I Got I!

Yep, I got it! Malaria, again. What a strange disease. You feel fine and then the wheels fall off.
Headache, backache, extreme fatigue, bad stomach, fevers that come and go plus anything else you can think of. All rolled into one little mosquito bite. Pesky little guys those mosquitoes (pronounced mos-kwee-toes). They live under my desk and attack my ankles at night when I work on the computer. I get bitten all the time but nothing usually happens. Then they invite one of their out of town malaria parasite covered relatives over to feast on the leg of muzungu being served under the desk and there you go, you got it.

It's not too bad this time, I caught it early and Bev has given me a new drug. It's a one day course of pills. Eight at one shot rather than over a couple of days. Its easy but you just don't know how it's going to hit you, the medicine that is. Malaria has the unique ability to make you sicker while you get better. It's because the illness is caused by parasites that are reproducing in your blood. As the parasite count grows your symptoms get worse. Then you take the medicine and kill the parasites and you feel better. But that poison in your system that killed the parasites tends to make you feel as miserable as those nasty invaders did. So you're sick from the medicine. And now your blood is full of poison as well as the bodies of all the little dead malaria bad guys. They make you feel just as bad when they are dead as when they were alive. But eventually the system gets rid of them all and you're back to normal. Or as close to normal as you personally might be.

Martin had malaria Saturday, Steven got it yesterday and I got it today. Tune in tomorrow to find out who the next contestant will be on "I got it but you can have it!" Meet you under the desk.