Thursday, July 9, 2009

The Morning After (7/6)

This morning my fever sharply dropped off. As suddenly as it started, it left and by about 9AM I was back to 98.6 F again.



Reassuring note to all parents who read my post from last night, including mine:
Cynthia called me several times all day to see how I was, as well as waited by her PCMO duty phone (where we can reach a doctor 24/7 any day) all night in case my fever went up even 0.1F. Also, Grace, Uncle Sam, and Richard from the PC training staff here at our site all stopped by to check on me. Grace is the PCT director, Sam is the PC HomeStay housing director and Richard is the PCT language director... so it's not like they had nothing better to do with their time, they all wanted to see how I was and it was a very nice gesture.


By the time they arrived I felt MUCH better but I was still covered in sweat as I greeted them.


Richie: Guillermooooo
Sam: How are you feeling my man??
Me: I've been better
Grace: We wanted to make sure you were OK
M: I'll be fine, it was just a really sudden high fever
G: Yes, we heard
R: haha, welcome to Ghana, man
G: Yes. What he is trying to say is your body is asking sooo many questions
G: "What is this in my tummy? What did we just eat?"


I absolutely adore the 3 of them. I've posted a picture of grace before, but I'll be sure to get some up of the other 2 soon so you can see the characters I interact with on a daily basis.


Uncle Sam gave me a few slaps on the back, and I promised I'd call if I got bad again.


From 2-3PM I measured my temp at 101.5, 102, 102.6.


Fucking. Weak.


Txted Cynthia and she told me to use an at-home test she provided us all. She walked me through all the steps which include poking your finger, getting some blood into a dropper, and putting it onto a tester. You all know how much I hate needles and pokey-things, so naturally my luck made sure it took 3 stabs of my ring finger before I bled enough. And then when I sucked the blood into the dropper, it went TOO far into it and wouldnt come out, so I had to keep squeezing my multi-stabbed thum to try (in vain) to get more out. FML.


I told Cynthia.. look what I got here is gonna have to work. Cuz I'm not this blood is not wanting to come out of this dropper. (I had gotten a small bit into the tester at this point).


So anyways, good news. I dont have Malaria. My test result was negative. I took my temperature again 101.7. She told me to alternate Tylenol and Ibuprofin every 3 hours and call if it gets high again. We'll try a different course of medicine at that point if so.


Right now it's 4:36 PM as I hand-write this into my journal. My temperature is... lets see..... 100.6. Perfect. I hope I can sleep tonight.

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P.S.
The other day I gave Mini-Man one of the toy cars I brought as presents to Ghana. When I first handed it to him, he seemed confused. Looked at it, then at me. Then at Kofi and Kwesi. He picked it up. And he lost his little african mind! He started shreaking and running in circles and making vroooooooom! vrooooom! noises and running around the house. Kwesi was playing Grand Theft Auto on his PSP and Mini-Man held his shiney new yellow-car up to the screen, tapped it against the screen a few times and gurgled out something in toddler-Twi I couldnt understand. Kwesi starts cracking up and turns to me and goes

"He's saying that his car is better, cuz he can actually hold his. I cant hold mine in my hand."



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