it's all about malaria right now

So my friend Lisa and I had a lovely little overnight get-away this weekend.  But I'll post more on that later.  For now, it's all about my son who has malaria.  Again.

He was noticeably sick, more than just his cold that just won't go away, on Saturday when I was getting ready to go out.  But his Daddy was taking super good care of him, and assured me that the two of them would be just fine.  Feeling badly, but sooo looking forward to our little retreat, Lisa and I left.  A couple phone calls that evening about fevers and Tylenol later, and Micah went to sleep for the night, and Lisa and I had a lovely supper out.  All seemed well.

And it was, at the time.  Sunday went well for Stew and Micah, and Lisa and I arrived home mid-afternoon.  Stew was preaching that evening at our English service, so he finished gathering his thoughts for that, and we headed off.  Mid-service I took Micah's temperature again, and he was feverish (38.3 C under the arm).  I gave him some Tylenol, and continued listening to his Daddy preach (and he did well!).

After we got home from the service we took his temperature again.  This time it was 39 C, an hour after giving Tylenol.  Thankfully, before we left the church we consulted with an American doctor friend of ours.  So, at 8pm last night we gave Micah his first dose of medication for malaria.

That's how it works here - it's often not worth getting tested for malaria.  You just treat it.  If you have the right symptoms, and yet have a negative malaria test, the doctor will often prescribe malaria treatment anyway, just to be safe in case of a false negative.  So if you really have the symptoms, it's often not worth testing first.  Especially at 7:30pm on a Sunday, when the one needing testing is sound asleep in his car seat.

All through the night he still had a moderate (but thankfully not high) fever, so we kept setting our alarm to get up and check him, help him keep cool, give Tylenol/Advil, etc.  This morning seemed better and had a low-grade fever on and off through the day.  Unfortunately his fever peaked in the afternoon, hitting 39 C again.  So we took him to see the pediatrician.  No big news there - just keep treating the malaria, and he has a viral infection.  No surprises really, but it was comforting to hear that a continued fever is normal at this point in treatment.  (Somehow none of us have had a high fever yet when we've had malaria, so we weren't sure what was normal.)

So that is our life right now.  A sick/tired/grumpy/clingy/feverish little boy on the hottest day of the year so far: 44 degrees today with 46% humidity.  Not a great day for snuggling a feverish little boy.  A great day, however, for playing with him in his room with the air conditioner and fan on.  A little treat for my sick little boy, just because I love him.