Well, to call this the summer of illness would be an understatement. Ready for some medical talk? Haha, I am a medical missionary...
As I shared before, I ended June with an amoeba. Then around the same time Chikungunya hit the island…which has become a bit of an epidemic.
Chikungunya is a mosquito born illness that creates intense and uncontrollable joint pain, high fevers, headaches, body aches and occasional GI distress. This virus has ravaged our island and quickly depleted our supplies of acetaminophen (Tylenol).
I have been spared at this point but each community I visit seem to have more and more patients contracting the illness along with several of our missionaries. It typically lasts about a week with residual fatigue. Those at highest danger are the young, old, pregnant and immuno-compromised (as with most diseases).
This week we welcomed our second to last team for the summer…it’s hard to believe we’ve been going straight since May! And with them my long awaited optometrist. At this point we have already fitted about 180 people for glasses. What a blessing!
On Thursday things got a little complicated when at 2am I received a call that students were having severe diarrhea and vomiting. By Friday afternoon 37 of 75 people living at our base had contracted a viral GI illness with fever, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and back pain.
I knew my hands were full when they literally could not keep any medicine I fired at them down…including orally disintegrating Zofran!
As Fernando (my doc) also was sick this past week and unable to assist me, I was so grateful for the past couple of weeks of rest. Early July began an intense period of time when I began to understand self preservation, and so I was ready for what we’ve deemed the “Pink Pandemic (ok…it’s not quite a pandemic or pink but pepto bismol has just been a necessity).” I put together my task force of interns and together we tackled vital signs and evaluating each patient to ensure they hadn't become dehydrated.
This morning, I once again marveled at God’s timing when I stayed healthy through the night and was good enough to evaluate patients this morning. I am so grateful that this virus lasts only about 24 hours. Not just for my patients, but because once most of them were in the clear I realized I am not immune and have found myself also developing symptoms.
And so, I ask you to pray with all of us. It’s hard to understand why so many students would be incapacitated when they are here to serve, but it just continues to remind us of the weakness and frailty of our human bodies.
I am praying for strength, recovery and no further spread of Chikungunya or this gastrointestinal bug. Please join me! I have big plans for this next week of eye clinics!
Gracias!
