Just a brief blog today. I am thankful to report that I was released on Saturday after eight days in the hospital. I was admitted on July 27 with malaria and a fever of 104 F (40C) and then developed pneumonia while there. Once they cleared those two up, I had a fever that remained at around 103 F and migraines that continued for the entire stay. They conducted many, many more tests and found that I had another parasite happily multiplying in my body, as well as another bacterial infection. In the end, I had five diagnoses given: three primary and two secondary. The three primary infections seemed to have all come from my last trip to Nigeria. I had wonderful care and am thankful for the doctors (my primary doctor on the floor was Nigerian, which was a God-send!) and nurses who diligently cared for me, not to mention my husband, children, and family.
This is the second time I had malaria in about four months, in a year that has had a number of illnesses. While I can talk about finitude and rest and while I can talk about protocols for prevention of malaria and infections related to food/water-borne diseases, my children and loved ones have let me know in no uncertain terms that there seems to be a systems issue here: my body is reacting to the stress in my life and my immune system is not behaving as well as it should. So I need to take this under further consideration.
In the meantime, as fever raged in my body over those days, I reminded of how many of our brothers and sisters in many countries do not have access to the health care that I was blessed to have. While this was a very expensive malaria for me in the end, it resulted in a number of findings that will allow me to be healthier moving forward.
I will continue treatment over the next couple of weeks but should be able to steadily return to work. Thank you for your prayers.
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