The 1000 Day Holiday

Last nite the fever kicked in again and trying to go to sleep was impossible.

As soon as I closed my eyes a weird scene would start. It seemed like 5 to 20 people all speaking at once. Some of them famous lines, others being friends. Everyone speaking over each other and seeming to come from every direction, and then race away and return.
The direction of what was being said seemed to chage rapily as well.

After around 3 hours of this I couldnt take anymore, Sleeping pill please!
Seriously need a translator. I still dont understand who my actual doctor is.

Vivianna, the lab tech who does my blood slides has been around since the start is lovely! doesnt speak any english really. But we get on really well.

My first IV line finally failed this morning. Instead of just replacing it with a new one. 2 of the nurses came over and showed me they were going to give me an arterial intraveneous line.

This is a crazy big needle, that then feeds a small plasctic tube up into your artery.
Hurts like a bugger and you cant move at all while theyre doing it.

So one of them had a go on my right arm. Didnt work, so they spent 10mins applying pressure to stop the spurting bleeding!

Then the other nurse tried on my other arm.. Again no luck.
They started discussing in spansih some more and indicating my neck. At this point I made it clear they were not coming near me with that contraction again!

Im sure they were just using me for practise!

Started giving me drugs again.. 2X3pm, 1X 10pm

Blood result: 24000 platelets.

Today I was the new freak show for all the doctors in the hospital. I lost count of how many different onces visited me. Poked and prodded. And everyone wanted some of my blood.

Some taking normal syringes full, others going for my arteries, Near the wrist thankfully.

The doctors have also been haivng group discussions about my legs. Theres spots, rashes and stuff on my feet. theyre even concerned about marks left from normal old blisters.. hah!

Not understanding what they were saying apart from multiple mentions of CDC, it seems like I may get quarantined!

I didnt bother to expand on my past travels. Africa was enough. I think they would flip if I told them about india, SE asia etc..

…
So I was correct that I was going to get quarnantined. They doctor came over and said “Isolated” to me, and i was envisiging a yellow inflatable room, the doctors with protective suits and stuff.

But alas no such luck. Ended up with mosquito netting for africa over me. and copious amounts of insect repellant all over.

It turns out I am the first falciparum malaria the disctrict of argentina Im in has ever had. Thus why so many doctors visits…

Last nite I only had one serious shivers session. & they gave me some Dipirona reduce the fever.

Its impossible to sleep with the fever.

The dreams Im having are very weird, unending loops and its like you cant escape from them.

3PM, I remind them its time for my meds (tropicur, Larium). They say they dont have any more.

While I was on the phone, one of the nurses came over and kept putting eye drops in my eyes. It stung like hell everytime. After the second round I told him to piss off when he tried to do it again.
And then I noticed I couldnt focus on anything. Everything was porn soft focus style.

I went to the bathroom, and in my hazy reflection I could see my pupils were completely dilated.

All became apparent after 20mins a new doctor I hadnt seen before comes to check out my retinas. Apparently the Larium at treatment dose can cause growths. JOY!
His english was quite good. So I asked him about my meds and he said I wouldnt be on those anymore.

WTF, I know that malaria treatments are at least 3 days… so what gives!

EDIT:

So now I know why they kept looking at my legs and body, while saying to be very careful. When my platelets hit 24000 I was at risk from spontaneous internal and external bleeding!

Today I thought I was going to die.

My strength had gone. walking to the next room to take a call from the NZ embassy resulted in me sitting on the floor, out of breath, and not feeling so good.

Lucas the doctor from my hostel, and 3 kiwis from the hostel visited around 2pm. At this stage I was feeling ok, as long as i didnt get out of bed.

In the morning I was moved from a room by myself to a general ward. 6 paitients in the room.

My fever started around 4pm. And as instructed I tried to get a nurse to take blood and temperatures. I was also having trouble keeping my IV line unblocked, and getting my IV fluid bags replaced..

after about an hour, with the visitors to the bed next to mines intervention a nurse finally came to see me. She took my temperature and completely freaked!
I had been near 39 degrees the day before and nothing was done. So Im not sure what temperature I had reached.

She shoved me in the shower, and made me stand under cold water for around 15minutes. By this stage I was shivvering uncontrollably.

She got me out, and then I was put on a trolley, one of the doctors said ‘Scan’ to me..

An orderly wheeled me down the hall. He then left me there. This is when I freaked out. Not knowing what was going on, and just thinking not to go to sleep, as coma is what happens to cerebral malaria patients.

Finally another orderly came and wheeled me into another room, where they took an ultrasound of my stomach.

Then back to the bed, and no idea of the results of the scan.
I tried getting them to let me send an SMS from their phone for my parents to call me. However they weren’t helpful at all.
Then I asked them to call the NZ embassy. They wouldnt do that either.

So in the end I got wheeled out to the foyer of the hospital and did a collect call home.

I didn’t hear back from them as I was expecting. a hour later the doctor I had been talking to about transfer to a private hospital or ICU came back and said the Insurance was all sorted, and the ambulance from the other hospital would be here to pick me up in an hour.
They turned up less than 10 minutes later.

So around 9pm I was in my new hospital, in ICU.

Blood Result: 41000 Platelets

not dead yet.

first blood test results are back.. red blood is at 78000 platelets.. normal is 150k to 300k

Malaria Falciparum(Cerebral) it is off to be admitted now.

DOH. but lucky i persisted and got the blood test aye!

worst type of malaria(cerebral). but they say i should be out tomorrow if no complications.

2 Overnight bus trips and Im now in Salta. Have a fever (38.5), thought it was heat exhaustion, but fitted the malaria incubation timeframe for leaving africa. 

Argentina provides free medical to tourists! so a doctor came to the hostel and checked me out. On antibiotics and Dipirona for the fever. Lets hope she was right about it not being malaria.

Noon we arrived at Iguaçu Falls and decided to proceed to the Argentinian side.

Caught the bus, and as we passed the Brazillian border post, I was suggesting we should get out. however the bus didnt stop.  Hmmph.. ok.

Argentinan Border, one of the guys asked if it was ok not getting an Exit stamp from Brazil. He was like `No problemo`. Well of course not, all he cares about is the Argentinan stuff.

Got to the Hostel and checked in, and we decide to go back to get the exit stamp.

• Stamp back out of Argentina
• Get to Brazil Border. I dont have my Entry card.. DOH
• Catch bus back, Motorcycle Accident, so we have to walk
• Stamp back into Argentina
• walk back to Hostel
• Run the 5km back to the Brazil Border. (avoided Argentina immigration as Im sure they would create a rule where you can only enter a country x2 in a day, and would end up stranded in No Mans Land
• Finally get stamp, and walk back to hostel.

Ahh.. what could have been. 6 Stamps in my passport And my shortest visit to a country ever X2

Standard recipe, but replace Cachaca w Sake. This one also had muddled rasberries. Super Duper

Heading to Iguaçu Falls tonight on an overnight bus. 16 hours of pleasure. Defaintely not cheap transport like africa. around $100.

The plan currently sits at hit Argentina And Chile then bounce back into Brazil for the Carnival.

Well it took just one day to have my first modified/local version of my favourite drink.

in a blender add:

• 3 limes (washed and halved)
• ice to half fill the jug
• sugar (you can mix this to taste)
• Cachaca
• 5 or 6 Eucapyluptus cough lollies (clear colour is probably best)

Blend, adjust to taste, strain and serve.

Definately a different taste, and clears the head!