I successfully utterly and completely jinxed myself yesterday.
No more than 2 hours after journaling I started piling alpaca blankets on me because I was freezing cold. I was super confused how my little host cousin was running around in nothing more than a long sleeve shirt when I was covered in goosebumps and shivering under 4 heavy blankets. I had fixed popcorn and no-bake-cookies and we were all watching a movie together in the my family’s room. I began to feel nauseous and headed to my room to get in my sleeping bag so I wouldn’t feel so cold. The strange thing was that even in my below zero bag I was still shivering like my body was packed in snow. I was completely baffled.
My loving host sister came to check on me and when she saw my spasming body she got a little spooked and started to fix me eucalyptus and honey tea. Next my host mother came in and said munyo would be better for an upset stomach but we didn’t have any. I took my temperature and it was a good 3 degrees higher than normal. It took all my strength to keep my teeth from chattering and breaking the thermometer. Then a flash of last week’s meeting I had with the Health Post coordinator came into my head, “Right now there isn’t a nurse at the post in Madrigal because they are in transition. There should be someone there in about a week, but for now it is closed.”
Oh god, oh god, oh god.
I feel like someone has taken a crow bar and beaten the crap out of me and then packed my body in an ice box and soon my insides just might explode and there is no nurse or doctor for hours. Figures. I called the Peace Corps doctor 24hour line and got a busy signal for about an hour. Someone must have been in worse shape than me. So, I popped an aspirin, sipped some coca leaf tea (we switched tactics), and we stuffed me in about 3 layers of clothes, my sub zero sleeping bag, and then piled 6 alpaca blankets on top. My poor host family was super concerned, and quickly I realized I was truly ill.
We determined that it must have been the neighbor’s milk she offered me that morning. The three step process of preparing milk to a drinkable state is often overlooked, like hand washing, teeth brushing and the like.
When my insides finally did explode from both ends around 10pm I called the PC doctors again. Sweet and comforting he said he gets about 10 of these phone calls a day from Peace Corps volunteers in Peru and said that the medication is in my first aid kit they gave me in training. Thank the lord! But, he warned me, it will be a rough night. He was so right. After an eternity of moaning and rolling around in bed I took my second dose of horse-pill antibiotics 12 hours later. The fever was gone and I stripped down to normal attire and had the strength to fix myself some oatmeal. Two spoonfuls and my stomach said that was enough. Roxana (my darling host sister) went and bought me 5 bottles of water because she remembered that I told her mom to drink water when she had diarrhea. I poured in the dehydration salts also provided in the first aid kit and finally slept.
Now I have officially joined the 100% of South America PC volunteers that experience life changing diarrhea.
Yesterday’s experience made possible by the following:
My mom: mercury thermometer
Betty Kleopfer: Quaker oatmeal
Beckwiths: The Girl Who Played With Fire –great movie!
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