Our first Sunday in Tonj, I awoke feeling wretched. I mean, so horrible that I couldn’t even stand up to brush my teeth (I knelt over the little hole to brush and the dog sat watching me curiously). I laid down outside in the shade trying desperately to cool off, and sent Blaise to find Annie so she could take my temperature. She came and assessed all of my symptoms (at that point, just nausea and diarrhea) and took my temperature. It was okay. She assumed it was something I ate and gave me ORS (oral rehydration solution) to keep me hydrated while I had diarrhea, and she said we would observe.
Not 30 minutes later I started vomiting. And I kept on vomiting. I couldn’t even keep fluids down, which is very dangerous anytime, but especially during pregnancy when it’s 120 degrees. She encouraged me to stay in bed, sip the ORS slowly, slowly, and rest. A couple of hours later, not only had I not improved, but I developed a fever. Before they gave me any medicines, they called the lab tech to come in and run a blood test.
Positive for malaria.
I was really out of it, but I do remember there being 3 or 4 of the clinic staff in our room and then an IV pole was brought in, a line started in my hand, and three different medicines administered. I received a shot in the behind, too, for something. I was treated for the malaria and dehydration (as well as an infection that also showed up in the blood test).
I would be lying if I said that whole experience wasn’t terrifying. Malaria is a killer all over sub-Saharan Africa and many other parts of the world, and it’s effects on pregnant women and unborn babies are disastrous. We are incredibly thankful that we caught it early. But even still, the malaria medicine, quinine, is strong stuff and while I had absolutely no choice but to take it, I was quite worried about our Little Man.
Because of the malaria treatment, Annie (midwife) regularly monitored Little Man’s heart, and while it had been fine all week during treatment, sometime between Thursday mid-day and Saturday morning it changed and had a bit of an abnormal rhythm. I felt shear terror, a lot of guilt, and so much anxiety that the medicine had permanently damaged his heart and his life would forever be altered. That was not a fun feeling.
By that following Sunday night (a full 24 hours after I had finished the malaria treatment), Little Man’s heart beat and rhythm were back to normal. We decided that I would press forward in Tonj, but if I contracted malaria again (recurrence in pregnant women is common) I would return to Kampala for a safer treatment. For the next several days, I was slowly regaining health and strength and working to put the whole incident behind me.
Or so I thought.
The following Friday, two weeks into our assignment in Tonj, I got so shaky and dizzy that I could barely stand. My vision blurred and I eventually vomited. I was worried about malaria, so they retested me (negative). I continued to struggle with those symptoms all day. The only thing that helped was eating, but it was only temporary relief. I spent time Friday afternoon describing the symptoms to the clinic staff and they said it all pointed toward hypoglycemia. They said that the malaria treatment, quinine, is well-known for causing hypoglycemia, but usually just while you’re on it. However, they figured that the lean diet in Tonj, coupled with pregnancy, was making it difficult to stabilize my blood sugar levels.
I spent a couple of hours on Saturday crying. I was terrified. Nothing about my body felt right…I could just tell that something was off. I knew that if I was having a hard time keeping my blood sugar regulated, it would eventually have an effect on Little Man. And, of course, the most common result is low birthweight. We experimented with some different snacks over the weekend and early the next week, and finally found that eating a dry Weetabix biscuit with a handful of raisins and drinking a glass of whole chocolate milk did the trick. Once again, it seemed I was on the mend and even though I was worried about the baby, the medical team (including a doctor in the States) assured me that he was probably doing better that I was.
And then we ran out of Weetabix.
I was back to struggling with maintaining healthy blood sugar levels when I started noticing a scratchy throat. Within a couple of days I had a full-blown head/chest cold. I didn’t take any medicine to treat it, because at that point I felt like I had taken enough drugs. So I drank even more water, rested a lot, and prayed that I would be healed quickly. They even sent me to Wau, a larger town 3 hours away by car, to a mission hospital with the hopes of having a full blood test run to see if we were missing anything. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to do it and we still didn’t really know anything. The doctor in Wau told me that my body was still trying to recover from malaria (a serious illness), which is especially hard to do during pregnancy. Thankfully, after a few days, I was sneezing less and able to breathe again. We prayed that I would get better and I was told by the medical team to rest a lot.
And then I developed a fever last Friday and generally felt awful all over.
I was once again tested for malaria, and it was once again negative (thankfully). Annie suggested that I also do a urinalysis, just to be safe. I didn’t have one single symptom of a UTI, but I did the test anyway. To my surprise, it came back positive for a urinary tract infection. The doctor and Annie explained that simple UTIs present as expected, with painful and frequent urination. A complicated UTI often doesn’t present symptoms at first, aside from a fever, and I already knew from my experience in Nasir that it can get really bad really fast. They put me on another antibiotic and said we’d keep checking it.
It was at that point that I had almost completely lost it. I know that our God is not a God of fear, but I was absolutely PETRIFIED. I emailed the doctor in the States and talked to the medical team in Tonj, asking them what to do. I didn’t want to leave Tonj, but it was clear that my body was just not recovering. The medical team advised us to go. They said that I just simply didn’t have the nutrition I needed, nor the right conditions to properly rest and recover. They also said that the malaria wiped out every last bit of my already-weakened immune system, and so I was vulnerable to everything. Blaise finally made the call. He said that he couldn’t keep watching while I got sicker and sicker, and he just wanted baby and I to be healthy.
We called Kerry last Saturday and put the wheels into motion. Blaise and I prayed about it and both felt incredibly confident that the Lord wanted me to recover in Kampala, but wanted Blaise to stay and keep working on the radio ministry. As much as we hated even the thought of being apart, we felt strongly that this was the right thing to do.
So, Wednesday afternoon I flew out of Tonj and am now back in Kampala. The plan is for me to stay with the Hendersons (not by myself) and just spend a few weeks resting and recovering. I will have another urinalysis done, a complete blood test, and an ultrasound to check on Little Man. Probably the most important thing is that I’ll have a solid, well-balanced diet that will help my body heal. Now that I know what the diet is like in Tonj, I can plan ahead and take back with me what I will need to stay strong and healthy…and of course, provide Little Man with all of the nutrition he needs.
Please pray for this time. Pray for Blaise and I while we’re apart, rest and healing for me, and wisdom and guidance for Blaise.