back to health

so as most of you know this past week kicked my butt. ist started and the beginning of the week went awesome. i even got to do some gardening again which was therapeutic. i'm told that my garden at the regional house is sprouting. good news all around. i settled in with the new host family- they're great and have given me a lot of freedom which i appreciate. i have been enjoying my bike ride to the center and back, talking with people i haven't seen for a while...

then came wednesday.

i woke up wednesday feeling a little puffy but figured they were the sleep puffies. i get them when i actually get some sleep which i did the night before. by noon the puffies grew to include my forehead and nose. by the afternoon the swelling had become extremely noticable. i took some benadryl thinking that it was an allergic reaction and some more again when i went to bed.

thursday.

i woke up and not only had the swelling gotten worse, but it was red and warm to the touch. i called the pc med office right away and they felt it was serious enough that i needed to go to dakar.

friday.

had my doctor's appointment in the morning. when i went to so see him he immediately told me i had to be admitted. so within the hour i was wisked downstairs and put on iv antibiotics. i had an infection in my face from a bite that had started to go to my blood. for me that was the scariest part- everything happening so fast and only understanding a little of rapid french/wolof. so i stayed in the hospital (the best one in senegal i'm told) for three days. i was on iv the whole time plus the occasional anti-inflamitory shot in the butt. (not pleasant). by the second day the swelling had gone down considerably and i was released this afternoon. i'm on anti-biotics for a week yet, but i am looking forward to going back to thies.

no worries, i had great care while i was here. the hospital staff was amazing and very kind and pc was awesome about taking care of me. i'm better now which is the most important thing. hopefully this will be my only hospital visit while i'm here. i have yet to talk to pc doctors (they weren't in when i got back to the pc office) and once they clear me i can go back to saving the world.

cheers!
jaime