool were really high and gave me ciproflaxin to take to treat it.  So  after having about eight IVs at the clinic, I was discharged and we began our three hour drive to Lake Manyara to meet up with the others.  Well, I thought I was feeling better but that car ride was horrific.  There were a million speed bumps, I had just eaten breakfast, and my intestines were screaming at me.  Not pleasant.  But we made it and I opted not to go on the half day safari ride around the park to see the animals (no more car rides for me).  I curled up in a ball, feeling just as bad as before, and got to hang out in a little banda for the rest of the day.  I had diarrhea all day, which worried me since they had given me cipro to prevent that.  Plus, I did not feel like eating or drinking anything.  I thought that maybe once I got rehydrated, I might feel like eating again, but that was definitely not the case. I was way too nauseous to even talk about food.  I spent the rest of the afternoon in the banda feeling miserable, but managing to eat some plain noodles and watermelon.  I knew that if I didn’t feel better in the morning I would have to go in again, seeing as I had probably eaten only about 4 meals in three days.  But, the cipro finally kicked in and I’m feeling better today.  My stomach is not as bad, the fever is gone, and the diarrhea has stopped.  And this morning I ate two pieces of toast and pineapple!  So hopefully, this is the end of my sickness adventure.  It scares me to death being so sick here.  You never know where the nearest medical facility is or if they will even have the supplies to treat you.  But, luckily for me, I had wonderful help finding a clinic and getting to one.  Anyway, I’ll keep you posted.  Internet will be spotty from now on since we are travelling around the national parks and do not have access to wireless internet.  But, some people do have internet sticks, which I may borrow once and a while to post blogs.