March 20th, 2009

Hi kids,
Just a note to explain why no one has heard from me. On Sunday afternoon my temp starting climbing and I hurt all over my body. I was eagerly anticipating talking to the grandkids at Janae's house after Sarah's baptism. But I kept getting sicker by the minute. Mu temp eventually reached 104. I threw up a couple of times and was getting weaker by the minute, so I finally drug my body up the stairs to bed. I was so sad to not get to see the grandkids on Janae's webcam. But I could hardly lift my head by the appointed time for our phone call.

I thought I must have another kidney infection. but no, during the night it became apparent it was a gastrointestinal infection. When I was headed to the bathroom in the early morning hours the world began swimming around me. I got a hold of a door and thought I'd be OK. Spencer was sort of waking up and wondering why I was trying to pull the door off its hinges. Then he had the horrible experience of watching (almost like slow motion) when I passed out, falling to my hip and then smacking my head on our ceramic tile floor. It was pretty terrifying for Spencer to see and not be able to stop it from happening. I was disoriented and sick and couldn't get up. He tried to lift me, but couldn't. Eventually, by hanging on to him I was able to pull myself up enough to lean over the bed and later crawl across the bed. The world continued swimming--or sometimes revolving in rapid circles for three days. I had been light headed during the night when I got up to the bathroom, but after my head smacked on the floor, the nausea, vomitting and dizziness were many times worse. If I turned my head or turned over in bed I vomitted. We created a makeshift bedpan and I kept a "throw up bucket" cuddled in my arms much of the time.

My temp has gone up every night--but never as high as Sunday. I have drunk so much Pedialyte that even my sweat (and every other body excrement) was starting to smell like it. Ugh! We had to change pillow cases a couple of times a day because I was diaphoretic with the fever and it smelled like Pedialyte. Spencer has been amazing--cleaning me up, taking specimens to the lab, calling the doctor, going to pharmacies, buying and bringing me liquids, washing tons of towels, bedding and stuff for me--and still teaching. Tuesday was awful. If I opened my eyes the room spun around. If I closed them I had hallucinations--sort of like seeing stars, only sometimes it was stars, clouds, mountain tops, wall paper, bugs, you name and I saw it. I finally had Spencer bring up the dvd player to see if religious music would help decrease the hallucinations--mostly I tried to sleep since I couldn't turn my head without throwing up. It was sort of the day from hell in the week from hell.

One of the sisters in the ward (Hermana Gordillo--the one whose son is a missionary in the Ward Dennis and Sandy have callings) has come the last two days to bathe me. Tere, our housekeeper spent two extra hours here today taking care of both the clean laundry Spencer had washed and all of the remaining dirty laundry and all the regular stuff--plus cleaning the fridge, because when Spencer made me some jello, some spilled in the fridge. He said the mess in the fridge was enough "to make a preacher boy cuss." I replied that I was sure it did--since he is a preacher boy, after all, and I'm quite sure he cussed. Finally today I couldn't stand the bedroom any longer, so Spencer helped me downstairs and I have been lying on the couch. I'm still really light headed. Actually, I am fine. It is the world that is crazy--it just keeps randomly swimming around in crazy ways! Tomorrow I finish the antibiotic that will hopefully kill the ameoba. And just writing this much has wasted me. Too bad I don't have wireless internet, 'cause I have to go back to the couch. I'll call when I can get back to the computer and sit upright.

Love,
Mom/Jeanine

Addendum for Friday (written later than that, but from that perspective): Last night while Spencer was teaching I bent over to pick up a couple of things on the floor and when I stood up the second time I started to pass out again. I just sort of leaned for the couch and thankfully made it before going down. I just laid on the couch and cried with discouragement. It felt like such a set-back. The Gordillos had said to call them anytime day or night, but it wouldn't have done any good because I coulldn't have made it to the gate to unlock it. Now we have given them a key so that if I need them, they can let themselves in.

We went to the doctor today. I rode the bus the block and a half. Just having it start moving about made me hurl. The diarrhea stopped after three days, but the nausea and dizziness continue. We asked about the head trauma, but she wants to wait until next week to see if the symptoms still persist. She started me on something new for dizziness--a vasodilator for the brain or something scary sounding. They are pretty laid back about head trauma. Of course, most concussions do resolve on their own. It just would have been nice to know. I guess. I can't complain about her care though--she made a house call on Monday to give me a shot for nausea. No one in the states would have done that. Plus, she won't let us pay. She is a menos activo in our ward and a very nice person.

Cominng home from the doctor's office was a real challenge. It is a one way street the other way. I couldn't stomach the thought of being on the bus for the whole big loop with all of the jerky stops and starts, so I just hung on to Spencer and we started up the street. I found a place to sit down and rest about every half a block. Everyone kept stopping and staring, so I must have looked a spectacle. One young adult in the ward came out from her work and asked if she could help--but I was only a half block from home and there was nothing to do, but just keep going.

Spencer also talked to Dr. Rory Vides--the head of the medical school. He said we could have called him. But he also didn't seem too worried about head trauma. He said diarrhea in this country can have after affects for weeks or sometimes months. He said it is dangerous if you can't get it stopped in 24 hours. Mine lasted three days.

We don't know where I got this bug. We had gone to Guatemala City on Friday and Saturday to the temple. The only things I had different than Spencer were a tamale and I asked for purified water and they brought it in a pitcher--presumably purified. We only ate at Pizza Hut and the church owned diner across from the temple--which is really very clean. Maybe there was just one food handler that hadn't washed hands properly. But some literature says you can also get it from hand to mouth contamination if you shake hands with someone and then eat something (like nuts or fruit) that is hand to mouth without washing your hands first. I am pretty compulsive about handwashing and don't recall anything like that, but who knows. All kinds of ameoba are endemic in many parts of the world--including here. We'll probably never know and I guess it really doesn't matter.