Mt Phiri and Malaria

On Sunday Marijke and Aly joined two doctors Vinny and Aidinne for a hike up Mt Phiri. At the bottom Aly noticed she was short of breath but couldn’t understand why. Vinny had been here before and despite thinking there was a path to the top we couldn’t find one, so we climbed straight up and it was a steep hill! It was 2:00 and very hot. With sweat dripping off our bodies we kept stopping to catch our breath. Aly told Marijke she thought she might not make it. Aly felt very weak and kind of silly that she couldn’t make it up the mountain. Regardless, we did make it to the top and it was a spectacular view! The hike down was almost as hard as it was straight down and there were a lot of loose pebbles. Was it worth it? Well….maybe. The locals laughed at us when we came down the hill and many people offered to take us up again but this time on the path. We would probably go again with a local guide.

That evening after dinner Aly wasn’t feeling well and returned home to go to sleep. She awoke in the night with vomiting and diarrhea. Marijke did a blood smear on Aly in the morning and found out that she had malaria! So, despite being paranoid of the mosquitos, despite taking prophylaxis she is now suffering from malaria. Luckily there are many fabulous doctors here who have been taking very good care of Aly. Especially, her live-in midwife who has been nursing her back to good health. Malaria is an awful infection. Terrible stomach pains, backache, general muscle pain and incredible fevers that come and go. There is an ad here in Africa about Malaria medication and it says, “On the 1^st day she can lift her head, on the 2^nd she can sit up, and on the 3^rd she is out to play”.

Unfortunatly the coartum didn't work as well as the ads say it does and Aly had to resort to a 2nd line of drugs - quinnine. Its been 1 week now since she was initially diagnosed and while considerably better, she is not yet fully functionning. Quinnine has bizarre side effects and so while she can get up and out of bed, she has wierd ringing in her ears and is still incredibly tired. Wish her well!

And thanks to our friend Liz and her dial up connection, we were able to publish all these posts Aly wrote while hanging out in bed!! She got bored of watching the geckos with whom we share our rondavel!