I’ve got a fever of 103.7
This weekend we went on a retreat
to a national park. I went over my packing list Thursday night to make sure I
had everything. I was in such a great mood while I was packing because I was so
excited to go. I felt just the slightest bit off but I couldn’t figure out what
is was, so I took my temperature: a perfect 98.6 degrees. I went to bed an hour
later than I planned, but still was going to get a good amount of sleep.
Unfortunately, I could hardly get to sleep. After I did, I woke up at 4 am, and
about every 20-30 minutes after that until I had to get up at 7:30. My
digestive system was not having a good time, and I was not thrilled to have
lost over three hours of sleep to constant tossing and turning. I took my
temperature when I woke up: 99.4 what a great way to start the trip. I did not
eat breakfast.
When I get dropped off at ISDSI I
tell one of the field instructors (Pi Amy) what’s going on. I’m a little tired,
and just slightly off, but otherwise feeling alright. I’m still optimistic
about the weekend at this point. Well the first thing of the day is a swim
test. We go to a gorgeous lake at the base of the mountains. 300 meter swim +
15 minutes treading water. I grew up swimming at Prairie Lane, so normally this
would be no problem for me. However, by 10 am when I’m stepping in the water,
I’m starting to notice how little sleep I got the night before. I pass the swim
test alright, with a little more labored breathing the last 100 meters, but I
passed (and on a normal day, I’d be fine).
Lunch comes around and I’m still
not hungry, but I knew my body needs energy so I force myself to eat a little
bit of fish, vegetables, and drink some water. We’re also having the Thai dish
“dancing shrimp”. Can you guess why it’s called dancing shrimp? Yep, it’s
because they’re still alive and jumping (quite high, I might add!) around.
They’re only tiny little shrimp about the size of a nickel. They come in a
closed container with spicey-lemony sauce. In a perfect world you shake it up
to knock them out for a second, open it quick and scoop one out, shut the lid,
and eat it before it wakes up. This is not a perfect world… At first my table had
a few shrimp jumping all around. It landed in the fish plate, on the table, on
the bamboo mats we were sitting on, into the spice sauce, these little things
could move. After a few too many shakings our shrimp no longer ‘danced’ and
they weren’t as exciting to eat anymore. I did eat a live one! It wasn’t bad at
all, and the sauce made it really tasty (aroy in Thai).
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| The waterfall. We went past it on the hike so I finally got to see it. |
When we got to the national park,
we set ourselves up in the cabins: 15 Thai mattresses (meaning hard as a rock)
all lined up along the walls on a raised floor, about 1 ½ feet off the regular
floor. I don’t even remember what activities we had planned that afternoon, all
I know is that when everyone went swimming at the 200 ft. waterfall during their free
time, I slept. Through dinner, I slept (Pi Amy brought be a peanut butter
sandwich. She’s the sweetest!). I brought my thermometer and was checking my
temperature often. I figured out my temp was rising steadily at about one
degree Fahrenheit per hour. This went on for a few hours, as I steadily got worse
and worse. By the end of our Risk Management session with Ajaan Mark, my eyes
were watering from the pain. It hurt to move and it hurt to stay still. It was
the day after a crossfit workout, so I had normal muscle pain from that. I also
over-exerted myself swimming, and had the full body ache like when you’ve got
the flu. Add to that the bad nights sleep a day without food, and I was not in
a happy place.
I tried to make it through the
whole activity, but I couldn’t even pay attention to what my group-mates were
saying directly to me, let alone figure out what the hell was going on as a
whole. Once my temperature got up to 103.5 I called it quits. Pi Amy walked me
back to the cabin. She gave me water and electrolytes “Here’s some electrolytes
for you. It’s like Gatorade”. I took a sip “Doesn’t taste like Gatorade” I said
as I made a face. She just laughed. She took my temp again and it was up to
103.7, which is when we decided to go for some Tylenol to bring it down. I
tried to sleep, but every position was uncomfortable. Pi Amy slept in the bed
next to me that night to make sure I was okay. She was on the phone with a
doctor asking me a lot of questions because I usually have stomach pains after I
eat any food at any meal (even back in the States this has been happening
occasionally for a few years, and usually only after I ate cereal for breakfast
but my doctor just thought it was lactose intolerance. I drink so much milk,
it’s definitely not that). Anyways, she asked a bunch of questions, poked me in
a bunch of places, and finally just game me more water and said to try to sleep
it off. Then woke up every 4-5 hours to give me more meds and take my
temperature again.
I had a very restless night.
Either I was in too much pain to sleep, too hot and sweaty, too cold, or else
was being woken up by Pi Amy for more Tylenol. Throughout all this I was supped
to drink my full Nalgene, but every sip of water made my stomach hurt. After
20-30 minutes of pain, my intestines would rumble around for a little while, then
I’d need a trip to the bathroom. I’d make it out of the cabin then have to stop
and wait for the pain to go away before I could walk any further. Then I’d make
it up the stairs and into the bathroom and have to stop again. Then finally
into the stall, but bending my body down to the toilet was the most painful of
all, and therefore usually came with a couple extra gasps of breath and/or
tears (and once with a few minutes of sobbing, though that was partially
because I knew I still had ¾ the Nalgene left, and I didn’t want to drink it
and be in this pain the rest of the night).
I slept through breakfast, and
made it to the second half of some talk we were having, but I honestly don’t
remember what it was about. I remember walking what had to be at least half as
fast as normal to get there. Sat there for half an hour, then went back to
sleep. I slept through every single activity that day, including lunch, the
second trip to the waterfall, dinner, and the bonfire games that night. Luckily
though, my fever had been going down (very, very slowly) throughout the day. By
Sunday morning I was actually feeling close to normal. My temp was under near
98.6, but not quite there yet. Every muscle was stiff and ached, but I was
actually feeling a little happy that morning. I was feeling like a real person
again, not a zombie.
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| A look down one of the paths we crossed over on our hike. |
We had a 2 ½ -3 hr hike that
morning which I decided to try. With a little help from my hiking group over
the steeper terrain, a walking stick someone found me, and the good moral, I
made it through (without falling! Which is more than some of my healthy peers
can say). During that hike I had a clearer mind that I’d had all weekend, and
got a lot of time to think. I’ve only been in Thailand for two weeks, but the
friends I’ve made here are just amazing. They’ve helped me through the whole
weekend and made me laugh when I didn’t want to smile. Alex practically forced
me to leave the risk management activity when my temp was over 103 and my eyes
were tearing up. The next day he asked me a few times how I was, and in just
the most sincere way wished I got better soon. I don’t even remember what he
said, I just know even in my clouded state I couldn’t believe he cared so much.
Kari sent her good wishes with Pi Amy when she’d come to check on me throughout
the day. Pi Amy herself slept by my bed to make sure I was alright. Daniel
found me my walking stick, and he and a few others hiked behind me and made
sure I didn’t fall. Michael pulled me up a steep slope. Megan, Charlotte, Rita,
Erin, Aaron, Emma, nearly every single person asked how I was doing and some checked
in with me throughout the day.
Saturday night, when we had our
second bonfire, my temp was only around 100-101 and I was feeling pretty good,
in relation to the previous days. Everyone’s laughing and singing and giggling
made my mood so much better. We played a ridiculous tape game, where you put a
piece of tape on your nose and touch it to someone else’s and whoever gets both
pieces wins. Then you find another person to challenge (The Thai Pi’s joined
in, but were a little weirded out by this game. Pi Pui was absolutely
hilarious!) I sat out the next two games, as they played chicken fighting (grab
your ankles and try to knock other people over. If you ever let go or fall,
you’re out. Really entertaining to watch) and birdie on a perch (think musical
chairs, but people are the chairs, and there’s a matching number, and a
designated “chair” and the last one there loses). I joined back in for the
sitting games thumper and mafia. I still felt pretty shitty, but it was a great
night with all my ISDSI friends. And it’s to them that I say thank you. You all
care so much and I appreciate it greatly. It in its own way made my weekend
slightly enjoyable and meant a lot to me.
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| Liz and Zena in tape wars. |
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| Chicken fighting |
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| Birdie on a perch |
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