Two nights before leaving Minnesota, violent shivers and immense cold brought my body out of a sweet slumber.  I felt as if large amounts of snow were being dumped upon my body and felt unable to move.  Lyssa awoke and took my temperature it was around 103.5.  We prayed and after sometime the fever and chills subsided and I was able to get a little rest.  I woke up the next morning and went to play basketball for about 2 hours with our cousin.  I wasn’t feeling the greatest but had to make the best out of our last day in Minnesota.

After returning to Tennessee the pattern of my sicknesses had the same onset each evening – violent chills for about 30 minutes then spiking high fever (103.5 – 104), which lasted 5-7 hours.  No matter the amount of Tylenol or Ibuprofen I took, the fever never seemed to subside.  We would do cold compresses and ice baths to help control the fevers.  My initial thought to all of this sickness was Malaria, but a week prior to the fevers starting I passed a Kidney Stone, which led me to believe that it was a Kidney Infection instead.  We moved into our new house on Saturday (January 3rd) and my fevers started up again.  After a week of fevers, I finally gave in to go to the doctor to get some medication.  After doing some blood work the doctor told me that my white blood cells and platelets were extremely low and that I needed to go to the hospital.

After checking into the ER, they started me on some IV fluids to reduce my 104 temp.  I had told them of my time in East Africa and the potential of Malaria but they said it was not a possibility that they were looking at a few possibilities – H.I.V., Leukemia, or that my blood was septic…  They did several scans and blood work.  They discovered that my spleen was enlarged and discussed the potential of removing it if necessary!  They checked me in to ICU for the night.

While in ICU I had a Nigerian doctor.  He told me that it was not possible for me to have Malaria because of the time I had been away from Uganda.  He then followed that statement by saying he had Malaria more than 20 times, which gave him creditability in my book.  My teacher Gregg came to visit and began asking the doctor lots of questions about my condition and kept suggesting that through his experience and research he was pretty sure that I had Malaria.  The doctor said he would test for it but he still was not convinced.  After everyone had left, in the middle of the night this Nigerian doctor (who was 6’5” and 240lbs) comes bursting in my room and throws his hands in the air “You have Malaria!” and I said “YEAH!”  He said that the test results were not back yet, but he said that he was certain I had Malaria and wanted to begin me on the medication for it ASAP.

I began the medication early the next morning and was on medication for a week.  I wanted to go home the next day because I was off of IV meds, but the leading doctor’s limited knowledge on Malaria made him fearful to release me.  He called in a specialist who arrived the following day who said it was fine for me to go home.  The medication that they prescribed me was very rough.  I had intense side effects – loss of hearing, ringing in ears, nauseous, aches, fever, chills, sweats, hallucinations etc…

Lyssa was a great nurse and did a wonderful job caring for me!  She was always so exhausted.  She was taking care of Luke and me at the same time.  Our friends in our community have been so wonderful though, they would come by each day to help to either watch Luke or me.  They helped Lyssa unpack ALL of our stuff and finish painting our house.  It has been such a blessing to see how they have come together to help us out in our time of need.

Today it has been exactly 2 weeks since I got my first cycle of Malaria.  It has been a long, challenging and educational two weeks.  God has taught me a lot about myself and about our future.  I know this isn’t the last time that I will have Malaria, there is a harsh reality that Malaria is an aspect of life we must deal with when we live in Uganda.  I do not fear this nor dread it, I know that God is our LORD and he is with us.  I thank him for his provision for our family these last two weeks and for the opportunity to relate to people around the world who suffer from Malaria everyday.  I have the responsibility to continue my education on Malaria treatment and prevention not only for my family, but for families around the world.

Through my 2 weeks of mild suffering, I had a taste of what 515 million people around the world experience each year.  But I was in the comforts of hospital rooms and comfortable beds, while they are in unsanitary conditions and often without proper medication.  This time of Malaria encourages me.  It gives me focus for why we are doing what we do.  We are partnering with God to bring hope and life to the poor and underprivileged people of this world!  I thank God for allowing me to have this learning experience through Malaria and connecting me closer to my friends in East Africa.