The Clinic

I suppose it was inevitable that I would get ill at some point during the year, I’m only grateful that it was after my family had gone back home and that it didn’t happen while I was on holiday.

On Monday last week I came down with a bug that saw me fixed to the toilet seat for much of the day. Remembering my training I drank masses of water tried to keep myself hydrated, however by about 4pm I had started to feel dizzy and was becoming feverish. Terrified it might be malaria I got Judy to drive me to the VSO approved clinic in Lilongwe which is far nicer than any of the general hospitals the country has.

Upon arrival the doctor took one look at me and before you could even say Malaria I was having blood taken out of one vein and sodium chloride pumped into another. I actually felt a million dollars as soon as they hooked me up to the IV drip as my main problem was really just de-hydration. The malaria test came back negative but my kidney function was impaired due to the lack of fluids so I had to stay in overnight on the drip for observation.

During my 24 hour stay they gave me a whopping eight bottles of antibiotics to get rid of whatever had caused the diarrhoea plus some Piriton to get rid of the side effects and a fever shot in my bum! To be honest I think they completely over medicated, partly because they’re terrified of having a VSO volunteer die on them and also (more cynically) because it means they can charge VSO for more drugs.

When they finally let me out I actually felt worse than when I went in because of the massive drug hangover I had, and just to make absolutely certain there wasn’t a single bacterium alive inside me they gave me yet another course of antibiotics to take home and carry on with.

Back at home I was so glad to be out of the hospital and “fixed” that I made myself a bowl of rich beef stew and cracked open a bottle of red. After dinner I popped one of the follow-up pills they’d given me and went straight to bed…

…Two hours later and I’m awake again, sweating, shaking and talking into the porcelain telephone!

The following morning, feeling like I’d been clubbing all night I read the leaflet that came with the pills they’d given me “Potentially Fatal: Disulfiram-like reaction when administered with alcohol” Great, they never mentioned that! I guess it’s not something that’s an issue for most Malawians!

Anyway, three days later and I’m finally back to sorts, it really has taken me longer to get over the treatment than it did to get over the illness.

I’ve decided not to take the rest of the antibiotics, I’m going to save them for next time and go and buy some ORS sachets for my first aid kit, that way I can hopefully avoid going back to the clinic