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.