Sick!

Well, I made it 200 days in Kenya without getting sick. Of course on my 201st day in Kenya, I got REALLY sick. I had been feeling a little light-headed on Thursday but Friday early morning I woke up with really sharp pains in my stomach. I then had stomach problems all day and had to leave work early because I wasn't feeling well. I had to cancel my usual Friday plans with the other MSID students and tried napping all afternoon. I finally admitted to myself that I was sick enough that I needed to seek help around 8:30pm. There are several hospitals in town - the district hospital (government run), Aga Khan Hospital (a private and very expensive hospital) and Marie Stopes (a private and affordable hospital). I chose Marie Stopes because several of the other students had gone there when they were sick.

I finally got to the hospital after 9pm. Kenyan hospitals are unique in that you have to pay before a doctor even sees you or you receive any treatment. I paid the 500 KSH ($6.25) for a doctor's consultation. Since it's a small hospital, they didn't have anyone working in the lab at night. They took a finger prick to test for malaria and injected me with a broad spectrum anti-biotic. The person doing the injections wasn't wearing latex gloves as she came towards me so I had to ask specifically for her to wear gloves. Her reaction was basically "oh yeah, the gloves."

I was still having stomach problems so the doctor said that she wanted to keep me overnight for observation and to rehydrate me with an IV. I couldn't get any other lab tests done until the morning anyways and they didn't want me to be far from the hospital when I was still feeling ill. I barely slept since I was hooked up to the IV and they checked in with me occasionally to see how I was doing.

Around 7am I was stable enough that they let me go home for a few hours before coming back for the test results. When I went back the doctor told me that I have malaria AND a bacterial infection. It's kind of frustrating since I take my malaria pills every day, I sleep under a mosquito net and I only drink boiled water. They prescribed a few different medicines and I'm feeling better now.