The 1000 Day Holiday

Volunteers would be bitten by infected mosquitoes in vaccine study

SEATTLE – The Seattle Biomedical Research Institute will pay volunteers as much as $4,000 to be bitten by mosquitoes infected with malaria.

Scientists say no lives are in danger because the volunteers can be cured. The institute is testing which vaccines work fastest.

The head of the program, Dr. Patrick Duffy, said volunteers will spend several nights under medical supervision in a hotel.

All of the human trials will be reviewed for safety by the Food and Drug Administration.

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Its been a while since I’ve had malaria. Due to my dwindling funds, I’m considering this program.

If you want to save me from such desperate measures. You can Sponsor A Kiwi right here right now!

It would be interesting to know which strain they will infect them with and what incubation period they will wait before administering the drugs. And if they are testing exsiting combinations of drugs or a new drug/s.

But hopefully I dont get to find out! HINT HINT

Celebrations. I’ve made it to 1+ month free of Malaria.

Which now makes me Malaria Free according to the CDC…
No cover for Malaria on my travel insurance for the next year tho.. so will have to be extra careful.

Im quite glad i didnt read too much about what happens in your body when you have it.. Some of the research Ive come across:

Falciparum malaria: The most dangerous type of malaria. Red blood cells infected with the parasite tend to sludge and form microinfarctions (small areas of dead tissue due to lack of oxygen) in capillaries in the brain, liver, adrenal gland, intestinal tract, kidneys, lungs, and other organs. Treatment is in a hospital setting, using intravenous medications.

Looks like I would have been classifed as having Severe Malaria. As I had Thrombocytopenia. on the 15th December my platelet count was 24,000

In an adult, a normal count is about 150,000 to 450,000 platelets per microliter (x 10^–6/Liter) of blood.

URGH!

Well this is sort of.

Went and had the test today. Waited around while they analysed the slides.

They did find 2 Parasites, however they say it counts as a Negative result. I dont know what stage the parasites were (exoploded from qunine?). However Im still on qunine & doxy till Thursday when I have a final test.

And then Im allowed to leave. In which case Ill be headed for Bolivia, Thursday or Friday. Apparently Ill be safe from Malaria for the next 3 months due to the Qunine already in my system (?).

And for those that think all these adventure activities dont really have any risk… Check out this news article: Caving Mishap in SA

Did my blood test today at the lab. So I got to see a bunch of my slides under the microscope. Well groovy.

Initially they looked like this, with up to 6 or 7 parasites in one cell. Once Quinine is doing its thing, they are just exploded blobs within the cell

Celebrations! Ive been discharged.

however I still have malaria. They have ordered artesunato (2) (3) from Brazil. So hopefully, I will be parasite free 3 days from Friday (when it arrives).

It seems the major problem has been a lack of Qunine meds in Argentina. The last 7 days has  been treatment using Doxycycline & Clindamycin. My blood has improved over this time. But I havent had any negative parasite tests.

CDCs Handy Malaria treatment table

Is it in my head or not? Im sure I have a dull headache all the time.

I mentioned this to my doctor. His response

“that means theres parasites in my brain”

emotional night, as the doctor said we were back to square 1,as treatment has failed.
So hoping for an evac to BA, as at least then they would have treated falciparum malaria there before! and the Embassy is there too. So I could get a visitor!

Wondering what the parrasites are up to in my head. Do they have a little picnic on my brain? or they just have a bit of a party. Lack of knowledge can be really frustrating!

Analina the visitor who wants to be a translator helped out a bunch for a conversation with Vivianna ( infectious doc whos doing my labs)

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