Malaria Positive

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Yesterday was a very stressful day.

Again I went to church in the morning, hoping for the first time that I would last the full service, and I lasted 40 minutes, but again during the sermon I had to leave, this time not to go to the toilet, but because I needed to drink. The temperature was in the high thirties yesterday, and it was very hot in the Church.

When I left I went to the restaurant and drank a soda and a bottle of water (500ml), before then needed to go to the loo. (I am really fed up with diarrhoea.) By this point I was feeling very rough and weak. At one point I wondered if I was going to be sick. Fortunately I wasn't, and breathing heavily I went downstairs and asked for some help.

I got someone to fetch the Doctor (the same one as I saw the day before) as well as some water. I was quite severely dehydrated, but I gradually drank the water and the Doctor came and did another malaria blood test. I was taken upstairs, walking with the help of someone, and lay down on a bed to recover, whilst the Doctor having checked me, went back to analyse the slide. I was quite seriously dehydrated, as I had actually stopped sweating in spite of the heat. I drank a 1.5l water bottle without really needing the loo.

When the Doctor returned, he said the malaria slide was positive, and brought me some antimalarial medication which I am now on. Before anyone worries, the maralia is quite mild though (which helps to explain the lack of other symptoms eg. fever). I think the malaria prolactics I was taking have made it much milder, even if they did not prevent it.

I have learnt that I need to be more careful to drink enough, even though I drank more than I would in Britain, it was not enough.

For the rest of the day I rested, doing a little more reading (for English teaching and The Observer - see http://www.ipp.co.tz)

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