Sooo...this week began great with my first and only class on Monday being cancelled, which I didn't find out until I walked all the way to class, but I'll still take it. Once I realized I had the whole rest of the day free I decided to attempt to take the tro-tro and get the mall by myself because I've decided I hate feeling like I can't go somewhere when I want to and so I'm doing my best to become more familiar with the tro-tro system. After meeting another girl at the tro-tro stop who is also a student at Legon, she helped me get on the right tro-tro and ended coming into the mall with me and making sure I got there safely which was incredibly nice. I was so excited to be able to find a pair of goggles and a swim cap at the mall so that I can finally start swimming in the pool right near our hostels, even though they have a rather sexist rule that no girls can enter the pool without a swim cap on. Although I can understand how they wouldn't want hair in the pool, in my opinion if you are going to make girls wear caps then guys should have to too because there are def. some guys with longer hair then me...just saying.
Then came Tuesday...everything was going pretty good I got up and went for a swim and then went to volunteer at the local primary school that I am thinking about doing my internship with. Around the afternoon I started to not feel so good but just tried to brush it off and go to my class at 5:30. I knew things were going down hill pretty fast when I was getting chills in class and felt feverish, never really a good sign to get chills in Ghana. Once I started to get really achy and had a bad headache and fever I decided it was time to go to the hospital. After getting there and getting back to see the doctor pretty quickly she basically immediately diagnosed me as having malaria and admitted me. I then did some labs so that they could make sure it was malaria, but those weren't going to be ready until the next day so they just decided to start with the malaria iv to get my fever down. Then one of the nurses came in and was giggling and I was like what is so funny and she explained that she was going to give me a shot in the butt to help with the joint pain...at least this lightened up the mood as Kate, one of the girls in ISEP who came with me, was cracking up too.
The next morning I woke up feeling better but still feeling really tired and a bit nauceous. Kate and I decided though that the hospital is the place to be, minus the whole being sick thing, because there was AC, a tv, and a nice bathroom with free toilet paper! After a few more rounds of drip iv bags the doctor came in and found from my lab results that I was negative for malaria but that apparently I could still have malaria because the medicine was helping me and the lab results were always correct. He explained it that even though the malaria didn't show up in the sample of blood they took that I could still have it, so that was really reassuring...
After this he told me that I would have to stay at least for another day while they got more lab work done and waited to see if I had what he thought might be either a gastrointestinal infection or a bacterial infection. This is when I became sort of frustrated because I just wanted to know what was wrong with me so that they could give me the medicine and I could get out of there. I def. don't do good sitting in one place for a very long time, especially with being poked with iv's every few hours and being in a hospital in Africa thousands of miles away from my family.
The next morning I saw the doctor and he told me he believed I didn't have malaria and that it was a gastrointestinal infection after all but that I would have to wait until Saturday for the lab results to come back so that they knew what anti-biotics to give me. This was on Thursday and was a huge downer because we were going to have our trip to the Volta Region this weekend and I was so excited for it and the last place I wanted to be was sitting in a hospital room. After sitting there for a few more hours and thinking that I wasn't going to be going home for a few more days I basically just broke down from being so exhausted and frustrated with both my body and the fact that people just weren't telling me what was going on. Then some of the nurses came in an gave me hugs and basically served as my mom for the day because I obviously couldn't see her. I was in such a frustrated and low place and feeling like everything was just going down hill fast until they came in and then my doctor came in and he told me how he was also a preacher. We started talking and I was explaining to him how when your sick and all you want is your parents, and he reminded that my Heavenly Father was always with me no matter where in the world I was. I also started talking to one of the nurses name Joyce who said her name meant "joy." She was so kind and after she saw that I had my Bible sitting on my bed, she began to explain to me that she became a nurse so that she could be the hands and feet for Jesus, to help people get well and always be the light when they were in a dark place. It was so inspiring to be around someone so strong in their faith who is truly living out Gospel and doing everything in His name. It was amazing because one second I was feeling so alone and then God completely surrounded me with his love and angels in the form of my nurses, who comforted and showed me the power of having faith that God would live up to his promise.
On Friday afternoon the doctor finally let me go so that I could go on my weekend trip! Although it was a long and not very fun experience being sick, I feel like my faith was strengthened and I am so appreciative of the wonderful Ghanaian hospitality that was shown by my doctor and nurses.
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