I have been feeling ill for about two weeks now, going on three weeks. Now obviously medical care is different here in Lesotho. They just do not have the capacity like we are accustomed to in the United States. So first off it took me two days to get ahold of the PCMO here at the office. I called and was told she was with another patient and would get back to me. I was like ok this is fine. It was not like I was in danger and needed to see her right away. If that had been the case I would have already headed down to Maseru to see her. On Friday morning I called again. I also sent an email with my symptoms as sometimes my phone randomly loses service in my village and calling is not always an option. It usually comes back after a few minutes though so it’s not that bad. So lately I have been feeling extremely exhausted and getting hot flashes. It feels like my body is overheating and it won’t cool down. Now it is summer here so it is getting hotter. I normally have a nice breeze since I am up in the mountains, so I didn’t think it was the heat. In fact it is very similar to California weather in summer. So first thought was diabetes, I am happy to say that that was not it and I cleared of that. But I did have to go through multiple pokes to my fingers testing my blood sugar, it doesn’t really hurt, it is just very annoying. I cannot imagine having to do that multiple times a day, every day. So my next thought was that it could be from ticks. As I just adopted a puppy and I have been actively getting rid of his ticks. I have had some bug bites on my legs since getting him. I was then put on doxycycline in case it was ticks. Since it was a Friday we couldn’t do the blood test that can test specifically for the tick parasite in the blood, because they send all bloodwork out to South Africa and it can take several days to get the results. So I spent the weekend at Willies Hospital in Maseru. On Monday we had what we call Phase 3 training. It is after we have spent 3 months at site and have gotten to know more people in my village and the schools and a better idea of what work I will be doing. We also had more language training which was so helpful. It got our Lesotho HY 84 group back together for a week. It was nice to see everyone and see what kind of things they were doing at their sites. Meanwhile I was still having my symptoms and nothing had really changed. So after phase 3 training, I went back to the hospital to again see the doctor and do more testing. This time the main focus was on my urine and hormones. Where I had to do the lovely act of peeing in a bucket for 24 hours, even though I had a perfectly good working toilet, was woken up at 5:30am every morning to take vitals, then I was poked a couple times in the arm to withdraw blood for testing. It was exactly exciting. I couldn’t really go anywhere so I mainly watched movies and read my book. The good thing with unlimited electricity is that I can watch multiple movies. Even during the day! I didn’t have to worry about my battery dying or anything like that, it was actually very nice. Some of the movies that I got a chance to watch, that I highly recommend are:
1) Rosewater
2) The theory of Everything
3) The Imitation Game
4) Chaplin (1992)
5) Unbroken
6) Dallas Buyers Club
7) Charlie Wilsons War
8) Wish I Was Here
9) The Book Thief
10) The Darjeeling Limited
I have been watching a lot of movies. But there isn’t much else to do when you cannot leave and you are just stuck lying in bed all day. Once all my test results came back fine or in “normal range”, I was able to leave and just stay at a guest house in Maseru. Which was much better, I was able to go out and get lunch or just walk around the mall a bit so that felt semi normal and not stuck inside restless. So in terms of my physical appearance I seem totally normal and nothing is wrong with me, with all my results coming back normal there isn’t a suggestion as to where my symptoms are coming from or what is causing it. Tomorrow I will be going to Bloemfontein to see a physician there and see if they can help to figure out what is causing my symptoms. If they can’t find anything then it may be a possibility that I will be back in the states for a couple weeks to get further testing done. If nothing gets resolved I may have to end my service early, I am really hoping it does not come to that, but my health is first priority. I will give another update soon.
1) Rosewater
2) The theory of Everything
3) The Imitation Game
4) Chaplin (1992)
5) Unbroken
6) Dallas Buyers Club
7) Charlie Wilsons War
8) Wish I Was Here
9) The Book Thief
10) The Darjeeling Limited
I have been watching a lot of movies. But there isn’t much else to do when you cannot leave and you are just stuck lying in bed all day. Once all my test results came back fine or in “normal range”, I was able to leave and just stay at a guest house in Maseru. Which was much better, I was able to go out and get lunch or just walk around the mall a bit so that felt semi normal and not stuck inside restless. So in terms of my physical appearance I seem totally normal and nothing is wrong with me, with all my results coming back normal there isn’t a suggestion as to where my symptoms are coming from or what is causing it. Tomorrow I will be going to Bloemfontein to see a physician there and see if they can help to figure out what is causing my symptoms. If they can’t find anything then it may be a possibility that I will be back in the states for a couple weeks to get further testing done. If nothing gets resolved I may have to end my service early, I am really hoping it does not come to that, but my health is first priority. I will give another update soon.