Typhoid

Hey guys.

So I have talked a lot about the water project, and thus a lot about this sickness called typhoid, but I seem to still be lacking in donations.

So because I am incredibly dedicated I thought to myself “how can I convince people how vital this is?”

So I got myself some typhoid.

Ha-ha just kidding guys. But in all seriousness I did get typhoid. So I thought it would be good to give you all an in depth description of how this feels. I want you to keep in mind that 20 people a month here get this from contaminated water, most of them being children, and the strain I picked up was strong enough that I got it even though I took a vaccine meant to last me four years.

So first off was some crippling stomach pain. At first it came in short bursts I thought I could ignore and fight off with some Pepto-Bismol. I was really committed to this plan until Wilson found me in my room curled in a ball half in tears. He wanted to take me to the dispensary right away but first I had to vomit until I was dry heaving.

Then came on fatigue; I felt like my actual life force had been drained out of me. As I half walked/ was carried back to my room a fever began.

I was sick enough to legitimately scare Wilson so he called deacon and I was moved to the Father’s house.

There I was forced to eat, exhausting me more and hurting my stomach immensely, because the antibiotics I was given cannot be taken without food. I went to bed shortly after and that’s when the fever got really high.

The stomach pain probably would have kept me up if not for the exhaustion from the pills and the movement. I felt like I could have slept for a million years but the fever was now high enough to make me half delirious and give me awful fever dreams. I can sort of remember that night and the following day, but I can’t establish what really happened and what didn’t. The only concrete evidence I have of anything that happened that night is looking at my call history. Apparently I called my father sobbing and also at one point talked to Wilson rambling enough for him to call the Father to make him check on me.

The next day the fever seemed to break. This should have been a blessing but now I was fully aware of the awful pain I was in.

Imagine being kicked in the stomach with a steel toed boot as that creature from alien rips its way out of you. That’s how my abdomen felt.

As an added bonus my head hurt so much I could barely finish a thought.
The good news was I didn’t have the diarrhea that is common with typhoid. The bad news is the reason I didn’t have the diarrhea is because I was one of the lucky few who react to typhoid with constipation.

Top it all of with some nausea and there you have a nice bout of typhoid.

So that’s how I felt.

Now here I am a 19 year old girl with lots of people around me and the ability to get myself to a hospital if anything really goes bad. Or even back to the states.

So imagine how small children must feel. Imagine 5 year olds, even 10 year olds, contracting this and having to be home alone well they have it as mom and dad need to work. No real medical care is available except for whatever medicine can be scraped up and there is no one to make sure the fever doesn’t climb too high.

Imagine that this happens to 20 people a month.

Imagine that most people don’t have the money to pay for the needed medicine (it cost me over 500 shillings, that a lot of money here)

Imagine that this is all completely preventable with some education and some money.

Now I suppose you don’t need to imagine why this is so important.

So here is another plea. Please donate.

I’ll write more later as for now I am exhausted from sitting up. but I wanted to get some out well I was in the throes of it.