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So I heard that everyone who leaves their country gets sick... It makes sense, but since I had never been out of the country I had no idea it would be like this...
Last Saturday night I was not feeling too well, which I took as my body getting used to the food, the atmosphere etc. Sunday morning I woke up sick to my stomach. No big, that is also a part of new foods. Then I checked my temperature. 99.7. I checked it shortly later and it had gone up to 100.5. Lindsey said "We are going to the hospital just to be safe." There was not a doctor at the first hospital so we went to the next one. The doctor asked me some questions then handed me some prescriptions and went on talking to our sister in Ewe. When Lindsey asked the pharmacist what the pills were for, he replied "this one is to make her stronger and this one is to give her energy and the other ones are for malaria." What? Lindsey went back and talked to the doctor and she said that my symptoms commonly meant malaria. By this time, we have been there for hours and I am just laying on a waiting bench, feeling horrible. We go home, take a round of meds, and I go to sleep. Later, my temperature is still over 100. After a cold bath my temperature had only gone up. It wasn't until I threw up that they decided I should go back to the hospital for the night. I got an iv that leaked (but they insisted that they did not want to re-stick me) and two shots in the bum. They kept telling me that I would have a malaria blood test in the morning. The doctor simply looked at me the next morning, wrote some stuff down and left. I had to ask for a blood test. The hospital was pretty sketch... and the man at the lab was just as sketch. Blood was drawn, the bad iv was moved to my other arm and I slept most of the day. The nurse told me I had malaria. Mom had been on and off the phone with western doctors and she told us that we needed to go to the capital to another hospital. Agreed. The next morning the nurses and doctor were ill with us for wanting to leave. I finally convinced them to remove my iv because I was not going to take anymore medicine and because it hurt. My arm was swollen at least an inch in diameter and it hurt. Great. There was once nice nurse who brought me an ice pack though. The doctor FINALLY came in to release me. He actually talked to me this time and I was tired, still doped up, and I just told him that I wanted to leave. So the doctor tells me about my malaria and then he says "oh and the blood test also said she had typhoid." WHAT?! Lindsey snapped at him and asked why we had not heard about it before. He informed us that the blood tests were not completely accurate.
We finally got out of this hospital and took a car to Accra, which was roughly three hours away. Luckily my fever was gone, but at this point Lindsey had a low fever. So we were both going to check in to the hospital and get some blood work done. The first hospital we went was closed because it was a national holiday. After a few phone calls we made it to another hospital. Directly after our consultation and check in, they did our lab work. And they were very professional about it. We stayed in a four bed room but we were on one side by ourselves. Since I was still on an iv (may i mention, a good iv that did not even leave me bruised) Lindsey would go ask where she could buy water and the wonderful nurses would send someone for us. The hospital had hot running water! We still had to bucket shower but that was fine. Oh and there were flushing toilets! They are common throughout Ghana but we are in a more rural area without them... Anywho, our blood work came back clean of malaria and typhoid. We actually both had also developed a pretty rough cough...which leads me to our diagnosis of a chest infection. We stayed in the hospital until Saturday morning. The doctors and nurses were great. They actually talked to us and were gentle with my swollen arm and my iv. We slept alot because there was nothing else to do. There was a tv in the lobby but my iv was a pain to take anywhere. It never wanted to roll correctly. So now we are still coughing a bit but it is getting better. We went back to school today. I have just been tired all day. We actually grabbed a taxi back from school instead of walking because of that.
Our family has a television in the "living room". They have dvds with like fifteen movies or so on them! So yesterday, me and Lindsey slept in late and watched movies for most of the day. We watched Juno first thing in the morning! It made my day 😊 We walked to the beach yesterday which was lot further than I thought. But it was worth it. No one swims here because the riptide is so horrible and the waves are huge! It is gorgeous though.
I don't know if I mentioned it before but most of the water we drink is out of plastic bags. It is purified and packaged in 500 ml bags and then sold in a large bag with maybe twenty or so. One of the men in the internet cafe just gave us some so I thought I would mention it.
I also wanted to say that everyone loves Bob Marley and we hear him all the time , in taxis, on the street, in our room (there is a really annoying store that constantly plays music and announcements right across the street from our window). One Love. I am happy that Ghana loves Marley as much as we do. There was actually a Rastafarian hut/store on the beach and I almost bought a Marley bandanna but the seller was not around. Oh! I saw a monkey for the first time in my life! Sad thing was that it was tied up on a leash behind the Rasta hut. It looked pretty mad too so we decided not to get close enough for pictures.
Well, I am running short on time. Actually I think the internet is down so I hope this goes through because I will not want to retype it... Thanks for the comments and messages. We love hearing from you all =D
---Emily
....Lindsey promised to write the next few so keep an eye out!
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Jaylynne
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ahh!
never scare me like that again! but i'm so glad you guys are ok..i miss you lots!