Malaria wakeup call – anybody else been to this ailment and back?

[basketcase]

For three weeks in December I traveled overseas on a teaching assignment, and have since come down with Malaria -- this in spite of taking a preventative while away.

“Bummer” is the politest thing I can think of to say…

Meanwhile, I am reading up on the ailment, and this is a serious health issue that seems to be getting worse.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20060120/HMALARIA20/TPHealth/

If the WHO is accurate, the projections for Malaria are staggering in terms of world wide impact.

Meanwhile, I’ve not decided which will kill me fastest -- the attacks, or the cure. :bluduh

With the Malaria episodes I get fever, chills, sweating, lethargy, and headache. With the medications I get nausea, dizziness, sleeplessness, lethargy, and headache. :huh Scientifically, I'm winning -- but it might be a while before I know for sure.

For example, my energy level: today I can walk from one end of the house to the other before having to sit down and rest. This has proven interesting over the past week.

Yesterday (Friday 1/20) I lurch my way to the kitchen to brew coffee. Put on the coffee, go lay down on the couch and recover my breath.

Coffee brews, so go to the kitchen and pour a cup. Sit down at the kitchen table to rest.

Get up to go to the office (back on the other end of the house) and get to about the master bed room and get nauseated. Take a detour into the master bath. Sit on the side of the tub until the spell passes.

Get up to make another run at getting to the office and T-bone the door-facing, thereby totaling what would have been a darn fine cup of coffee. :banghead

Lay down on the bed for a while before trying again.

No matter what the goal, that was the way each play went on Friday.

So today, I’m laid out in bed – covers over my head when my wife comes through dusting and straightening.

“I’m sorry I’m so useless today.”

“Darling, you don’t dust when you are well,” she says. :stick

Touché’ … and not to forget, entirely true!

Now, has anyone else had experience with Malaria? I know we have some other (military) veterans in the club who probably served overseas. And more than any other rider’s group I know of, beemer riders travel and tour internationally.

I would be interested in hearing the story: how long it took to shake it, what worked and didn’t, anything. If you don’t want to get into it here, drop me a note via e-mail.

Rick (I'm officially off the blood donor list, too) in AL

[kbasa]

Gin and tonics, my friend.

Good luck with it. It sounds horrid.

[PacWestGS]

Rick, which type did they diagnose you as having: P.Vivax or P.Falciparum? Or, one of the rarer two?

What are they treating you with?

Feel free to PM me if you'd rather go that route.

I'd be interested to know though what you were taking for prophylaxis (prevention)? We always used Doxycycline 500mg daily while in country.


And I'll second the Gin & Tonic whether or not the Tonic Water has Quinine or not. But if over there drink it with the Quinine :D

Man I feel for you I have seen a lot of it and I have seen a few of our guys get it. Really wipes you out, as you know all to better now.

Get well soon, you will get better as time marches on, but it may be a few months before you are ready to do things as normal.

Russ

[basketcase]

Russ, the preventative was Malarone, which I believe is combination of several different drugs. Looking at the package, I have decided I need new glasses to see the fine print...

The treatment prescribed on Thursday was Mefloquine HCL, 250 mg. Three the first day, two the second day, and then finish with another run of Malarone.

After a week of on-again/off-again attacks, all I did at the docs on Thursday morning was grunt when they prodded me. So I will have to check on the details of which type of Malaria. If you keep up with travel medicine, it was whatever variety they have (probably all of them) in Myanmar.

[PacWestGS]

Wow, I just looked up Malaron, looks like it should have worked better. That is newer than when I was practicing medicine so I don't have any background on it. The Mefloquine will knock you on your ass as you know. I took that once as a prophylaxis because it was a six-month tour in Laos. It made me sick so stopped and took doxy the rest of the trip, or at least when I remembered to take something between the Gin&Tonic. :bottle

I hope that you have P.Falciparum because it is usually gone with one treatment. The others especially Vivax can come back again and again.

Get well soon Rick.

[basketcase]

Russ, thanks.

Looking back on it and counting pills, I missed a few days of the Malarone while in country, and then I got back to the US just before Christmas. Naturally, I forgot the rest of it in view of time zone adjustments and holiday festivities. :eat

The doc fussed quite a bit that I did not finish the Malarone I had when I got back, so it could be I contributed to this by forgetting my meds during the holiday rush.

At any rate, I am feeling much better than Thursday and yesterday. I may take you and Kbasa up on the gin and tonic recommendation! :drink

[PacWestGS]

I missed a few days of the Malarone while in country, and then I got back to the US just before Christmas. Naturally, I forgot the rest of it in view of time zone adjustments and holiday festivities. :eat

The doc fussed quite a bit that I did not finish the Malarone I had when I got back, so it could be I contributed to this by forgetting my meds during the holiday rush.



Yep, that is usually what causes you to get Malaria. I guess I've been very lucky for all the time that I spent over there, but I sure as hell applied copious amounts of DEET and other local Mosquito repellents during the feeding times.

I know of few guys who stopped taking their meds after returning home just to come down with Malaria a week or so after getting home.

Look on the bright side though; you have access to treatment that works. I've seen all too often the village hospital wards filled with sick children and elderly patients suffering through it all with few to any medications. My wife and millions of other locals live their whole lives and never get Malaria so it's one of those things, like getting hit by a car. Some will and some wont, luck of the draw.

Glad to hear that you are improving and just think, you won't have donate blood for the next five-years (if ever again).

:wave

[Burnszilla]

Malaria News: http://www.topix.net/health/malaria
May give you info on cures and drugs etc.

[PacWestGS]

Steve, there's nothing new about that. I didn't read the whole story so I can't comment on it. What we do in the US and use for prophylaxis overseas is and has always been detrimental to the treatment of Malaria in certain counties. We may use one drug as protection and that country is trying to use that drug as a treatment, so we undermine the drugs effectivness because it can develope a resistant strain. But that is taking care of the troops, first and foremost, right?

I've been (had been) involved with Malaria from 1990-1998 in Southeast Asia. What worked in the Eighties, stopped working in the Ninties, and has almost resumed effectivness again in the 21st-Century.

Malaron is a new drug that I have no experience with. Mefloquine was out for a while but seems to the drug of choice again for treatment. Doxycycline was being used as a treatment drug in Laos and we were using it for prophylaxis, go figure...

It's all kind of complicated, and going back to paragraph one above, what we do for US personnel really screws up the world wide effort to treat Malaria in poorer countries.

These are my opinons and are not shared by the government or WHO. :violin

[PacWestGS]

Rick you are also very lucky to have a physician that made the correct diagnosis. Malaria is hard to find, because you can only find it in the blood, and that's only every 72-hours or during the febrile stage. When it's hiding out in your liver many doctors and lab techs miss it.

I've had Madigan Army Medical Center miss finding the little buggers in a patients blood and sent them home without treatment, just so they could come back later. Sometimes, we did the blood work in our team room and then took it back to hospital and told them; See, look here, ya see what I'm saying? Ya' see it? Also, many Lab Machines don't automatically look for Malaria in the states because we don't have it here.

So good on ya'. You'll be able to get on with life sooner and better. What ever they tell you about blood work and donations, believe it, it'll be awhile before you can lead a completely normal life.

Russ

[The_Veg]

Get well soon Rick!

[basketcase]

And Russ, wanna see my scar?

On second thought … forget that. But about your comment:

… you are also very lucky to have a physician that made the correct diagnosis.Since we are talking about the Malaria, doctors, meds, contributing circumstances, traveling, etc., I want to be forthright and say that my even meeting this doctor is something – to my thinking, that can only be explained as the activity of God. In the larger scheme of my life, that factor goes back to before the trip was on the calendar, and in terms of this trip, it is a connection that has proven providential.

Beyond that, when I first began having attacks I thought it was the flu or another seasonal bug. Then it became repetitive, and I started keeping a log of my temperature, bodily sensations, etc. About 3 pm on "attack day" I would begin to have pain in my knees, and that tipped me to the fever starting. Then I would track it until it peaked and waned off.

After this had happened three times, I was pretty sure it was not the flu, and the recent trip overseas was the wild card in terms of, “What might I have?” I had gone to the particular doctor for my pre-trip physical and prescriptions, so when I explained this to him, he opted to treat it as Malaria in view of all things considered. The giveaway was probably the repetitive nature of the attacks, and the yellowed eyes.

This past Sunday was better. During the morning I had a speaking engagement and was able to stand up and talk for 30 minutes before I gave out. After lunch I slept in the afternoon, and had another commitment that night. Humor has been helpful. In the evening meeting I stood up and nearly fell over, and the guy next to me caught me. Hey! Staggering into a meeting of theologians with the appearance of intoxication to will certainly liven up the place…

The Malarone makes me feel like crap, big time. Also, I have a ringing in my ears which I attribute to the meds. So I’ve gradually moved the clock time for taking the Malarone to the evening (as opposed to morning) so when it hits my system strongest I am sleeping, and the icky feeling impact has wound down by the time I get up.

BTW, while I was in Myanmar I saw one (1) BMW, no Gold Wings, and a gazillion Honda Cubs and Super Cubs. Let’s see – I also saw a Kaw dual sport, and bunches of scooters. Also, the Chinese manufacture a bike that is popular there.

Naturally, the differences in the economies (ours and theirs) is one of scale, but inflation there is a huge issue, and their corollary fuel costs make our woes seem minor, so economical forms of transport are highly valued.

Russ, thanks again for the feedback. It’s been helpful to read something that coming from an uninvolved third party. And for any of the rest of you who head off to a third world country – draw a lesson from this and take your darn meds! Well, some of you probably take meds over here, but that deserves a thread of it’s own…

Getting back to motorcycling and this thread -- at one point our standard way of transport (jeep) did not show, so our hosts took us off on a pair of small bikes. The ride was a hoot -- zipping along as co-riders with no helmets, dodging horsecarts, bicyclists, pedestrians, and other vehicles, and with chickens scattering in every direction!

Last evening I had posted two photos that I have since deleted to insert this post. And I’ve almost finished a series of photos and will come back later and post them.

Traveling internationally could be fun ... 'specially on two wheels.

[PacWestGS]

Thanks for the update Rick, I'm glad to hear you are getting back to your life so quickly, you must be an otherwise healthy man. I'd seen tough Green Berets' reduced to blabbering idiots from this, Oh wait, they were blabbering idiots before getting malaria. :laugh

Continue to rest as often as needed and I pray for you that you have the P.Falsip so that you are done after this treatment and it's gone from your life forever.

One day at time. :clap

Russ

[basketcase]

We departed the US on 12/1, and arrived in country on 12/3. Myanmar (aka Burma) is known as the Land of 10,000 Pagodas, because they are all over the place.

Perhaps the best known is the Shwe Dagon pagoda in Yangon. It is reportedly covered with 66 tons of gold plate, and boasts a 70 + carat diamond at the peak of the spire. It seems to attract a lot of tourists, but given that visitors are expected to walk about barefoot, and there is all manner of unclean stuff on the ground, the closest I got was to pass by on the street. Photo is the Shwe Dagon as seen at night, from the roof of the Summit Parkview Hotel.

http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53948927-S.jpg

The first week and the last three days we stayed at the Summit Parkview Hotel in Yangon. Summit Parkview is a nice place. My colleague had traveled in Myanmar and stayed there previously, and raved about the restaurant and buffet. It lived up to his boasting.

http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53948911-S.jpg

Both educators by training, we taught Hermeneutics and Curriculum Design, and worked extensively with interpreters.

http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53948916-S.jpg

Yangon is city of around 1.5 million. The streets are rarely quiet, and traffic at certain periods is horrendous. It is common to see passengers literally hanging onto the bumpers of any kind of vehicle.

http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53957237-S.jpg

The second week we traveled up country some 800 miles where we did a repeat of the previous week’s teaching assignments. The room was very basic, like, very, very basic.

http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53957233-S.jpg

The door at the end of the main access hallway stayed open 24/7, and at night under the crack of the room door I could see the shadows of the mosquitoes as they flew patrol in the hallways…

My Stich fleece liner hanging on the coat tree.

http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53948928-S.jpg

I carted the liner all over the country but never put it on. We were there in their winter time, which meant daytime highs of 85 degrees, and night time lows in the 60’s. Accustomed to triple-digit summer time temps, the Burmese were shivering and bundled up, but I found the weather just about perfect for spring time in Alabama.

Ingenuity is not a strictly American thing. I was intrigued to find a door lock being utilized to replace a defective door latch on a jeep.

http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53948917-S.jpg

We also watched a guy do a repair job on a radiator at a roadside shop.

http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53948926-S.jpg

While there we toured a bit, and at one point the driver & jeep that usually took us around failed to show. So we took the trip on the back of motorcycles! No helmets, wide open, chickens scattering in every direction.

The bikes: http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53948910-S.jpg

The ride: http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53948923-S.jpg

http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53948921-S.jpg

The country is ruled by a military junta, but tourists are free to move about in many areas of the country.

The local “auto zone” and motorcycle shop: http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53948912-S.jpg

Motorcycles are in abundance in Myanmar, and the Honda Super Cub of the late 60’s is still in production.

http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53948924-S.jpg

Super Cub: http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53948929-S.jpg

Yangon qualifies as a modern city, and I don’t recall seeing a horse cart or tractor on the roads. But in the outlying areas one can see every type of wheeled conveyance sharing the road space.

http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53948914-S.jpg

The kiddos at a nursery school were all fascinated by my blue eyes and camera…

http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53948920-S.jpg

While up country, my daily routine was arise, get a quart of hot water from the kitchen, and then make hot tea first – while mentally fortifying myself for a warm shave and barely warm splash bath (with the left over water).

http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53948915-S.jpg

I worked out a routine that got me through the week, and when I got back to the Summit Parkview the first thing I did was run a tub of water as hot as I could stand it and soak until my whole body was wrinkly…

We flew out on 12/18 headed back to the US. I’m not much on flying, but it is a quick way to travel.

http://wordsmyth.smugmug.com/photos/53957235-S.jpg

Recovering from the Malaria has been a strange experience. And that issue aside, the trip was fantastic.

[PacWestGS]

Nice trip report Rick. Looks a lot like the rural areas of Thailand too. In fact that bathroom looks like just like the bathroom in my house in Thailand, (same mirror and sink anyway).I guess it's an Asian thing. :laugh

You had 'hot' water? You lucky dog. :nyah I almost never had hot water over in that part of the world, unless I was staying in 3-star or better hotel.

You should post this over on 'Ride Reprts' I mean you did ride (pillion) didn't you?