Malaria strikes again!

Just a week before we left the village recently, I got sick with malaria. I wanted to go and cut open coconuts on the day that I came down with it, so I was naughty and tried to hide the fact that I wasn’t well, but it seems that most of my village family could tell and knew before I said anything!

I started treatment on the first day, but it was a really strong bout of malaria this time, and I continued to feel ill on and off for about a week, although not as bad as the first day.

This is me lying on my makeshift bed in our eating house on the third day. I woke up feeling quite bad – weak and dry-retching, but I was feeling a bit better by the time this photo was taken.

Back on the first day of the malaria, I was really ill. Previously when I’ve had malaria, it’s gradually gotten worse, but this time it started really strong. I was weak, although I was also thrashing about a lot, and at night I vomited twice. I had a high temperature during the day and my village family put cool wet towels on me to cool me down. They were very concerned about me, and it was nice to see their care, although I’m sorry to have caused them that stress too!

Even a week later, I was still having moments of weakness and dry-retching when I didn’t feel too good. The last day of feeling ill was the Thursday, and I travelled to Australia on the Friday and didn’t have any of the ill feeling that day, so that was good. I’ve been fine since then, so I’m all better now.

Bush dancing

On Saturday night there was an Australian Bush Dance on and I went to it. I enjoy dancing and had lots of fun. I danced nearly every dance and this was 2 days after I started malaria treatment. The tablets work well! I was sick with malaria mid-week, and up and dancing on the weekend! I feel so well now that it's hard to believe that I even had malaria last week. I know I didn't imagine it though, because I had a positive blood test.

Not so bad

Last night after I wrote I went to bed. I felt hot and still had a temperature, but it didn't get too bad. This cycle wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I don't think I'll have another cycle now that I've started the treatment, but I might be feeling a bit weak and tired for a few days.

Rather cold

I have been having chills for the past 2.5 hours and I think they only just stopped, but they hadn't when I started writing this. I have also had aches and still have them, but I think the chills may have just finished. My temperature has been around 38 tonight, so it's not too bad.

Still okay

Just a little update to say that I am still feeling okay. I am feeling a bit weak and tired though, that's all. Maybe the treatment has stopped the cycles already, or maybe I go through another cycle in a few hours. Just have to wait and see.

Positive blood test

I went to the clinic this morning and got a blood test done, and they rang me a little bit later with the result. It was positive!! Yay! Yes, it is good to have a positive blood test because I knew I had malaria and I just needed the doctors to agree with me, so that I could start the treatment.

The test was taken when I was not experiencing symptoms so malaria is less likely to show up, but it did thankfully. The doctor said that I had a lot of malaria in my blood. If there was a lot there when I was feeling good, then I imagine that there would be more when I am in a cycle.

I have taken the first treatment dose, but I am expecting another cycle tonight, and a pretty nasty one at that. What I had last night was not nice and I think tonight will be worse. If I have a lot of malaria, I think the first dose is not going to stop the malaria tonight.

I am loving being between cycles just now and feeling fine. That's great. It's nice to get a break from being sick. I think in that way malaria is better than the flu. You just have to wait for the flu to get better, but malaria gives you a break AND you can take medicine to get better.

Between cycles

If it is malaria, and I'm still pretty sure it is, I am in between cycles just now. I feel as good as normal. I'm going out in a minute to the seminar and after that I will go to the clinic for the blood test. Really hope it comes back positive so that I can start treatment.

Possible malaria

I am pretty sure that I have malaria again. Having had it once, I know what it feels like now, so I am confident that I have it. As I type I am not feeling too good. I have pain throughout my body. It is not agony though, just very uncomfortable.

I plan to go to the clinic tomorrow and get a blood test done for it. Then it can be treated and hopefully I will be feeling great in no time. I need to get better quickly because I am going to the village in two weeks.

Just took my temperature and it is 38.2, so just a mild fever, although my normal body temperature is around 36.0, lower than the average 37.0, so I am up by 2.2 degrees. (First attempt at taking my temp, I had the wrong end of the thermometer in my mouth! Crazy!)

Anyway, don't worry, I will just go through the routine. I hope that the blood test shows positive for malaria so that I can start the treatment. Sometimes it doesn't always get picked up on the first blood test. I also hope that after I go through this cycle, I won't have another cycle tomorrow, as it will probably be worse and this one wasn't that great.

I hope that I feel good when I wake up tomorrow because I want to go to a seminar that is on tomorrow about language stuff.

My malaria story continues

Well, I thought that was the end of the malaria when I typed that last blog post (if you haven’t read it yet, read it before this one) and that I was going to be fine after that. I was wrong! At about 6pm on Thursday I had a fever, I felt freezing, even after I ate my soup for dinner and I was wearing a jacket. I contacted a family who are from one of my sending churches, and they took me over to their house to look after me.

My chills went away and then I had a hot fever. At one stage my temperature was 39.5. This fever was worse than any of the previous ones and I was even taking short, rapid breaths. It was pretty awful. We had The Sound of Music on as per my request, but I was really suffering quite a bit with this fever. Eventually it eased off and I went to bed and slept well.

On Friday I felt better, but really weak. I watched a movie in the morning, then I crashed on my bed for a little while, but I didn’t sleep and I felt nauseous when I was lying down. I spent most of the day resting as I felt weak and not up to much. However at night we were having a party at the Guest House, so I had to go there to open it up. I stayed there for a little while, but I just felt too weak and tired, ready for bed, so I rang the family to come and pick me up, and I gave someone a key to lock up. I stayed with them again just in case I had another cycle of fevers, but fortunately I didn’t get a fever, so it seems that the tablets are starting to work and the malaria cycle has broken. Anyway, I went to bed and I got a migraine, but it wasn’t too bad, I didn’t end up vomiting with it. When I got to sleep, I slept well.

Now today, Saturday, I am still feeling very weak and tired and sometimes emotional too. I am not really up to walking around anywhere or doing much. I am just feeling really weak physically. I am okay when I am sitting or lying down though. I’m planning on taking my laptop to my room soon and watching The Sound of Music again. At least this time I’ll be able to enjoy it a bit more!

My malaria story

Today I was diagnosed with malaria, the vivax type. I have not been feeling well since Sunday. I am feeling well just now though.

Here is my day by day malaria story starting from Sunday. This is a long story. I try to keep my blog posts short because I know that people are busy, so I am sorry that this is so long. I hope it’s interesting!

Sunday – I felt a bit achy and took an ibuprofen tablet and felt fine after that.

Monday – I felt a bit achy when I got up and tried to be brave and put up with it. At lunchtime I was fed up with it and took another ibuprofen tablet and felt better. At dinner time I felt achy again, so I took another ibuprofen, but it didn’t seem to help this time. I also took a Panadol later.

Overnight Monday to Tuesday –
I went to bed early, about 9.30pm and fell asleep pretty quicky only to wake up at 1am, feeling achy and feverish. I think I was half awake between 1am and 3am, as I felt that I couldn’t get back to sleep and I was having strange thoughts/dreams, but I wasn’t sleeping. I know, that doesn’t make sense to me either! Well at 3am I was fed up with not being able to sleep so I got up and took a Phenergan tablet to help me sleep and went back to bed. After 20 minutes I still couldn’t sleep and my tummy felt acidic, so I thought it would be good to eat something. I put some toast on and while I was waiting for it to cook, I had some dry retching. I ate my toast and took a Panadiene Forte to help me sleep and I fell asleep soon after.

Tuesday – Well I slept until almost 2 o’clock!! I didn’t feel too good, but I went out and about doing some chores anyway. I started to feel better by about 4pm and felt well for the rest of the evening. I went to bed at about midnight and wondered how I would sleep considering I had such a long sleep the night before and only been up for 10 hours!

Wednesday – I managed to fall asleep fine and I slept right through to 10am, so my body must have really been needing a rest! I still felt well in the morning and I even said to someone, “I’ve been sick this week, but I am getting over it now.” Maybe I spoke too soon. At lunchtime my fever came back and I was achy again. I had a constant fever from lunchtime till about 8pm. The highest temperature I had was 38.7 on Wednesday night. At other times my temperature had been 38 and 38.5. I was feeling a bit better by bedtime, but not too great still.

Thursday – This morning I woke up feeling good, just a bit weak. I had an appointment with the doctor at 9:45am (for something else) and I told him about how I had been feeling. He decided to take a blood sample to check for malaria. They just pricked my finger in the same way as diabetics test their insulin levels. The doctor said he’d call me with the results in about an hour.

The phone rang and the doctor said “You’ve got malaria”. I responded with “Oh, do I? I feel fine.” He said, “I’m going to bring you some tablets so that you will keep feeling fine.”

He came with the tablets in a little while. I have to take Artesunate for a week and then Doxycycline for a week. He said that I should take a preventative after that as it can recur, so I will go and see him again in a couple of weeks to talk about my options.

My symptoms were very much flu like, and the symptoms of malaria are often similar to the flu. Malaria goes in cycles and you can feel better in between cycles, so that explains the occasions when I felt better.

We don't know if I contracted the malaria from my time in Madang and it was just suppressed until now (because I took tablets for 4 weeks after leaving Madang) or whether I contracted it here in Ukarumpa.

I am feeling well now and will continue to feel better now that I am taking treatment. I have to say that it wasn’t too bad an experience. Of course it’s not pleasant having a fever and aches, but I have felt worse with other things.