I Joined the Dengue Club!!!

Unfortunately, I don´t have any cool pictures for this blog entry. I just thought that now, since Dengue is a thing of the past, I thought that I could briefly describe my experiences with it. Basically, I woke up one Sunday morning (the DAY before my summer camp started, no less), with pains all over my body. I thought that they might just be muscle pains but, by noon that day, I had a fever of 103. When I was lying in my bed that night, shivering in 90 degree weather, I was pretty sure that something was wrong with me. The Peace Corps nurse said that it was most likely Dengue (as there is an epidemic running through our group). When I mentioned the word to my host family, they all told me that there was absolutley NO way that it was Dengue, because God would never give me Dengue and I shouldn´t even mention it, blah blah blah. In any case, my directora and the orientadora took me to Caribe Tours so that they could get me en route to the hospital (we volunteers MUST go to clinica abreu in the capital). When we got to the bus stop at 10:45, they said that the 11am bus was full. As I was lying on a park bench with a wet shirt rapped around me head, the directora went around trying to ask if ANYONE could give up his/her seat so that I could get to the hospital. People in this country are jerks! We almost didn´t find anyone! Eventually a mother and her two small children got off and gave us her seats. The orientadora (who is my project partner) rode the bus with me to the capital. The trip normally takes about 4/4 and a half hours...which, with Dengue, is excrutiating. With Dengue, one has severe soreness in the eye sockets, migraines, very high fever, chills, nausea, vomiting, diahrea, the works. It is also called "break-bone fever" because it feels as if one´s bones are breaking. Four hours of this on the bus was bad but, to make things worse, we STOPPED in the capital on the middle of the highway because people from the barrios were striking. This means that they burn tires and throw rocks at people to stop traffic until the government does what they want. After THREE hours, we finally started moving again. All in all, it took me about 8 and a half hours to get to the hospital. They took me straight to the emergency room, hooked me up to an I.V. (one of my BIGGEST fears, btw), and started doing all the tests to figure out what I had. I spent a really boring EIGHT days in the hospital, until my platelets and white blood cells were finally at an acceptable level. Surprisingly, I felt tons better as soon as I got home. I had to rest a bit, but I was straight to work at my summer camp and already feel as good as new. My new joy of the DR...a skin fungus that leaves white spots. I am one of a big group who has this as well. To get rid of it...we have to bathe in Selson Blue shampoo...and continue using it until we go back home! The weather is beautiful but the tropics are a breeding ground for grossness!