Matthew Henneson, Age: 27.The stream of consciousness begins…
I’m sitting having a conversation with the manager of the credit department of ProCredit, a meeting which I have been looking forward to (permissible use of preposition at end of clause, right Mom?) and I am struggling to concentrate. The issue is, I’m not sure why, my head feels fine, not nauseous, but something’s off. I end the meeting on a decent note with Mario and he tells me to keep him informed on my research and to let him know if there is anything he can clarify, etc.etc. I feel pretty light headed, but again not too bad and try to take down some water, but it’s as if my body doesn't want it. Weird. A miserable hour trotro ride later I’m back at the hostel and struggle up the stairs to my room. I don't have malaria though, I mean I’ve gotten honestly no more than 9 mosquito bites since I’ve been here and they have all come when I haven’t noticed. I sleep under mosquito netting, I take my antimalarial meds on time, and I use bug spray. This comforts me. I’m thinking it was probably the Waadkye (pronounced wa-jee consisting of the beans, rice, veggy, spice combination described in a previous entry). I decide to try and walk it on out, but am growing weaker by the minute and the manger of the hostel, probably noticing my odd behavior asks if I’m alright. I say, uhh, not really and describe the weakness, muscle soreness and the overriding feeling that my body is beginning to ossify. Each movement has some form of struggle and he says, ok, I’m taking you to the hospital. ‘Ok, thanks, but I can just grab a’… ‘no’ We are going now to the hospital, if its malaria, you should be treated right away. He brings me to the “Accident and Emergency center” wherein I experience the nadir of the entire process. At this point, I feel like someone else is behind the wheel of my body. The people waiting are, obviously, feeling some sort of misery as well waiting to be treated, and the waiting room is a square shaped open-air hot bed that seats 20 people. It’s my first time in an African hospital and as such the scene, coupled with the disease makes for quite the foreboding experience. There are people lying in stretchers in the hall and there is one room where they could fit 10 patients. The manager of the hostel waits with me an hour and a half until a doctor performs an evaluation, but before I enter I can’t help but notice that the two doctors strolling around the place look like their doctor robes were made for the Incredible Hulk. I mean they were dragging all over the place and drooping down their arms, and all I can think about when one of the doctors is walking towards me is that he’s a long beard, wand, and a Michael Jackson’s disease shy of introducing himself as Albus Dumbledore. Ok, which is fine, because at this point, I’m willing to take any potion that will help the cause. The doctor takes my temperature, 104, takes a look…”yep, you probably have malaria.” Then it’s off to get my blood sampled and in to a hospital ward to get the treatment. Although the fever made me feel terrible, receiving treatment by these people was comforting knowing they’d done it a zillion times. They stick an IV in me (by the way, I got three shots and everytime I flinched all the nurses start whispering “sorry sorry sorry sorry” as rapidly as possible, which is kind of funny as I try to mutter “don't worry!” to every one of their sorry’s) and then comes the comic relief moment that can be summed up…
Emergency Trip to the hospital: 50,000 cedis ($6)
Injections, Blood Test, antimalaria pills and IV: 420,000 cedis ($45)
Lying in a hospital bed with a 104 fever and seeing the look on the young nurse assistant’s face when she’s told by the IV injecting nurse to take off my pants to administer the injection: mmmmmm priceless.
Off come my pants, in goes another injection and now all I need is rest + time. Maybe it’s just me, but when I get a high fever like this, I don’t get delirious, but my thoughts get kind of wild and I think about what is actually happening inside my body. For some reason my mind wandered to those “The Magic School Bus” books and specifically to the one where the Bus goes inside someone’s body and they cruise around the red blood cells. I think about those doughnut-shaped red blood cells and now I imagine these malaria dudes pretending the blood cells are basketball hoops and slamming malaria nuggets down them and turning them black. Another surreal, but real nonetheless, moment came when I came to dispose of my first IV bag and was sitting at the nurses desk, feeling not to swell and waiting for the nurse when I turn to the TV. And guess who’s on TV?…Oprah. And I mean why not, she always makes you feel good, right? Well tonight she’s reporting for the first time in US history, 51% of women (I assume eligible ones) are single instead of married. Great, thanks Oprah. Isn’t her show supposed to be something along the lines of How to Save the World: For Dummies?
Anyhow I had two roommates who were great and when their families came to visit them, they always checked to see how I was doing. I spent the night, my fever went down, and I was out the next morning.
Today is Monday and am feeling much better and plan on taking my trip still up to the Volta Region making sure to take it as easy as possible.
Malaria. I am a relatively healthy 21 year-old who received proper treatment and care within four hours of my first symptoms. The illness escalated like nothing I have ever experienced and brought me the highest fever I believe I’ve ever had. Now that it is mostly over and I can stop thinking about my own health, I can only imagine what it must be like for a 2 year old malnourished child with no hospital, inadequate shelter, worm-infested water and no medicine. About 3,000 people die from this disease…a day. Over a million a year, consisting mostly of these poor children, who, upon acquiring disease, have little chances of surviving it. So here is my shoutout to http://nothingbutnets.net. It’s a great way of getting bed nets to those in need. Even one of my favorite sports columnists, Rick Reilly, recently took a trip to
I’m glad its over and I hope there are many more great experiences to come in the week I have left in
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