Hospital Run

I’m not one to procrastinate much, just ask my buddies in college and they’ll tell you that finals week is my favorite week of the whole school year. I’m so “anti-procrastination” that I start studying weeks before finals and am more free than ever when it comes time to actually take them. I don’t say all of this to “toot my own horn”, (although it’s a really rewarding way to study, if you’ve never tried it before, I would highly recommend it) but rather to attempt to explain the quality of this blog. I procrastinated writing this blog more than I have any paper in my life, and, like any good procrastinator would say, “it wasn’t my fault”.

Everything went down two Mondays ago just about the time I was posting my last blog. As I sat in the rejuvenating presence of the WiFi at the Takana Hotel in town, my body was doing anything but rejuvenating. Before all of my WiFi-dependent tasks had been finished, I started to feel a little achy, then a little chilly, then a little feverish. By the time I was on the truck headed back to the orphanage, I was running full-on flu-symptoms minus the puking.

For the next four or five days, I continued to have flu-like symptoms, but pretended that I was getting better. By Thursday, I felt well enough to participate in a little get-together we hosted for the Rurrenabaque SDA Church youth group. We put together a short worship program for them and then played some soccer and other games. As always, my four boys were thrilled with the chance to hang out with some others their age and play soccer with a full team. The highlight for me was a little improv skit we put on about giving God the “seat of decision” in which I played the part of God.

To summarize the skit: A girl decides to surrender her will to God. God sits in the “seat of decision” and immediately begins making some decisions that don’t line up with what the girl wants. She begins to question her choice to give God the seat, and tries to share the seat with God and, eventually, to take the seat back altogether. The skit ends with God asking her what she really wants. The girl hesitates some and says she can’t make up her mind, to which God replies “you just did”.

The next day, I came to the realization that I wasn’t getting any better--it was just the ibuprofen working its magic. After spending the previous day running all over campus preparing for the youth group to arrive, I felt worse than ever. I decided it was time to go to the hospital to see what was going on. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait too long to get in to see the doctor. I explained my symptoms and the doctor concluded that it was salmonella. I hadn’t had too many issues with my stomach, but different strains have unique symptoms that are different for everyone. I started the antibiotics that night and hoped for the best the next morning.

However, when I woke up the next morning, it seemed as if the antibiotics had made everything worse. My head was pounding and I felt this weird sensation that my organs were all jumbled up inside my body which made me feel as though I couldn’t breathe. I was pretty scared, so I called another volunteer to come and make sure I didn’t pass out. She ended up taking my temperature which turned out to be 104 F. This would explain the confusion about my internal well-being. Back to the hospital we went, but this time they put me on an IV. They did some blood work and concluded that it was a serious case of the mosquito-borne Dengue fever. They recommended immediate transfer to a hospital in La Paz, so another volunteer packed a bag for me and caught a taxi in to town to accompany me on the flight.

Upon landing in La Paz, I was wheeled out (I didn’t have the strength to walk) to a taxi and whisked away to Hospital Arco Iris in downtown La Paz. After a long couple of hours in the emergency room with no IV, they finally started one and put me in a room for the night. The next day consisted of several tests to determine the identity of my sickness (in La Paz my initial Dengue results came back negative). By the end of the day, it was pretty clear that I wasn’t going to be leaving the hospital anytime soon. Thankfully, Tatiana, the volunteer who had flown to La Paz with me was there to help translate tough medical terms and keep me company as I fought the headaches and fevers.

The following days blurred together. More tests, lots of rest, terrible hospital food, and lots of nurses and doctors buzzing around me trying to care for my every need while trying to figure out what I had. By Tuesday, Tatiana was required to leave in order to go to Santa Cruz to do some visa paperwork. I was now alone in a hospital where everyone spoke Spanish, and more importantly, where all the TV channels were in Spanish. With the medication I was receiving, I was feeling quite a bit better at that point, but, with Tatiana gone, was bored out of my mind. Furthermore, they STILL didn’t know what I had. The final Dengue results had come back negative along with every other test they had done.

By Friday, almost two weeks since I had first started feeling sick, I had gone 24-hours without a fever and, much to my relief, was discharged from the hospital. I stayed another night in La Paz just to be safe, and then caught the evening flight back to Rurrenabaque. As I write this blog, I feel almost back to my normal self. The sickness is over, I’m just a little weak from having been in a hospital bed for nearly a week. Unfortunately, we are still not sure what I had, but there are still a few tests coming in later this week for Chikungunya and Zika, two other mosquito-borne illnesses. I am praying that they figure out what I had so that I can avoid another trip to La Paz for more lab work, and know whether or not to expect more ill-effects. Your prayers would be much appreciated as well.

On the topic of YOUR prayers, I want to take the opportunity to thank all those who were praying for me and supporting me throughout this scary experience. To those of you who sent encouraging messages and Bible verses, know that it truly made a difference. I also owe a huge thanks to my family and Christian Bunch, Southern’s missions director, for helping coordinate the insurance to make sure I was getting the care I needed without having to worry about the finances. Lastly, I want to give a special thanks to Tatiana King, another SM from Southern, who stayed with me and helped me up until the final seconds before she had to go do her visa paperwork.

After two weeks of being sick, I’m at a loss for parallels with which I can turn into a devotional thought. But, that’s okay. No parallel is needed to see just how present God has been in the last two weeks of my life. I was the most sick I’ve ever been, but God worked everything out to get me into the hospital smoothly. I had someone to help work out the details when my head was in a fog, and I received great care and some much needed rest. I had the best support from friends and family, and ultimately was able to beat this thing. I’m now back home at Familia Feliz thanking God everyday for each of those blessings. I may not know what I had yet, but I’m leaving that up to God as well and He will surely take care of it just like He has taken care of everything else.

TL;DR

I’m learning some bad procrastinating habits here in Bolivia. I’ll just blame being sick for almost two full weeks. We hosted the church youth group for worship and games, which turns out to be one of the last things I did before my sickness really amped-up. I ended up in the hospital in La Paz for a week, but still don’t know what I had--more tests coming. Huge thank-you to those who supported and prayed for me during this tough experience. Being really sick was no fun, but I can still see how God worked to keep me safe and heal me.

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures, my hospital room didn’t provide any interesting shots.