Flashback: Exactly one month ago I sat in a doctors office in Burlington, Mass with a scary lady who told me I wasn't allowed to eat or touch anything during the next 4 months while living in the Dominican Republic (yes a slight over exaggeration, but maybe an emphasis on the slight as I found out). While at first her comments created an immediate sense of "what the bleep did I just get myself into" type of fear in my brain, I then shrugged it off and pushed her warnings out of my head. I even told other people the story and how crazy she was, "what does this lady expect me to do, lay in my bed all day? Eat the air?"
Today, September 10, 2015: I wake up at 7am to the sound of "twinkle" by Apple, and groggily reach my hand over to the plastic baggy on my night stand. I rustle around feeling for the flat packaging. I pull out a large orange pill. I've been doing this for the past 6 days. There are 3 different medications that I take 6 times daily. Orange pill 7am, blue/red before breakfast, white at 12pm, orange again at 3pm, blue/red before dinner, and orange again at 11pm. I have Ameobas. Yes folks, a tiny parasite has been living in my intestines for the past week and a half. I will spare most of the details but it began with a headache, fever, sharp stomach pains and many trips to the bathroom. I was told these symptoms would subside within hours of taking the medication and I would instantly feel better, but unfortunately I did not find this to be true ). Today, 4 days after starting the medicating, I am finally starting to feel somewhat normal again.
It all began after a very interesting trip to the capital Santo Domingo, 8 out of the 12 people in our group became sick within days of returning. For some it was food poisoning, others a bacteria, and for 3 of us it was amoebas. Mine didn't set on until a few days after everyone else, so my celebration of good luck quickly turned into a visit to the clinic. The tropical climate in the Caribbean added with the unfortunate lack of sanitation creates a different type of paradise, a paradise for germs and bacteria to grow. So careful with meat and any unrefrigerated, unwashed food.
At times of sickness it's always easy to miss home the most, but it is also during these difficult times that one grows the most. Independence is something I have always struggled with such as going through experiences, especially new ones, alone. I have been learning to adapt and be more independent. I am appreciating things in my life I may have previously taken for granted. This sickness is a funny (but not actually funny because it was really horrible) blessing in disguise and parallel/de ja vu to my tonsillitis experience back in Denver (see first blog post). During the two most drastic changes in my life, I became very sick. Now, that I feel better it is easier to make meaning of it all. Both times, my limits were pushed and I had to deal with what life handed to me on my own, in a foreign place with foreign people. Having gone through it once before made it easier the next time and I can only be proud of myself. Getting sick in Denver prepared me better for getting sick here, which will only prepare me better for more experiences to come. Also to remember how important Mommy's are, real or temporary. Shout out to Josephine my host mom who rubbed my head, held a washcloth to my face and made me tea amidst my sickness. Besides the amoebas island life is still beautiful.
