Sick Days

July 18th, 2010 by Don McMahon

Third two weeks… New favorite Charity Medicines Sans Frontiers

So the last three days was a blur…and they are quite over yet. Tuesday night Dougal was sick with Heat Exhaustion or so we hope… We kept electrolytes in him and he rested and missed the going away party for the second rotation people.

Wedneday.. There wasn’t much work because of everyone leaving. I went to the bank and had money transferred to me to fund my additional two weeks. Then I came back to the compound and started laying out plans for the workshop i’m going to build. Dougal was still in bad shape but he said he was ready for food so we opened up one the MRE’s we have been getting from Salvation Army and he was able to eat a little. Puichion (the Haitian kid that looks like a little Jay-z) and I played a game of chess.

Dougal was sleeping in the clinic and still seemed to be really feverish. At this point several us were checking in on him regularly. I took his pulse and it was 100 laying down and I went and got Joy and she immediately started to make arrangements to take him to the hospital. I got to come along just in case she needed to leave to do some orientation stuff with the new group coming in. It was also Joy’s first trip the hospital because Gracie the other Coordinator usually goes because Her French is better and no one speaks English at the hospital. So we got to take a road trip to Saint Mon Michelle (or something like that hospital). I am using hospital in the loosest sense of the term.

Going to hospital is always scary.. add in the fact that its in an earthquake damaged building, dirty, and looks like a great place to shoot the next Hellraiser movie it was pretty amusing since it was Dougal on the table and not me..

They started him on an IV and sent us all to a little room with two beds.

I’m sure most of you know this but regardless of the emergency taking you to the hospital if at all possible grab any and all forms of entertainment because you might be there for a long time.. We left the compound before 3 in the afternoon. I brought my laptop, Dougal’s Ipod and My book, food and water.. All of the them got used. Dougal slept and watched Into the Wild on my laptop for a while until about 6:45 when Joy had to leave. There wasn’t much for me to do but Dougal and I hung and talked, joked about the Ants crawling on the walls. About 7 there was some excitement when a nurse came in and started to give him a shot without telling us what it was.. We had her stop until we could get someone to explain what it was. It was for Fever reduction and Dougal got the shot. Haitian Doctors then decided to give Dougal a Malaria Test which was Negative. Dougal’s fever remained high 38.9 39.2 C but his pulse was better at 80. But He still had his sense of Humor and we continued to talk.

Joy and Gracie kept in touch regularly on the Phone getting updates. The IV drip was crazy slow and after 4 hours was less than half way done. It was 95 degrees in the hospital and we were getting getting eaten by Mosquitos After our fourth attempt to communicate this finally the Doctor cranked up the drip and we called Joy for a car and Junior our Haitian runner and translator came and got us. We took Dougal to Hotel Ozana Right near the compound so he could have a night of AC and Joy and Gracie had saved us some food.. good old Chicken and Rice. Joy Gracie and I left and walked down to the compound. I met some of the new people at the compound and then went to bed.. about 11 :30 after a nice shower..

(ok the next part is going to be pretty graphic so you may want to skip it)

At 2:30 am I woke up with really bad diaherria and extremely nauseous .. I had to shit 8 times in one hour.. By 3:45 I was vomiting and my stomach was painfully cramping.. and it kept getting worse.. By 4:15 my vomiting woke up Emily and she stayed up with me and got me set up in the clinic with a bed so I would be closer the bathroom. By 6am Gracie was up and she suggested that I go to the hospital but I was resistant.. That place was not where I wanted to be and I thought I must stop throwing up eventually.. But no.. By 7 I had agreed to the Anti nausea shot we have in our clinic. The immodium and My prescription antidiaherra where not making any difference. All my GVN volunteers were great to me..but I kept getting worse. Every attempt to drink a slip of water or water with electrolytes lead to twice or more that volume of fluid leaving my body.. By 7 30 I was throwing up a dark bile. But the worst thing was the stomach pain. For the last 3 hours sharp pains were repeatedly cramping my stomach and sending me into loud fits of vomiting. It was on the top five most painful pains in my life.. being in extreme pain and not knowing its cause is much scarier than I have ever appreciated before.

By 8 am even I knew I had to get an IV. Joy collected my gear, Clarlotte a former nurse and current biology teacher had gone checked on Dougal and his Temp was back up to 104. Joy made arrangements for both of us to go to the hospital and the she took us by car to the hospital. Upon getting up to get into the car I realized that i was incredibly weak. So Joy and Charlotte took me and Dougal to the Hospital.

We went into the front of the hospital and there was a huge line at about 9 am and it wasn’t looking promising.. but Joy took us around the back and directly into the treatment area, the Doctors looked at us. and immediately put us back in the same room as the day before..

I don’t remember much for bit.. I got an IV and some shots.. Joy and Charlotte were talking with Doctors, Dougal got an IV and Fever reduction shots.. I was still really weak. The Haitian Doctors seemed fair to ok but did not inspire too much confidence, because they just appeared unprofessional and disorganized at times and there never seemed to be a plan communicated to us or our french speaking people. So when two Doctors from Medicines Sans Frontiers came to check on us it was a huge confidence builder. They looked us over and communicated that I needed both this IV and an additional bag and that Dougal needed to be monitored for some time and that he might have malaria even though he tested negative and is on Malaria meds.

By noon the stomach cramping had improved some and Joy made arrangements to have US stay in Cap Lanmandu the really nice Hotel with great AC. I wanted to go there immediately. I doubted that Dougal’s temp could come down when the room was 94.2 according to my cool watch (thanks Chelsea). And the IV drip for me was at a reasonable pace but Dougal’s was slow, By 2 in the afternoon, Charlotte had asked about the pace repeatedly but the Haitian Doctors said it was right.

Again Dougal, Joy, Charlotte and Gracie are great people to be sick around. Dougal and I enjoyed lots of morbid humor together and we especially enjoyed the fact that some Haitians were rubbling the hospital were in. Rubbling is exactly what it sounds like.. people were beating another part of the building into small pieces.. Joy, Charlotte, and Gracie made sure we had anything we needed.

Eventually I had to go to the bathroom again and Charlotte took the IV pole and over the bathroom. The bathroom at the Jacmel Hospital would make a great set in any horror movie.. The bathroom in the Hospital looked like Satan’s truck stop bathroom, the seat was broken, everyone who ever used the toilet had missed in someway. it is only slightly larger than an airplane bathroom and to flush you pour water from dirty bucket, and there were two stretchers stored in there..which is conveniently oddly because you can use them keep the door closed since it won’t shut normally.. in what must have been a first for the bathroom I managed to hit the target but in the process my IV came out I so ended up bleeding all over Satan’s Truck stop bathroom. It was pretty gross.

I was basically done with that bag anyways and We started to think it was time for a second opinion for Dougal. He was still at about 102.7 and sweating. Gracie came to the hospital and talked to the Doctors and made arrangements for the two of us to See a private practice Doctor. One nice thing about the hospital both days is that since it is funded by Medicines Sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders) we didn’t have to pay anything. And our care there was pretty good considering the limited resources available. Gracie got Charlotte , Dougal, and me to load up in a car and we went to the Doctors office with the prescription from the Haitian Hospital.

The Private practice Doc was getting a haircut in his office when we arrived. Charlotte when into the back to talk to him, at this point I just wanted to be at Cap Lamandu, in the AC and away from Haiti, traffic, I was getting to be done.. and driving up and down Haitian onway streets about to crap my pants had finally ended my enthusiasm for anything but a bathroom. I was really thirty because I was not drinking much in the hospital because I didn’t want to go to the bathroom there more than absolutely necessary.

Charlotte got the meds from the Pharmacy and we drove off to Cap. We both still had diarrhea and Dougal threw up again, but we were both relieved to be in a real hotel in AC. I started drinking water filled with electrolytes and Charlotte returned with Dennis the elder statesman of the shelter buidling crew, after getting some supplies at the GVN compound clinic.

Charlotte found a vein and started the B12 IV . She started Dougal on the Antimalaria meds and Citpro. Dennis Rigged up the IV on a chair wedged on a coffee table and used my Figure 9 carabiner and rope to fix up an IV pole (his career in the Royal Navy continues to come in handy).

Dougal and I tore into the MRE’s attempting to find some food we could stomach. Much of our lunch time discussions during work on shelters involves discussing the calories and our enjoyment of the 24 different MRE meals we have access to. I managed to get a 200 cal shortbread cookie and half a pot roast packet in me before I decided to stop pushing my luck. Dougal ate a carrot cake and he refused to trade the carrot for anything in my meal the bastard.

I was still pretty weak. Dougal kept throwing up. About 8 pm a bunch of GVN vols came by to check on us. Dougal’s fever was still high at 101.7.. My Second IV was about half done and I drifted off to sleep. I woke up about 12 and I felt much better.. I got a few more hours of sleep. Charlotte pulled my finished IV about 2 am.

I woke up feeling much better. Ready for real food. Dougal’s fever was finally coming down. Charlotte had taken great care of us not to mention she had to put up with us for the last 24 hours. Gracie brought us supplies this morning and Joy brought Dougal my prescription for Citpro.

I’m writing this from the hotel, enjoying my last hour of AC, before returning to the compound. I’m planning on taking it easy today. Dougal’s fever finally dropped below 100 at 9 and was normal about thirty minutes ago . We have been enjoying an IRA movie marathon on one of the three channels that we get.

Friday.. afternoon..
Well all didn’t quite work out at planned or hoped. by noon Dougal had spiked back up to 103. AT this point I started to document all our notes and treatment and symptoms on my laptop. We stayed in the hotel a bit longer until about 2.. and we planned on returning to the Jacmel Hospital an Mon Saint Michelle but a lucky chance had Charlotte talking to two Firefighters from the US at the hotel and they recommended going to new set of doctors. 25 minutes away the Cubans had a five tent MASH set up. The Firefighters said that was the best option in the area. At this point I was all in favor of risking it even though we didn’t have exact directions, know who they would treat, or what their faculties were like. Gracie agreed with Charlotte so the four us got in a car and went in search of the Cubans. About five mins in to the ride I realized I was pushing my stomach too hard but I loaded up with No pooping meeds and pepto and we rode on.

The Cuban Docs Mash Unit was was pretty good and they had much better bed side manner than the Haitian Docs. Dougal got an Antibiotic IV and they stopped the Malaria treatment..

We got back to the compound and I decided to risk a night back in my tent.. and Dougal went back to Cap Lanmandu. It was great to see everyone again and I was really looking forward to food.. but my stomach wasn’t ready and pretty soon I was back to Crapping my brains out. I probably should have rested longer.. It is really easy to push yourself too hard here. Everyone left for dinner and I decided to catch a moto Back to the hotel to recover one more night.

By morning I was fine.. Dougal is still having issues with a moderate fever and he is hopefully going to be getting more test done on Monday. I took some time to get out and go to the beach Saturday afternoon. The Ocean and being out in the world did wonders for me and stomach. It felt like all the germs were killed off by the salt water. And I think it made me smell better.