A Trip to the Local Clinic

At 1AM Tuesday morning, I awoke feeling quite nauseous, and thus began the a thrilling night during which neither Rachel nor I slept - she covering her ears with the pillows and me hugging the toilet. Tuesday was fairly uneventful. I spent most of the day with a queasy stomach in bed.

Wednesday I was at about 80% and enjoyed a nice beef hot plate meal at a new (to me anyways) restaurant in town. I slept great that night and awoke this morning feeling 100% better and ready to work. I did until 1PM that is. Around that time the nausea hit suddenly and I decided that perhaps it would be a good idea to get checked out at the clinic. That decision may have had something to do with reading the guide book this morning that said if you think you have malaria, get medical attention immediately.

So, I grabbed our little garbage can in our bathroom (in case I didn't make it to the clinic) and jumped in the car. From there my Swedish boss friend raced (literally - I was almost afraid of dying in a car accident before we made it to the hospital, though I am very grateful for his assistance) me to the clinic. The clinic was small and had a small waiting room with windows around it for the dispensary (pharmacy), cashier and registrar. I was registered in as Mr. Peter Harrison despite my objections, after which I paid my 7 cedis (~5 dollars) and was immediately taken to have my blood pressure and weight taken. Being white here certainly has its advantages I think because unlike everyone else, I went right in to see the doctor who had them test me for malaria and typhoid.

From his office, I paid my 9 cedis for the tests and entered the Laboratory, where they took my blood between random attacks of nausea. Basically there was some other random guy next to me and they pulled the needle out of him, stuck it in me and sucked out a bunch of blood. Very efficient. Just kidding. They use disposable syringes and needles. Anyways, they took my blood sample and told me to wait for 40 minutes. So, I headed to the bathroom where I awaited the results hovering over the toilet.

Conveniently enough, just when I was feeling well enough to sit in the waiting room, the results came out and I met with a woman doctor or nurse (not sure which). She showed me the lovely results - I had tested positive for the malaria parasite AND I had tested very positive for the typhoid. From there she indicated that the typhoid was bad by pointing to the 1/320 number on my lab results and telling me that usually they were around 1/120 for typhoid cases. Great.

So, as I sat hugging my trash can (yes I carried it with me throughout the whole excursion), the nurse wrote out a nice long list of drugs for me to get at the dispensary. Thinking I was finished after the pharmacist informed me how many pills I would be taking over the next 1o days, I was handed two boxes of medicine and two disposable syringes and told to go back to the nurse. She had me sit on a bench and wait for a guy to inject me with what is apparently one of their strongest antibiotics.

Turned out I had purchased one box of antibiotics too many. The pharmacist came and took one away and gave me my 6 cedis back. That made only 13 cedis total (less than 10 dollars) for all my medication. Anyways, the injections guy stuck the needle into the back of my hand, which was a new experience and not one that I'd like having again. I'm pretty sure the needle went in about an inch or so up my vein. Minutes before I was injected I asked him if there were any side effects to which he replied that some people vomit immediately after getting the injection. Sure enough, as soon as all the medicine was in me, the nausea hit hard. Fortunately I didn't have to use my little garbage can and when I walked out of his room I saw my good friend Abe who had come to take me home.

So, here I am back in bed, with a very achy tummy and a pile of meds, wondering how much longer this story will get before its over.

Addendum: Rachel just left to get tested. Apparently Typhoid is very contagious (who knew?). Anyways, everyone in our little house is getting tested. I guess we'll just have to wait to see how many new characters have joined this adventure.