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Published: November 24th 2009
thank you so much to everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers. this last week has be crazy, scary. but most importantly, i am out of the hospital and getting better.
it's so hard to know where to begin. it's such a long story and so much emotion goes along with it that it's kind of hard to collect all my thoughts right now. so i will give you the shortened version, leaving out the gory details. this is a conversation i think i should wait to have until i return home. =)
lets see...last wednesday night/thurs morn i woke up around 3 am with horrible stomach problems. from then until thursday night i did not get any better. i was finally convinced to be taken to the hospital, which i thought would be a quick trip to just get some medicine. as soon as i get there, though, everything just gets much worse and i develop worse symptoms. (so i definitely went at the perfect time) i'm, of course, just so scared, getting hooked up to an IV (which i've never had before), in a hospital, in the middle of AFRICA. i've never even been admitted to a hospital at home. i hardly ever even get the common cold. thank God, Sidney, one of the other IU students came with me. she was with me the whole time. i owe her a lot. nate just happened to call as soon as i got there. after several times of ignoring, i finally tell sid to answer and give him a vague description of what is going on. =) sorry babe.
finally, in the middle of the night thursday, i wake up and am feeling much better, as i am half-way through my first malaria iv treatment. i can finally call nate and my parents back to let them know what is going on and that i'm okay.
thursday and friday consist of going back and forth between malaria treatments and just a glucose iv. whenever i was on the malaria iv's, i felt pretty good and could actually stand on my own. but when i wasn't it was a different story. saturday morning, i had finished all of the malaria iv's and was on to the oral medication. i noticed when i woke up that my body was better, but still very weak and a little nauseous. slowly but surely, though, i was getting better. sunday, i felt like a new person and the only problem was weakness. yesterday, the doctor visited me one last time and said i was good to go. =)
the hospital was actually quite nice. it was one story buildings, with what i would describe as lots of courtyards. most of the patients were in wards where there were just tons of cots lined up. i was in a private wing, where people actually got there own nice room. it was hard not to feel guilty. tons of people who were much more sick than i was, and there i was in my own room, in a comfortable bed, with my own nurse and cook. i guess this wing is only 1 year old and the nurses told me there are 15 rooms. however, the most they have ever filled is 7 because it is just too expensive for people to afford.
my nurses and doctor were just wonderful. Sid and i got to know them quite well. i will never forget them. sidney actually ended up getting sick while we were there, too, due to her allergies. luckily we were in a hospital and they were able to give her lots of medicine. hehe...
oh yeah...there was this baby girl that was 5 months old, whose mother left her there when she was born. the hospital has taken her in for now and all the nurses are like her mother. =) saturday, one of the nurses just brought her into our room, set her on my bed, and then left. i was like, huh? at first she was a little scared (as are all babies here of us) but she eventually warmed up and was so much fun. she was crawling all over me, kept trying to take my glasses off, and rip the pages out of my book. she was definitely a fun distraction to pass the time.
today, i went back to the school for a couple hours this morning. for some reason, grades 1 and 2 were together in the same room. all the teachers were having some sort of meeting, so all of the kids were on their own in the rooms (which is not unusual at all... sometimes students are left in their rooms for hours at a time, with no supervision, and it's like no bid deal. crazy.) anyway, i decided to take advantage and play bingo with the kids, which i brought with me from home. i divided up everyone in partners or groups of 3, as i only had 35 bingo cards, and there were like 80 kids in the room. chaos? yes. i finally was able to explain the rules and most of them understood the gist of the game. it actually ended up going really well and the kids loved it. i gave dumdum suckers to the winners. (thanks mom) =) after that, i went behind the school and all of the kids were practicing their songs and dances for graduation tomorrow. i can't believe tomorrow is my last day there! but i am really excited to watch the graduation. i guess it's like a really big deal and they perform tons of songs and dances. =) after just a couple hours at the school this morning though, my body reminded me that i had just been in the hospital for 4 days and i had to go back to my hut and lay down for a while. after going back to the farm from town, i totally plan on taking another nap as well. =)
again, i feel very blessed for everyone's thoughts and prayers over the last several days. although i felt very alone, i also could feel the support from family and friends described to me by nate, mom and dad. i love you all so much and i hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! EAT SOME YUMMY FOOD FOR ME!!
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Nate
non-member comment
ya, real cool
So let's not do that again. I am glad you are feeling better and hope you enjoy the rest of your stay, although I'll be worrying twice as much from here on out. Love ya.