So. When I was itchy we were wracking our brains to figure out what might be different and the only thing I could come up with was mangos. I didn’t really like mangos as a kid, but I’ve developed a taste for them, particularly the fresh ones. Anyway, once all my rash cleared up, I ate some (yesterday). Today I have a slightly less dramatic replay of the facial and lip rashes, and a very slight suggestion of the finger rash. It seems I am allergic to mangos.

In other health news, my friend Aurelie, who stays with the same family, is pretty sick, probably with malaria. Yesterday she said something along the lines of “I feel like I danced all yesterday”, as in her muscles were sore. Then we were sitting around not getting our days started, and she said that she felt tired and listless. And she had a headache. At that point I said, “you know, those are the symptoms of malaria”. She poo-pooed me, but I made her take her temperature before leaving the house. It was 37. 3, which she didn’t think was a big deal. I told her to wait half an hour and see if it changed, but she wanted to get going. I convinced her to take it again in 10 minutes, and it had gone up to 37.4. I told her she had a fever, and she should rest for half and hour and take it again. She agreed. In half an hour it was just over 38. I called the doctor, who seemed relatively unconcerned. He said to take something (paracitamol) for the fever, and he’d check in later. When he came, she said “oh no, I’m fine!” and he said okay and left without even asking what her symptoms were.

Later she wanted to go to the market so I went with her in case she collapsed or something (her fever was down to 37.8). After we got back she went to her room, but came and asked to borrow a gimicky thing I have for cooling down. I took her temperature again, and it was 39. I wasn’t sure what to do because of the doctor’s earlier reaction, but when I eventually called him, h sent me to a pharmacy and called in a prescription for malaria treatment, antibiotics, tylenol, and an iron supplement. The combination was almost immediately effective on her fever, although she still feels like crap, I’m a lot less worried about her.

Aurelie and I take the same anti malaria drug, which is what I’ve taken every time I’ve come. The doctor asked me how many times I’ve had malaria, and I said never. He thinks I have some immunity. That would sure be nice.

Filed under: Africa Daily-Living

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