A Little Something Came Home With Me.....

Lots of great things happened during my last few days in Brazil. And generally I felt well during those days, although I may have had a low-grade fever often, and even more often I had a mild headache.

On 5 Sept I felt well enough to go to Novo Airao with a group of about 15 others from the church for an outreach program called "Louvorzao".  This was coordinated by the Presbyterian church there, and we Methodists were invited to participate.  The theme, as you can see in the photo, was "We must be one..."  A large stage with a beautiful painted backdrop was set up in front of the Presbyterian church. 

On Friday and Saturday nights there were a variety of singing presentations, drama acts, sermons, and testimonials.  It was very powerful.  In the afternoon of Fri and Saturday we went door-to-door inviting people to come to the evening presentation. This was a beautiful experience, and it was fun to wander the streets of Novo Airao, a small town that I first explored in 1998. 
In fact, this is where I met Gleicyanne, on 18 August 1998.  Now 16 years later, I'm living with her and her family in Manaus for these three months.

Going door-to-door, street-by-street in Novo Airao.

On Saturday morning we took a series of small boat rides to a beach on an island in the Rio Negro.  It was splendid toplay in the warm water for a few hours.

While returning to Manaus on Sunday morning, we stopped at a popular beach along the highway, called Praia Acutuba.  Here the water was still so high that many trees were present where we were swimming.  Lots of people climbed the trees and jumped from them into the water.

Gleicy at my farewell party.

On Sunday night at church, I received a very rich and warm blessing as this was my last Sunday in Brazil.  Incredibly, I was able to give my farewell speech without crying.  This was followed by a spectacular party/feast upstairs that Gleicyanne coordinated.  There was a huge cake, musse de maracuja (mousse of passion fruit), lasagna, soft drinks, and hundreds of people.  I received many gifts from individuals and many photos were taken.  Gleicy told me later that while setting it all up during church service, she had to go into the bathroom and cry for a long time.  She has really enjoyed having me around for longer than a week or ten days.

Monday, Sept 8 was spent in packing up for my return, and on Tuesday Gleicyanne took me to the airport at noon.  Thyago and Mirtene met me there, with more gifts and tearful hugs.  My persistent headache and some nausea were present during the flight to Miami, and the next day, too.   I arrived in Montana at 16:45 on 10 September 2014.

But my mission experience isn't quite over yet.  On 11 Sept I had to go to our Emergency Room here for 2.5 liters of IV fluid.  I was anemic before all that fluid, and my liver enzymes are substantially elevated.  Blood cultures haven't yet grown anything.  My leading diagnosis is typhoid fever, and Dr. Lacerda in Manaus is quite sure of it.  Today (16 September) represents 5 days since I started taking ciprofloxacin regularly.  The fevers and headache are gone, but now I'm turning yellow with jaundice and my liver enzymes are even higher.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

4 September – Winding Down and Throwing Up

Yesterday was truly awful.  I was hanging out in the cafeteria at Gleicy’s college, waiting for her to finish with morning classes when I began to get sick.  It started with a fever and sweating, followed by tremendous shaking chills and terrible nausea.  I thought I wouldn’t see her till 11:30, but she happened to pass by at 10:20 and saw that I was ill.  I asked her to quickly get a trash can, which she did.  Then I puked numerous times into said trash can, while simultaneously shaking and sweating.  I must have been quite a spectacle for the hundreds of students nearby. 

I was very weak, but slowly walked to her car after she brought it up to the door of the building.  Gleicy took me to a public hospital, where I was quickly evaluated.  My axillary temperature was 38 C and my blood pressure was 110/50.  Blood tests showed elevated white blood cells and low platelets.   A very gentle and pleasant nurse gave me some intravenous dipirona, and I soon felt better.  Dipirona is banned in the USA because it can cause bone marrow failure, but I’ve yet to meet a Brazilian doc who has seen that happen.

Gleicy had to go to her afternoon clinic assignment (she’s in her last year of studies for Clinical Psychology), so Pastor Augusto came to get me to get me from the hospital.  We learned that my lab tests would come back for at least 2 hours, so he took me to his house and went back later to get the results.  I was actually hungry by the time he got me to his home, and still desperately thirsty.  So I had three small glasses of Coca-Cola and ate two breakfast bars.  Then, I slept for five hours while evidently sweating profusely.  My clothes and the bed sheets were soaked with sweat.

Today I feel better.  My abdominal region is sore from all the violent puking, but I don’t feel nauseas. 

Tomorrow I will go to Novo Airao with a group from the church.  But if I feel sick at any time today I will just stay in Manaus.   

My local friends tell me that I’ve now passed the final test of becoming a true citizen of Manaus  - I spent half a day in a public hospital.  But it really was not a terrible experience.  There was no delay in taking vital signs and I waited only 10 minutes or less to see a doctor.  She sat primly behind a very neat desk in her perfect white doctor’s coat and grinned as I relayed my symptoms and recent travel history.  She wrote the request for a malaria smear and CBC on a piece of paper, and instructions to give me the dipirona after the blood was obtained.  I waited about 10 minutes for my turn in the phlebotomy chair, and about 20 minutes for my injection.  And all of this was free.

 

Just 5 more days before I leave Brazil.