Got Malaria?

During a soccer match, over a month ago now, a sudden feeling of discomfort and malaise began to overwhelm me. At first, I brushed it off as a result of the hot and congested room we were watching the game in. By the next day, however, when the massive headache, fever, chills, sweats, general pain, and dry coughs began, I started to think that I might have Malaria.  

Monday strolls along like a nanny with her rolling walker, and things aren’t getting better, they’re getting worse. I guess we could say the “fun” officially began when “Auntie” Margaret took me to the local clinic to get tested for Malaria. With the doctor MIA, the nurse takes over and calls the shots as to what to do next. After running blood tests I’m told that I not only have Malaria, I also have Typhoid. Now, seeing that I can’t find the Md the nurse tells me, “Malaria small small, take 1 Malarone and you be fine.” Before leaving, however, she says “White man! Take 2, not 1!” Now I’m thinking, “Great! She has no idea what she’s doing.” I go home, read the Malarone instructions, and learn that if you’re to treat Malaria with Malarone you must take 4 pills per day, not 2, not 1. To my luck, Katie (last year’s intern) just finished speaking with an expat Md she befriended and was told that it’s not recommended to treat Malaria with the same drug being used to prevent it. Ultimately, we decided to head to Makeni for better medical treatment but before we did, we also decided that downing 8 pills of ACT – a treatment recommended to me by our expat friend – was also a good idea. What a bad idea that was (we forgot to ask him about dosage). By the time we get to the hospital in Makeni my eyes were rolling in the back of my head, I couldn’t stop upchucking, was disoriented, and felt as though I was going to lose consciousness at any moment. The Md sees me, orders for blood work and decides to hospitalize me because I’m currently overdosing. Now, take it from me, never take meds in a third world country prior to speaking with an Md, even if the box recommends a certain dosage. Not only may the drugs be phonies, the recommended dosage may turn out to be suitable for a horse!

The next day I’m released and told to continue taking my ACT at half the dosage and that I don’t half Typhoid fever. I’m thinking, “Sweet!” The joy was short lived, however, because two days later Katie starts to show Malaria-like symptoms. Sure enough, lab tests reveal that Katie also has Malaria. After a few days, both Katie and I finish our ACT treatment but with no real results. Now we’re thinking, “S%$T! What do we do? After some deliberation we make the decision to head to the Choithram hospital in Freetown. Now I must say, throughout the first week I was pretty positive and light-hearted about the whole situation, insofar that I was cracking jokes and singing songs absolutely ridiculous songs. But by the time we got to Choithram hospital, got hospitalized a second time, got negative tests results back, and saw several Md’s with questions marks plastered on their faces my humorous disposition shifted to a more worried, “holy S&%T I’m toast,” outlook on life. The Md’s told me we had urinary tract infections, though we displayed no symptoms pointing to a UTI; we tested negative for Malaria, though we had every symptom pointing to severe Malaria. So, what do you do when you can’t pinpoint what’s wrong? Throw drugs at the poor saps until the body responds. And that’s exactly what they did. For the first three days we weren’t getting better, but by day four and after many shots in the butt, 4 I.V. lines (they kept ripping out of me at night), countless drugs, and sleepless nights, our malarial symptoms begin to subside and we finally got some respite. This is also when I found out that the drug they were treating the UTI with was being resisted and that I now had to start a new series of injections. Fun!

The next day (Friday) we are released from the hospital and head to a local guesthouse. I’m fairly sceptical about being released because not only am I nauseous, I’m also extremely weak and want to vomit on everything under the sun. Now, I’m at a loss; walking is challenging, I’m disoriented, exhausted, and recently learned that my kidneys could be affected, but that local Md’s wouldn’t be able to confirm this. Now, I don’t know a lot about human anatomy or physiology, but apparently the kidneys are vital a component of the human body. After deliberation with the family, Katie, and Bev in Canmore we all decide that Katie and I should see a western tropical medicine specialists and that coming back to Canada for a full recovery is likely the best, and safest, option. Oh, remember that new drug regimen they started to treat my UTI with? Well, turns out that that drug doesn’t rid you of the particular bacterium I had… couldn’t help but chuckle at that one.

Anyway, it absolutely blows my mind that one tiny POS mosquito can level you for so long. Apparently, the odds of contracting Malaria while on Malarone are about 5%; the odds of contracting a drug resistant strain of Malaria are even lower; and the odds of Katie and I both getting a drug resistant strain of Malaria at the same time is probably less than 1%. So, for the first time, and hopefully the last, we were part of this crummy little group, the 1%.

Ps: I’m all better now and returning to Salone in two days! 

Ps2: We got Malaria on World Malaria day. lol... No joke.