Hello all, I apologize for my silence for almost two weeks. Several of us discussed media Monday a week ago and I decided not to blog until I was safely stowed away in my quarantine house, which I now am.
Monday, February 16th, I woke up with a sore throat. Throughout the day I took my temperature and it was in the 99.0-99.6 range. I had intermittent headaches and was tired, but as I had been up 26 straight hours over the weekend followed by four hours good sleep then awake again for a training session, of course, being tired made perfect sense. My immune system had clearly taken a hit. Monday is my off day, so I remained in my room and relaxed (well, as much as you can relax when you are slightly under the weather and nervous that at any point your temperature will spike). I read, I blogged, a friend volunteered to come over which I turned down--if I am coming down with something, no need to share it! That afternoon my temp hit 100.2; not technically a fever yet but high enough that it warranted notifying my supervisor. I reported all my symptoms and a doctor and our head nurse came to my room that evening bringing dinner and donned in light PPE to assess me. They maintained the two meter wide berth as per protocol. The decision was made to re-evaluate me in the morning. Throughout the night I took my temperature each time I awoke. At 4 am it was 98.3! Hurray! I am fine! At 7 it was still in the 98 zone but, as I still had a sore throat, I was instructed to remain in my room and continue to hydrate and rest and try to recover. The headaches continued to come and go. In the afternoon my temperature began to climb again--but the power was out and it was most likely 85-90 degrees outside. Around dinner time a few friends came over to spend time with me on my porch (again, maintaining their distance out of precaution) and they were a welcome break to the monotony of my day. My temperature rose above 100 again; again to 100.2. The decision was made that evening for me to go to Kerrytown, the 'ex-pat etc' as it is nicknamed. It is really the healthcare worker ETC. It has several more capabilities then the ETC I work at--for one, Kerrytown has a lab on site and not only tests individuals for malaria and Ebola but also does CBCs, BMPs, CRP, and oral/nasal swabs to check for respiratory infections. (CBC-complete blood count-essentially tells us if you are battling an infection or if you are anemic; BMP-basic metabolic panel-tells us what your electrolytes levels in your blood are which can help us tell if you are dehydrated; C-reactive protein-blood test that shows if inflammation is present). So, at ten pm Tuesday night, I was loaded up in the back of an ambulance and was on my way to Kerrytown; no longer the healthcare worker, now, the patient.
We arrived that evening and, even having a good idea what to expect after working in an ETC for five weeks I was nervous. Thoughts swirling around my head: "Why had I remained awake 26 hours straight over the weekend? That was dumb." "I am supposed to leave in 6 days!! Why did I have to get sick now?!" "Will I be able to go back to work or am I done?" "Think, self, think, did you have any issues with your PPE recently? Touch anyone while in the market that may have been sick? Did you wash your hands before touching your eyes?!" "What is my family thinking right now? I wish I could call them. I don't think I have Ebola...but I don't know why my temperature is higher than it's been..."
I had the local nokia phone with me but had left my US phone in the capable hands of one of my coworkers and requested that she keep my family and a few others informed of information as I knew how things were going. She graciously agreed, and was the recipient of a running commentary of my time in Kerrytown. I am so thankful for her--she kept me from freaking out the first day I was in there-kept texting me lyrics to various hymns. My other co-workers were also beyond wonderful--sending encouraging texts, sending me credit to the phone so that I did not run out and could continue contacting the outside world, and calling me to help me pass the time and to tell me about work--what I was missing, did certain patients get to go home, the national staff has been asking where I am...
We arrived at Kerrytown around midnight. My blood was tested for malaria at bedside-think fingerprick method. My bed was more comfortable than the one I had been sleeping on the entire time in SL! I was given a mosquito net, some water, some snacks, and disposable scrubs for pajamas. There was a camera in the tent that was on the entire time I was in there. I was told to "wave at the camera if you need anything." Umm...that's helpful, it is...but where can I change clothes?! I settled down for the night and tried to sleep--the waiting had begun.
Breakfast was porridge and a small sandwich with some kind of spread on the inside; both food items remarkably resembled what we serve at our ETC. Around 9 they drew my blood and did some swabs then left me alone. Now the wait for results had begun. I didn't take much to Kerrytown--anything that enters high risk is burned or chlorinated. I had taken the nokia, a small book of index cards, a pen, a printed out copy of Hebrews 11 (although only the first page...no idea where the second half of the chapter is!), the clothes I was wearing, socks in case my feet got cold, a few spare underclothes, and my malaria medicine since Wednesday was close.
I continued working on memorizing Hebrews 11 then played a few sudoku games on the phone. There are one hundred games...but the phone doesn't save your progress unless you immediately start the next puzzle after beating one...which I learned the hard way on puzzles 1 & 2..."Wait a second...this feels familiar...hmm, yep! I have solved this puzzle before!" And it won't let you skip puzzles. I wrote down a few of them that way if my progress was lost again, at least I wouldn't have to re-solve the puzzle from the beginning.
A doctor came in to assess me and asked me many questions regarding my symptom history and about how I was feeling presently. I begin to be quite curious--why is he asking these questions, what is he looking for, and what do I not yet know that he does? He then told me--all your blood work and your swabs are back except the Ebola pcr--all lab work is normal. I don't know what you have. Shortly thereafter he left the tent and I was again alone with my thoughts.
Ebola is a terribly isolating disease. Once you get sick, others avoid you. They have to--else they will also become sick. When you are a suspect Ebola case, you are also isolated. You are treated as infectious and rightly so--you could have Ebola, we haven't ruled it out yet. Being on the other side of that isolation---sucks. You can't get away from the thoughts plaguing your mind. I at least could pray and sing and knew that Jehovah Shammah was near; I knew that Jehovah Rapha could heal me of whatever was going on. There are mountains all around Kerrytown; I began to sing the song based on Psalm 121:
"I lift my eyes up, to the mountains/where does my help come from? My help comes from you! Maker of Heaven, Creator of the Earth/Oh how I need you Lord, you are my only hope/You are my only prayer/And so I'll wait for you to come and rescue me/Come and give me life..."
Sometime after 3 pm, the doctor who had visited me that morning called my name and I left the tent. He was on the other side of the fence and said, "You're negative! Results are back! Praise God from whom all blessings flow! I began a flurry of calls/texts to update my co-workers and family. I then thought I would be released...but as my labwork had not provided a diagnosis, I needed to stay in Kerrytown until I was 72 hours past my first fever. 72 hours was 3 pm Thursday...which means my second result would not be back until late Thursday evening or perhaps night.
Now...to wait. Again.
Thankfully Kerrytown has a lab on site. Some of our patients have to wait 12-24 hours for a result, and sometimes that result is the ever-frustrating "indeterminate" which means it will be re-run but may need to re-collected. The time I had to spend waiting was quite torturous---I cannot imagine how discouraging it must be to receive an "indeterminate" result. Some of our patients believe we are collecting their blood to sell it or to find better ways to poison them--they are quite suspicious. Makes it far harder to develop trust when we have to re-draw their blood because we couldn't read the result of the first blood drawn :-(
This is a long enough post...I will write more about my adventures in Kerrytown soon.
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