Once upon a time I went to Haiti.. and got typhoid.

Apparently there's a trend in my family that we like to contract old school diseases. My younger brother Robert had whooping cough as a toddler in Ireland. True story. 

Saturday night my stomach felt awful after dinner, but nothing happened, so I figured it was just my tummy being weird as usual. Sunday night was similar, but again it went away so I assumed all was well. Monday night was a different story. (Apologies in advance if this is too much information, but for the sake of historical accuracy, I might be a tad graphic.) After dinner, I was sitting outside having a great conversation with a friend about race and attitudes in Haiti, France, and the United States. I had to cut this conversation short because my stomach was freaking out. I then went on to experience the worst diarrhea I've ever had in my life. At home there's no way I would've seen a doctor unless it persisted for a while. However, there are too many things that could be going here to let it go, so I went to see a doctor. He gave me a slew of pills and sent me on my way. 

After unsuccessful attempts at falling asleep, I tried making calls home, even though it was almost midnight, anything to get my mind off of my stomach. It then hit me that I was definitely going to throw up. Two important notes here. First, I had not had running water all day, and did not get running water back until tonight. Second, it sounds silly, and I've just recently gotten better about this, but for the longest time I've had a fear of throwing up. Now I get that no one likes throwing up, but I would freak out if anytime my stomach hurt, ever since I was at least eight years old. Since then if I feel like I need to throw up I always run outside, somehow thinking being outside will make it better. (This became problematic when I spent the past year living in a basement apartment, it somewhat broke me of the habit.) In any case, with those two things in mind I decided to trek out and find a place to take care of business. The problem (or thankfully!) one of the security guards came across me, and despite my protests and attempted explanations, half carried to the emergency room of the hospital while I half-passed out. I then proceeded to projectile vomit all over this poor man, myself, and the floor of the waiting area. (Goodbye Frederick County Fall 2007 Field Hockey Tournament shirt, the lack of water meant you were sacrificed.) This was immediately followed by tears. I felt so bad for getting sick in the hospital and tried to explain while simultaneously attempted to protest the need for an IV. Watching one of the women that clean here start to clean up my mess made me feel even worse, but I could barely sit up on the chair, let alone actually attempt to help.

So I was set up in my room with an IV, and spent a restless night trying not to use the bathroom. The next morning I tried to spread the word that classes were cancelled. This upset me more than being sick, and I'm going to try to have a class for anyone that wants to come on Saturday, I've felt awful that it's been so hard to be consistent here. I was then given “bread soup” to eat. It was literally bread in a buttery broth mix. I ate some because I was hungry, hoping I wouldn't encounter it again.

Tried to get a picture of my IV stand with my computer,
doesn't fully convey how crazy it looked in reality.

The day brought many, many visitors. Everyone seemed to be very concerned that I would become lonely. As a result, I resorted to saying I needed to nap several times to get a little alone time! It was really nice though, even the security guard I puked on came to check on me, as did the woman who cleaned it up, and then she brought me a bucket of water so I could wash up!

That afternoon, the woman who plays mom here brought me boiled plantains for dinner and told me I had typhoid. I laughed, thinking she had to be joking. I paid for the vaccine!! Also, I always think I have a real medical issue at home and it turns out to be nothing. So of course the one time I go into it thinking it's just a stomach virus it's actually something legitimate. After she convinced me it was serious, I was eager to do some research, because I really didn't know much about typhoid other than that it was a disease I read about in all of my historical novels when I was ten. For anyone reading who also doesn't really know what it is, the CDC website explained to me that it's from salmonella bacteria, so you can get it from contaminated food or water. The food contamination is mostly from people not washing their hands. In any case, this was frustrating because I spent the money on the vaccine, mais c'est la vie. This also means I had fever that had me sweating bullets all day, but they are awesome here and set me up with a fan by running an extension cord from the hospital up to my room on a second floor. (The hospital has electricity all day, the area where my room is only has it at night.) And a friend was extra awesome and brought an extension cord for me to use for a bit to charge my electronics to keep me occupied during all that time stuck in my room.

My only real complaint about all this is that I couldn't just have ginger ale, saltine crackers, and my mom.

Today I had to cancel classes again, I was still too exhausted. I slept like a log from 8pm to 8am, then again from 9am to noon. At 7pm I managed to briefly slip away and buy a knock-off sprite, it tasted like the best thing I've ever had. This gave me the courage to go back to tackling the enormous bowl of crab soup I was supposed to finish for dinner. (That didn't happen, I ate all of the potatoes and plantains, but my stomach said no way to crab.)

So now I'm on a bunch of antibiotics, hopefully feeling well enough to run classes tomorrow, and very thankful I was able to take a real shower tonight. Just another adventure to put down in the books.