After my busy week in Dodoma I returned to my office at NIT on Monday morning with the very mundane task of writing a report of observations and findings from my fantastic trip. I started the day on Monday feeling very happy that the extent of my underwater hockey injuries was only few minor bruises. Unfortunately Monday was a particularly bad day for electricity which led me to spend a lot of time writing notes with pen and paper in a very warm office. When I returned home on Monday evening I started to experience a sore throat, luckily I managed to dig out the Strepsils that I'd brought with me from the UK. My sore throat developed a lot faster than I would usually have expected, but having had a busy week and playing underwater hockey I just assumed I was a bit run down. After restless night with a sore throat and a fever I headed to the office with the usual symptoms of a cold; sore throat, headache and runny nose. I was astounded as ever at my ability to catch a cold in warm weather while eating a diet containing a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables – but unfortunately this is not uncommon for me, my body likes to rebel against normal! When I met one of my colleagues on Tuesday morning I mentioned my symptoms. His automatic reply was "I will take you to the hospital" – he was not convinced with my responsive giggling and insistance I just had a cold. I was adamant that with rest and plenty of fluids I would be back to normal in a few days. Later that morning I met with the Transaid coordinator who had an identical reaction to my news of developing a cold. Again I insisted I did not need to go the hospital – I really don’t like to waste doctors time when I can recover fully on my own. After this second insistance to not only see a doctor but to go to a hospital, I decided to check with my Neil, who is currently in the UK, that I was doing the right thing. I was advised that I was probably right and it was just a cold but it might be worthwhile to go to the doctor on campus and ask for a malaria test, as all it requires is a drop of blood and a 30 minute wait. Later that afternoon, after I had made some progress with my report on Dodoma, I went to find the Transaid coordinator, with the main purpose to get some information for my report, but secondly to accompany me to the doctor for a malaria test. The doctor straight away gave me a piece of paper with instructions for the lab to run the test along with a sterile, small needle. I went straight to the lab and the nurse immediately cleaned my finger, pricked it for a drop of blood that she put onto a slide and then told me to come back in 30 minutes. I was very unconcerned and went with the Transaid coordinator a cold bottle of water at the student café while we waited for the results. After half an hour we returned to the lab and to my relief the nurse gave a piece of paper to the Transaid coordinator while talking in Swahili and laughing. I was then told, in English, that we were going back to the doctor because I had malaria. I was sure the Transaid coordinator was lying to me. After all I didn’t feel any worse than having a cold and had been taking my anti-malaria tablets daily since two days before I arrived in Tanzania. When we returned to the doctor he was shocked that this was the first time I had contracted malaria, it is accepted as something that you get from time to time in your life here. I asked the Transaid coordinator how many times he had had it and he was unable to give a figure – just "quite a lot". The doctor and Transaid coordinator found my insistance that the result wasn’t right and I just had a cold absolutely hilarious. I was given a prescription from the doctor and went to see the nurse in his office who gave me a small plastic bag containing paracetamols, which I was told to take two, three times a day. I was instructed to go off-campus to a pharmacy to get the required malaria medication. I went immediately with the Transaid coordinator to the pharmacy to buy the tablets, still shocked that I had malaria – perhaps telling my parents and brother that I had malaria at this time over Whatsapp wasn’t the best way to break the news! They took it fairly well though – my brother seemed to become a malaria expert within the following hour! At the pharmacy I was given a packet of medication containing six tablets and advised to take two tablets once a day – in the evening after a meal. Still feeling like I just had a cold along with the fact that my throat had completely stopped hurting, I was very confused about the diagnosis – I always believed that if I got malaria I would know about it. I was advised that it was possible I could get worse over night and in that case I would need to go to the hospital, so when I returned home I prepared all my travel insurance documents, emergency phone numbers, passport and some money in case anything happened. I then proceeded to do the thing that I try not to do usually, and I read the pamphlet included with the medication – I instantly decided (due to being a bit of a hypochondriac) that I was going to develop all the common side effects (that occur in 10% of people – that seems high to me!). The side effects definitely sounded worse than how I was currently feeling! It was at this point that I realised that I had actually eaten very little all day, so I forced myself to eat a substantial meal and take the tablets and wait for my overactive imagination to kick in and develop all the side effects. Luckily that night apart from an on and off very hot fever and insomnia I didn’t develop any of the other nasty side effects and my existing cold symptoms did not get any worse. On Wednesday morning when my alarm went off I felt like I had only just managed to go to sleep (and I don’t think that was too far from the truth) – I sent the Transaid coordinator a message to say I would come to the office later after a few more hours sleep with the reassurance that other than being tired I was fine. Unfortunately people did not seem to want to let me sleep, after two phone calls I decided to shower and go do some work, with a promise to myself that I would leave as early as possible to return to my bed! I spent all morning in the office on Wednesday completing my report on the Dodoma trip, by early afternoon my rollercoaster of a fever was too distracting and I returned home. In general I was not feeling too bad still; the fever seemed to occur in waves which were accompanied with a feeling of nausea and dizziness. Even though the time I had spent asleep over the past two nights would probably not account for one full night’s sleep for any normal person I could not seem to sleep. I was overwhelmed with all the concern and support from everyone at Transaid, XPO Logistics, my friends and family – I think assuring everyone in the UK that I wasn’t too bad helped to not dwell on the negative side effects. On Thursday morning I sadly experienced one of the side effects of the malaria medication. While sitting in my office doing some work, out of the blue I experienced a tight chest and an overwhelming feeling of panic. I called the Transaid coordinator straight away who rushed to my assistance, by the time he arrived in my office I was starting to feel better, however I had lost sensation in my fingers. I went straight to the doctor on campus, who checked my blood pressure and reassured me that everything seemed normal now. As a precaution he made arrangements to go to hospital with me to get checked out completely and I was grateful for the reassurance that the breathing problems I had experienced would not happen again – it was truly terrifying. I spent the full day at hospital, I now have a patient record, and I am in posession of a hospital ID card that I was advised I should carry with me on any future visits so my records can be located promptly. I had my blood pressure and oxygen stats checked and saw a doctor, who wanted to check for any infections but felt confident that I had just experienced a side effect from the malaria medication. The hospital was very well organised and I immediately had blood tests, and the results only took 45 minutes. I sat and watched Harry Potter in the waiting room while waiting for my results – I then returned to see a doctor to discuss them. Reassuringly, all results were within the normal ranges and the doctor insisted I had just had a bad reaction to the medication, but I should still take the remaining dose. I was prescribed some antihistamine medication and some cough syrup to address my main symptoms in the meantime. The rest of the week I continued to slowly make improvements, by Sunday I felt confident that the fevers had finally finished – hopefully I will be back to full health this week. |