Welcome to Honduras, help yourself to some Dengue!

So after a week of being here, I get dengue. Well, it might have been dengue or it might have been some other virus, I don’t know yet for sure. The point is, I had to spend Wednesday night until Saturday morning in the hospital. Don’t worry it wasn’t very serious and I pretty much felt fine. Sorry for not letting anyone know I was in the hospital but I wasn’t allowed to make international calls from the hospital. And it wasn’t that serious. This was my first time staying in the hospital, 2 and a half days in Honduras. Luckily it was a nice hospital and I was well-taken care of.

So this is what happened. On Tuesday we got vaccinations for rabies and typhoid, and one of the side-effects of the typhoid vaccine can be a fever, so they gave us medicine to keep the fever down. I felt ok on Tuesday and went running with some other trainees, which was awesome. We ran up this dirt road that goes up into the mountains and has beautiful view. Tuesday night around 7:30 I was studying and watching tv in the living room and I got really cold so I went to my room to get a sweatshirt. The thermometer on my alarm clock read 72 degrees and I thought, I should not feel this cold. I had several layers on but I was still really cold and shivering so I went to bed, but I still felt cold, even under the blankets. But my host mom and I thought it was a bad reaction to the typhoid vaccine. Around 12 I woke up hot so I took off some layers and I felt fine.

Wednesday I woke up with a sore throat and during class I felt kind of sick, like I had a cold. I called the medical office and they said I probably just had a cold and a reaction to the vaccine and they would send me medicine. At lunch time I got really cold again. I hardly made it through the afternoon and when I got home at 5 I went right to bed and slept until 8, when I woke up to go eat. I was sitting and eating when I suddenly felt really faint and hot. I got up and went to the kitchen where my host mom was and I fainted and had a really hard time breathing. It was awful. So then they called the medical office, which then sent a driver to take me to the hospital.

I got to the hospital around 10pm. I still didn’t think anything was wrong with me. I thought I’d be there an hour and they’d send me home, but then the doctor said they had to do some tests and I’d be there 3 or 4 hours. I was upset about that but I just fell asleep. When the doctor he said it looked like I had dengue and they’d have to keep me over night. So then they moved me to my room. The driver who brought me left so then I was all alone. I had a bad fever and felt dizzy and sick. Thursday was hard because I felt really alone and I missed the US. I began to have some doubts, like this is just the first week and it’s so hard. My time here hasn’t even really started and I want to leave. But I knew it was just the circumstances. By the afternoon I began to feel better. Sometime on Thursday they said they’d have to keep me overnight. I didn’t have anything with me of course, but I talked to a Peace Corps doctor on the phone and told her things I wanted from my house so they driver brought them to me.

Friday morning the Peace Corps doctor visited me in the morning and told me it was probably dengue but it just wasn’t testing positive yet. But my doctor in the hospital came later and said it probably wasn’t dengue but that I might have to stay until Sunday because my white blood cell count was low and he didn’t want me to get more sick by being around people. Friday around 6 or 7 I had an unexpected but very exciting visit. Katie, a current volunteer who has been helping out with training activities, came in. I was so excited to see a familiar face! It was awesome having someone my age to speak English to after 2 days of not really talking to anyone. She kindly offered to get me whatever food I wanted and I had really been wanting a milkshake and some chocolate. Katie came back in 5 minutes with a strawberry shake, some candy, and some other snacks! She stayed about an hour probably, which was awesome. That visit definitely made my day.

Saturday morning I felt absolutely fine and I as beginning to get really frustrated about being there. The doctor came in around 10 or 10:30 and told me everything looked better and I could go. I was so relieved. Then the PC doctor called and said she sent the driver to pick me up. And now I’m back!

I don’t know how I would have managed another day there. I’ve never watched so much TV. I had 102 channels, in Spanish and English. I also read some and studied Spanish. I got through Thur and Fri ok, but I don’t know how I would have handled today, too. And it’s a good thing I can understand Spanish well, because no one spoke English and the doctor was going off about white blood cell counts in Spanish and I was all alone. I was fine, though and I never felt scared or anything, mostly just bored, and frustrated at times.

Now I have time to rest before going back to training on Monday. Good thing it’s the weekend, so I only missed two days of training. I don’t think I missed too much. One good thing about the hospital was that it made me really appreciate my house here and all the people here. If I could get through those days in the hospital not talking to anyone and not doing anything, I can get through any other periods of loneliness or boredom. I miss everyone and I love hearing from you all.