Riss's report on malaria

Today we have a special guest blogger, child number 4, otherwise known as Larissa.

Hi everyone. I just turned 8 on May 17^th. On my birthday, I drove the Kubota, went swimming in the reservoir (which we now have fish in!!), had a yummy supper and a cool butterfly cake that mom made. I shared it with dad because his birthday is only 2 days after mine. The very best part of my birthday was that Grandpa and Grandma were here. 

The day after my birthday, mom started to feel bad. She went to bed. I was feeling a little bad but not much. I had a tiny fever so I laid in bed with mom for awhile.  We were supposed to leave for Victoria Falls the next day. When we woke up, we ate breakfast. We played outside for a little bit and then loaded up. Mom was feeling pretty bad and slept right up until we left and then climbed in the van. I felt ok. We had a 6 hour drive to Lusaka. On the way, I started feeling really bad. I had a tummy ache, headache, and just didn’t feel right. When we got to Lusaka, mom and I climbed into our hotel bed. Daddy was starting to get scared. We both had high fevers.  Mom’s was around 103 but mine was 104. He decided to find a hospital and take us there.  I really don’t remember much, but when we got to the hospital, we went into the waiting room. It seemed like an hour but maybe it was only 20 minutes. I felt really bad now, kind of like I might be dying. Finally they took mom into a room. Then we waited a little longer and then they took me and dad into a small room. They took my temperature and then they weighed me. We had to wait in the hallway then. A lady called us and we went into another room. There they asked me what was going on with my body. I told them about how I was feeling. She made me lay on a bed. She checked my heartbeat. Then I had to go to another room. There was still just one nurse helping me D addy sat down on a chair beside my bed. The nurse came up and dad told me about what an IV was. I didn’t know what it was before. When he explained it, I knew what it was and I started to get scared. The nurse told me it wouldn’t hurt for too long. First, she tied a glove around my arm to make my veins stick out. She stuck the needle in my vein on my wrist real quick, it didn’t hurt for too long. A short time later, one of the doctors who was a lady went coo coo! I think she was mad about my IV or something. She came stomping in and she asked if my IV was in already. Dad said yes. She got all bent out of shape and went running out of the room. A short while later she was stomping down the hallway yelling out words in a different language. Maybe Hindi or something. Awhile later, it was time for supper but I didn’t feel like eating. The nurse found me a room upstairs. They wouldn’t let me leave because my IV was hooked up and because I had too many malaria parasites in my blood. Dad kept trying to get them to let me leave, but they refused. We finally settled on me staying overnight. I was so scared and didn’t want to. I kept crying whenever Dad talked to me about it.

Finally mom came and climbed in bed with me. She spent the night at the hospital with me in the same bed. It was a bad night. I don’t really want to tell you what all happened because its kind of gross. But they gave me medicine through my IV all night. They would just barge in to my room and turn on the light in the middle of the night. In the morning, we got out of there, but mom and I still had to receive injections through our IV ports. We wanted to get to Victoria Falls! We went back to the hotel. We got all our stuff together and climbed back in the van. My port started to feel really bad. I think I ate some crackers that day but that’s about all.

Mom and I with our ports

When we arrived in Livingstone, we checked in. Dad was talking to the guy and he asked if there was a clinic or hospital nearby. The man told us they had a nurse there! At the hotel! We went into our room. I laid in bed. The nurse came to our room and looked at our medicine. She said she could take care of it so we followed her to her clinic. But bad news, my port was blocked because my blood had dried up inside of it. I didn’t drink enough water and I got dehydrated. Bad news again. She had to stick a needle in my hand for a new IV port. She put the medicine in. It stings when she does that! We went back to our room and went to bed. The next day we had to see the nurse again and she gave us more medicine through our IVs. We had to do that for 3 days. I think. It felt good to get the port off, but it was still a little sore. Mom told me about kids who have cancer and other diseases who have to have ports too.

While we were in Livingstone, we heard that a little boy at Lifesong school died from malaria. I felt so scared. I wondered if I would die too. But mom told me, that I was getting medicine for it and I would be okay. It made me sad that he didn’t get medicine quickly too.

When we came back to our house, I was all better.

And actually, I got malaria again just last week.  But it wasn’t as bad this time. It still isn’t fun. And mom gets scared when my fever is 104.6. But we have medicine and I am better and thankful.

Mom looked up these malaria facts online.

Every minute, a child dies from malaria

Malaria is a serious (sometimes fatal) disease that is spread by mosquitoes who have been infected by a parasite. The disease is spread when mosquitoes feed on humans.

Malaria exists in 109 countries around the world, making 3.3. billion people (half of the world population) susceptible to the disease.

About 90 percent of malaria-related deaths occur south of the Sahara in Africa. The majority of these are children under the age of 5.

Common side effects of malaria are high fever, chills, headache, and other flu-like symptoms. Severe illness and death can normally be avoided if the disease is properly treated.

In 2010, 216 million clinical cases of malaria were recorded worldwide. 655,000 cases were fatal; 86 percent of those were children.

Thanks for reading what I had to say about malaria. Sometimes its weird to think that I have had malaria when I know I can die from it. My mom feels guilty sometimes because we can get medicine so quickly. But the good news is that we have a cool Nurse at Lifesong School. Her name is Christabel and she has lots of malaria meds. She even has malaria tests that she does for the kids who she thinks have it. Dad says she is a huge blessing to have here and we are so thankful for her help.