Thursday, July 06, 2006

Jungle Fever Update

My friend Dr. Steen was very excited back when he found out I had Malaria. (Nice friend, I know) He thought he was so cool parading around medical school bragging about his contact with a disease-ridden person like myself. Well, James, I’m sure you’ll be happy to know that it has been confirmed… I did have an official case of Dengue Fever, and so does Tara. The Doctor at the Infectious Disease clinic sent an email stating that the blood antibodies test came back positive for Dengue for me, and Tara’s tests came back positive from the Mayo Clinic. As if that’s not exciting enough for you, our cased will be reported to the Centers for Disease Control. I’m sure you can call them and have your name attached to the case files in order to further increase your popularity. You’re welcome.

But now that Tara has it, too – enough already. I’d like to be done being the guinea pig family for jungle diseases. Last night I ordered the biggest, baddest, and best-rated mosquito killing device I could find on the internet. I did a lot of research to find the most lethal killing machine, and I think I found it. It is on its way here through Agape Mail. Hopefully it will also help our peace of mind, as we’re constantly itching and slapping and thinking we’re getting bitten now. Britt and I have become paranoid.

Hopefully we'll have results like this:

(I'll have to put up a picture once we have our "kill" to compare.)

Tara is sleeping now, hopefully she can make it through the night without too much sweating or pain. There isn't any treatment other than Tylenol or Advil for the pain and fevers, so just keep praying. She didn't seem too excited about her prospects of comfort and rest now that she's back here in Haiti, and I can't say that I blame her. We'll try to keep the little ones off of her so she can get all better soon. Paige is doing well and had a fun trip. The little kids were so excited to have their Mom and sister back. It's good to be all together again.