Made it Home

I'm home now, and rehabilitating. Jonah met me at the airport with a roasted chicken and mashed potatoes. All my friends have been feeding me and taking good care of me. I have a lot to be thankful for and am really happy to be here.

I don't regret the trip (just wouldn't want to re-live the typoid part!), and the experiences I had before getting sick were incredible. How often do you get to have a continuous stream of pregnant patients like that? Being part of the birthing process, learning from the midwives, seeing direct results from a few simple acupuncture points. There were many cases in the acupuncture clinic and in the villages we would never see in our own country. Sometimes it felt like our work was really helpful, and other times the problems seemed beyond our scope. There were definitely some cases where all I could offer was compassion and a referral to a facility they may or may not be able to afford. It makes typhoid look like a walk in the park.

So that's my story. Thanks to everyone who had my back, even from far away.

Love,

Karen

Heading home

Hi again,

I am feeling much better now, still on antibiotics but fully functional and ready to travel. My flight for Malaysia leaves tomorrow and I stay one night there, then home Wednesday. Tonight Sara, Mark and I are at a nice hotel near the airport. They leave a day after I do.

I am happy to be feeling well, and happy to be heading home. Ahhh, home.

Love,

Karen

Typhoid

Turns out it was typhoid, actually, and after 6 days of not holding down food, 5 days of no sleep and unrelenting pain in my head and eyes, and 3 days of continuous vomiting I am back to the land of the living, for real this time. At Sara's insistence and instigation, and with help from Bobby (the local acupuncturist) someone came to my room to draw blood for the test. When the fax w/ results came Mark went online and found staff to interpret (no small feat). He told Frank, who called infectious dz specialist to find out dosage of antibiotics. I couldn't hold the first few down but Sara and Mark took turns reading to me to distract me long enough to absorb a little. I gradually increased the time between puking and broke on through to the other side after a few doses. They think I threw up ballpark 30+ times. (Sara says I looks anorexic but Mark corrected that technically it's more like bulemia.) I've never experienced such prolonged, intense, unrelenting pain, it made the hours crawl by and left me begging for my get-out-of-jail free card. I'm done building my third world cred, I'm never travelling where there is a "dirty" hand. Two clean hands for me please. I might not leave West Seattle, or my yard.

I have no idea what the rest of the team has been doing. My reality was limited to the path between my bed and toilet. Sara and Mark were my lifeline. Last night held down pureed potato, this morning two boiled eggs. Can move my eyes w/o too much pain now. It's going to be ok. Just wanted to let you know since lots of emails not answered.

Karen