Week 14

So this week, I almost died.  I don’t know what else to say really, but I guess I should probably explain.

So as I’m pretty sure I wrote last time, I was pretty sick on Sunday and Monday and my head just killed.  My eyes were on fire.  I was running a fever over 100 and my bones hurt.  These are symptoms of dengue.  But, I didn’t feel like I had dengue and by just resting I thought I would be alright.  Well, I was kind of right.  

On Tuesday we had to walk into the centro from our house; it’s like a 30-minute walk, and, ya, I was dying and I hurt.  But, we had to go in for a district meeting.  So we go, and I’m basically passed out with my head on the pew in front of me, and I just start feeling hotter and hotter.  So I decide to take my temperature, and it hits 39.5 Celsius, which I knew was hot, so I didn’t even wait for it to officially settle down and beep.  So, I drop the thermometer stumble out of the room, fill up my water bottle with cold water, and get a paper towel wet to put over my head.  I get back into the meeting room, lay down, pop 3 or 4 ibuprofen, chug half the water, put the towel and the cold bottle on my head and face, and try to cool down. And, of course, my clueless district leader just keeps going on with his lesson.  My comp asks if I’m alright, and I say no I’m dying, but we finish the lesson.  Then as everyone is leaving, we decide to calculate my temp, and at this point we decide we are going to call the mission nurse.  So, 39.5 is 103.1 back in the States - which is pretty dang hot!  Anyway, my comp gave me a blessing, and we called the mission nurse. 

The first words out of her mouth are, “You have dengue.” But, I think, na, she’s just gun shy since like 10 percent of the mission has dengue.  Either way, she says, go to the hospital and get the test.  Yikes. I do not, did not, ever, ever, ever, want to enter a Paraguayan hospital.  Anyway, we finally get there, and I’m pretty sketched out.   The building is not terrible, but still.  We finally find the room and are filling out the paperwork when we notice that the nurse that just entered with a mop is mopping up tons of blood off the floor.  And I’m like, oh crap, I’m going to die or get H.I.V.  Those are my options, but I’m so hot and felt like dying. I said, oh well, let’s do this.  

So the doc gave me some hardcore ibuprofen stuff, and they shot me up with some pain killer, and that hurt!  She didn’t stabilize my arm, so she had to push crazy hard, and it freaking killed.  Tears started welling up.  Like my comp said after, it looked like she was pushing hard enough to inject a brick.  It hurt!   Oh, and then it turned into a giant bump and is currently a nasty bruise.  But, back to the story.  

So, I’m starting to feel better under the drugs.  So, we go and get the test.  She was fine -- stuck me pretty poorly but it was safe and unsketchy.   Then we waited for a couple hours for the results.  The results came back and said negative for dengue. Yay!  But, my blood was all screwed up. My platelets and white blood cell counts were way bad and everything else was bad.  The doc said he was worried about it, but was gonna send me home and to come back in 48 hours.

So we go to the pharmacy, and she asks if we want the medicine for my nausea in liquid form so I can shoot it into my veins.  And we were like, people do that?  Apparently yes, it is common in Paraguay for people to take their medicine by injection. 

Anyway, Wednesday I literally slept all day.  We didn’t even leave the house.  Thursday, we go back to the hospital to take another test.  This time nothing sketchy, except the bag labeled biohazard was leaking all over the floor.  And some lady literally died.  Well, I think she died.  

Anyway, then we waited for the tests. They came back negative again, and my blood was returning to normal. So we called the mission nurse.   She basically said due to my blood results she thinks it was a false negative for dengue.  So for the church’s official records, I have had dengue.  Which means, if I get it one more time, I will most likely be sent home since the 3rd and 4th times you get dengue you most likely die.

Anyway, to celebrate this good news, we stopped at a sick pizza place, ate pizza, and watched European soccer.   It’s like the first real restaurant I’ve been in in forever.  It was nice.  

Friday we decided to work at night since we had cabin fever, and with my pills I felt pretty ok.  We did a sweet plan of salvation lesson with an investigator.  And then with the Arguellos, we did a sweet activity to incorporate the restoration.  It’s called flour tower or something like that.   Basically, you pack a cup with flour, turn it upside down, and play Jenga. Each person takes a turn cutting a chunk out of the floor representing an apostle dying or something being taken away or changed from Christ’s church.   And, there is a candy on top, and when it falls, the loser has to pick the candy up using only his or her mouth.  It is pretty fun.

That basically wiped me out though. So Saturday we didn’t leave the house again.  And, it rained all night, so nobody came to church, which sucks.  So, after church we went around and heard everyone’s excuse for not coming, which always is dumb.   But, ya, that was my week - pretty crazy.

I have a wedding in like an hour, which will be my second wedding.  So that’s kind of cool.

At the wedding of Hector and Grisela

And I’m feeling way better now, so that’s good, and I’m super excited to Skype on Saturday for Mother’s Day.

So, ya, that’s about it.

Love you all and take care of yourselves.

Elder Frost