Its about 9:45 p.m. and I have been at the hospital since about 7:00 this morning. Travis is still here, and although they say that he is responding to the treatment, he isn't feeling any better yet. The bad news is that he has the most severe of the 4 kinds of malaria. The good news is that it is not a liver dwelling kind, which means that there is no chance of recurrence once this is treated. So, he has to suffer through a lot right now, but once he gets past this it should be over for good.
When I say suffer, I am not exaggerating. Malaria absolutely sucks. Travis looks and feels horrible all the time and there seems to be nothing we can do about it but wait for the medicine to work. His fever got up to 105 last night, but hasn't gotten even close to that high since. Unfortunately, that further dehydrated him, which is what makes him feel so bad. Plus, he can't eat anything, but his stomach isn't happy about that. Please pray for him! I remember what it felt like to be that sick, and describing it with words doesn't do it justice. I just want God to come and heal his body and restore him!!!
I am actually learning a lot about malaria through this, including some things I had wrong. The strand of malaria that I have is a liver dwelling kind, which means that while I was treated 3 years ago, that only killed the parasite that was in my blood stream. There is still a parasite living in my liver that can come out and attack at any point. Since I have already battled this parasite, my immune system is somewhat ready for another attack. So, if the parasite launches a small offensive, I will get sick for a short time, but my immune system will take care of it (which has happened a few times). However, there is always the possibility that the parasite will again try to bring all out war, which would require going to the hospital again. The threat of "malaria war" will always be there for me, which stinks, but I know how to fight it, so it isn't too bad. I had previously though that the malaria got into my liver because it took over 3 months to diagnose, but that was wrong. Even if it had been caught immediately, I would still have it in my liver. Still, the misdiagnosis cause me to suffer for 3 months! Watching Travis for the past few days makes me wonder how in the world I survived!
Well, needless to say, my house is still a mess and I have no plans to clean it anytime soon. I will probably go home tonight to sleep, but will be back at the hospital for most of the day tomorrow...at least until Travis starts to feel normal. I get the feeling he isn't too excited about me being around, but I don't like leaving him alone right now. Once he actually looks and feels like he is recovering, I'll feel much better. For now, though, I will sit in his room and pray...and we'll see what the Healer of bodies and hearts wants to do.
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