Sorry that it’s been so long since we wrote. It’s a long story…
What Happened:
We’ve all gotten sick. Over the past two weeks Therese, Bernedette, I, and Brendan each fell sick with dengue fever. At first Therese and Bernedette were sick for a few days, then me too. Brendan was taking care of all of us and juggling school classes until he got sick too.
Our housemates had it pretty bad, especially because they didn’t rest as much as they should and tried to go back to school on the third day. When they came home they were exhausted and it went downhill until they were in the hospital and decided to fly to Darwin to get better medical attention. And now we are two…
What is Dengue Fever?
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease. You can’t get a vaccination for it because there are four distinctly different types, with hemorrhagic dengue fever being the most severe. Luckily, don’t worry, Brendan and I both got one of the less damaging types. Yay God!
Symptoms are a high fever, chills, bad back pain (it’s called “break-bone” fever), a rash that for some people itches like you wouldn’t believe!, headache, etc. Besides the rash it’s difficult to tell the difference between it and the flu, except that it lasts for a full week and fatigue and after effects can continue past that.
Why We Are Staying:
While we were in the midst of the sickness right after Therese and Bernedette left for Australia, we weren’t sure if we were going to be on a plane to America shortly also. It was a frustrating time, wondering why we had gotten sick just as we are finally getting settled and ready to get back into the work full force after their Christmas Break.
We were going into the hospital regularly to get blood tests done so they could track our progress. The big things to watch with dengue are the white blood cell count and platelet count. So we were trying to talk with any doctor who could speak English well so we could ask questions about our options, but it was difficult because most of the doctors there are Cuban and speak Spanish, a little Tetum, and a little English. We’ve been told that there is some kind of agreement between Cuba and East Timor and a significant part of the medical staff here is Cuban.
But we had been praying that a doctor we would meet would give us a definitive answer either way, that we should stay or that we needed to go. Dogmara, one of our Polish friends, had a friend who got us the name of a doctor from Portugal. When we went to visit him, he spoke perfect English and told us a little more about dengue. He said that he had many international patients with dengue fever last year and that none of them left, even parents with an eight-month old girl with dengue. He said that there is only one subtype of dengue each year, so the likelihood of us getting dengue again is low.
Also, the wet season will be getting over soon (in early March) and at that point the mosquito population will decrease dramatically and the likelihood of getting mosquito-borne diseases will go down even more. Thank goodness – mosquitoes are evil! So if we are leaving the country this November, we’ll get out just as the wet season starts again, and hopefully stay mosquito-borne sickness free!
Prayer Requests:
Even though our little battle with dengue fever is over, we still need your prayers. We are still very exhausted and to get back to 100% will take awhile in this hot hot hot climate. Please pray for wisdom of when to go back to working at the school and clinic. We’re anxious to get back to work, but we know that if we go back before our bodies are ready we’ll just get sick again.
Please pray for our friends who are also sick. For Bernedette and Therese, that they will fully recover and that God will lead them either back here or on to something else new and exciting for Him. For Chris and Sali, our housemates in Rome, who got sick in Baucau recently.
Thanks everybody! We’ll try to catch up on e-mails soon and put up these blogs too – we haven’t been able to do much of anything while we’ve been sick. And thank you as always for checking the blog every week or two, it encourages us to know that you haven’t forgotten about us : )
Love always,
Rachel and Brendan
4 comments:
My prayers go out for you. Dengue is here also and, up to this point, I've not had it - but a really bad cold and sore throat floored me for a few days (and I was having visitors from Ames!)
My ministry is going well - and I'm now helping with the diocesan CARITAS office.
Peace and prayers from Honduras.
John
wow, way to get the full cultural experience! im sorry to hear about the dengue, but way to be troopers about it and stick it out. you both strike me as strong and resilient people and i am confident you'll come out of it stronger. i wish you the best. i'm thinking about you!
love,
will
It's true, that's what we're all about, the full cultural experience : ) Will, how are things going with your teaching and your own cultural experience? Oh my goodness, it'll be awesome when we all get back and can compare stories! Can't wait to see you then!
And John! Congratulations on your work with CARITAS! We were able to work with CARITAS in Rome weekly and were really impressed. Keep up the good work in Honduras!
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