What Now? or The Full African Experience

This week I was able to add another item to the list of things I survived in Africa.

The Short Version: I got Malaria on Monday but now I am fine.

The Long Version: On Monday afternoon I started getting a headache and my legs became very sore. As the day progressed, I started to develop a fever and lose my appetite (right after I had ordered a nice, expensive meal). I texted Makho and later that night he stopped by and brought me to the hospital. They pricked my finger with a needle (not so fun) and thirty minutes later told me I had malaria. It was actually a relief to find out the problem was malaria because it's treatable and I wouldn't have to come back to get more tests done.

The doctor gave me a variety of pills to take (8 of one kind, 10 of another) and sent me off. I had to find food that night because my stomach was empty and I wasn't supposed to take the pills with no food. That in itself was an ordeal (it was about 10pm), but I got my food, took my pills and in the morning I felt better.

Later Tuesday morning, however, my stomach started to ache. It quickly became very painful and soon I was writhing on the floor in agony. Eventually threw up and after a few more waves of pain coming on, it was all gone. Since then I've been feeling pretty good and have been able to do all of my duties (except for Tuesday when I stayed home). I'm still not feeling perfect, but I continue to slowly improve.

The moral of the story: Malaria isn't so bad if you catch it very early and treat it. Also, you can still get malaria if you take anti-malarias (but I knew those both already).

Pills, Pills, Pills! 약은 아주 비쌌어요!

After teaching today, I left school quickly so that I could get my prescriptions necessary for my trip (see here for an account of my doctor's visit). It was a fairly easy and painless process but for a few things. The pills I got were not cheap. For a total of 120 doses (1 per day) of my antimalarial medicine (doxycycline) and 56 doses (2 cycles of 2 pills 2 times a day for 7 days) of an antibiotic (ciprobay) - just in case - I paid 103,000 won (approximately $91 Canadian at the current exchange rate). I wonder what the cost would be back home. Incidentally, the majority of that cost was the ciprobay, not the antimalarials.

The second thing (and this worries me a bit, but it probably will amount to nothing) is the lack of labelling on my pills (see the picture below). My name is not on the bottle, nor is it on the prescription (well, it is in Hanguel: 마이클, but that's not likely to be understood by customs officials in Tanzania). We'll see what fun things this will lead too.