Dengue

In case you’ve never heard about this little word, I’m about to school you in what’s becoming a slight epidemic across the coast in Guyana. Having not really heard about this virus, I didn’t really make it my duty to read up about it until it was too late. For the past week, I’ve been sitting in a private hospital room. Of course, while writing this note, I’m not in the hospital anymore, but from Monday to Friday, I was a Dengue-filled “happy camper”. Dengue is a virus that you can catch from mosquitoes. It causes high fevers, constant headache, a slight rash or extreme flushing of the skin, weakness in the entire body, nausea, loss of appetite, aversion to anything to eat unless is juice, water, or fruit, and extreme exhaustion. Well, I woke up on Wednesday of last week (the 18th to be exact) and felt crummy, but not totally incapacitated. Then Thursday rolled around. The PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer) came to see me. It was all downhill from there. I took a boat immediately that afternoon to Georgetown and proceeded to stay in a hotel for the next 4 nights. By the time Monday rolled around, I hadn’t felt any better and in fact was getting worse. That’s the day the PCMO said, “That’s it, Lindsay, we’re taking you to the hospital.” Well, I can tell you that even though I felt like dying, the nurses, PC staff, and all the other visitors and people who came to take care of me made me feel so special and ultimately helped me get better.
I arrived back at my host family’s house (finally) on Friday late afternoon and rejoiced that I was back in a bed I wanted to sleep in, around the people who made me laugh at least 15 times a day, with clean clothes and a place I’ve come to call home for the time being. Last night, more people came and visited me, having thought for sure I was dying too, but it’s funny how rumors like that get around. They were all so worried about me, but at the end of our visit were all reassured that I’m almost 100% better and I’ll be spending the next week catching up. Oh, and I missed my host volunteer visit but will probably report this week about staying in Region H, Hotel and Hospital. Hahahaha… Yay for Dengue!