Take your Doxy

You can’t really understand Africa until you sink to the bottom of one of their biggest problems; Malaria. It was bound to happen eventually. Nearly half the world’s population is at risk of getting malaria, though prevention and treatment research has drastically decreased the mortality rate. But there is a reason why it is the #1 worst disease in the world. Maybe the amount of actual deaths has gone down, but it sure makes you feel like dying when you have it. I received treatment quickly, but for the 4 days that I was infected, death would have been a merciful option. Here is how it played out.

Day 1- Friday

I went out that morning to town to buy a few things and to make repairs on my motorcycle. I felt exhausted and weak but I attributed that to the scorching hot sun and lack of fluid intake. I also figured the lack of a real workout and the massive amount of food that the Johnsons have been giving me probably wasn’t helping either. I had some more plans to do in town but I was feeling so weak that by the time I got to the moto repairer, I just sat and waited. I sat in the corner in the shade on an old piece of engine and tried to escape the sun. There was a point where the sun arched higher in the sky and my foot was exposed. I cant and even explain the scorching sensation from just being in contact with the sunlight. I jerked my foot away and cowered in the corner. It was then I felt like there must be a real problem. I have been in Africa long enough that the sun shouldn’t bother me this month. Then I felt the joint pain, headache and extreme over heating. I sped home in time to crash on my bed and pass out. I slept for a few hours, waking up every so often in pain. Even though the sun had gone down, I began to feel burning hot. I stripped out of my uncomfortable clothes and turned the fan to full blast. I lay there briefly comforted and fell back asleep. Then the real suffering came. I began to feel like I stepped outside during the 2011 Snowpacalypse in nothing but a loin cloth. I couldn’t believe how cold it was. I struggled to turn off the fan and put on every article of clothing I could reach and lay on the bed shivering, not just normal shivering but near to grand mal seizure convulsions. I don’t know how long I lay there shaking but it felt like forever. I got up but my hands were shaking so violently that I couldn’t even open a pill bottle of some medicine. It was really quite frightening. I prayed to sleep and eventually sleep came until Sister Johnson awakened me. Next thing I knew I was in a car to a small clinic where they measured my temperature at 104 degrees. They gave me drugs and I was home again in my bed, afraid to sleep in fear of the shaking to come again.

Day 2- Saturday

I was fully awake somewhere around 7:00 am and had waves of consciousness the whole day. Because of the shivering episode of the night before, I was afraid to turn on the fan so I lay there in bed melting all day. Couldn’t keep food down , fever still as high as the sky, and a pounding headache. The night before, when listing off the symptoms of Malaria and I was nodding to each of them nervously, I was relived that when they mentioned “bitter taste in the mouth” and I could say no. But day 2 it hit. Its hard to explain, but the taste in the mouth was up there on the worst part of having Malaria list.

Day 3- Sunday

Another night of quaking shivering, but I was comforted that I was able to sleep in and feel somewhat rested. Still, I felt like a sinner for missing church. For the whole day, I still sweated, couldn’t eat and huge headache but today there was also debilitating stomach pain to add to the lot. Every time I moved, it was like a knife was slid into my abdomen. Nothing would subdue it. Laying there praying was the only way to let time go by.

Day 4- Monday

After three straight days in bed, I had to get out. I don’t know whether I was 100% quite yet, but I had to get out of there. I have been loving life in Ghana but honestly one of the biggest things I have been missing is actually rock climbing. I would have these lucid dreams of climbing and than wake up to realize it was only a dream. Probably because of that whole situation is the reason that a rock climbing gym membership was the only thing I asked for a present for Christmas. I went for a walk, just to get out, trying to ignore the knife in the gut. Then for the first night in what seemed like forever, I slept without all hell freezing over.

So moral of the story is, there is a reason why Malaria is the #1 worst disease in the world. I hated having it, but after the fact, I look back and am glad that I now have better insight into the people and culture of Africa. I now have more resolve to find innovative solutions to solve problems in this world.