Caution: May Contain Nuts

He did it.

He got to the even dozen.

I think he can stop now.

Yup, that’s right. Timothy has malaria. Again. The poor guy is a mosquito magnet.

Monica cuddling her recuperating Daddy

Timothy has the distinction of having suffered this nasty, parasitic disease not once, but twelve times. So many times, actually, that it has become less interesting to me than the common cold. After all, you’re just stuck with the cold until it’s gone. You can treat malaria with a few pills… that is, if you catch it on time. And if you have the pills. And if you can keep them down. Did you know that your average medicine cabinet/ first aid kit doesn’t contain malaria pills? I can’t imagine living without them. Or, I should say, I can’t imagine Timothy living without them!!!

Timothy with malaria in a Sudanese hospital, 2004.

So when he came home on Monday, pale, clammy, and achy, croaking out that he might have malaria, I calmly tucked him into bed, gave him a glass of water, and waited for fever spikes (the sign that you have malaria, not the flu). By 9pm he was still holding in at exhaustion and lethargy, so I figured it was the flu after all. However, when I got up in the morning to find that he’d slept the whole night on Monica’s floor because he was too dizzy to make it back to bed… and when he had a few fever spikes… and a few other unpleasant symptoms… we called it official. Malaria times twelve. I pulled out the Coartum, filled his tummy with bacon, and continued with my day (the anti malarial works better in conjunction with fatty foods; poor Timothy gets as much bacon as he wants, but he’s too sick to enjoy it!)

Later I mentioned to a few friends that he wouldn’t be around as he was dealing with the migraines, fever, etc. To me, this is all completely normal malaria-like behavior, overcome after a few days of medication and rest. To other (normal) people, this is not good news. This is take-him-to-the-hospital news. This is will-he-make-it-? news. This is pull-down-the-shades-and- close-up-shop news. Apparently I have become a bit cavalier about malaria. Maybe it’s because once a person has had malaria eleven times, he is sharp enough to take the medication before he needs hospitalization, an iv bag, and a blood transfusion. I think this takes a bit more deductive reasoning than your average fever/migraine-ridden individual is capable of accomplishing, but Timothy is up to the task. A gift I very much appreciate, as I like to live with the confidence that my husband will make it through this disease again and again. After twelve times, I’m not fooling myself into believing that he has actually charmed the mozzy beast.

Actually, it’s not easy to diagnose malaria before hospitalization becomes necessary. This is because, in the early stages of the disease, it can only be detected by a blood test during a fever spike… and even then it sometimes doesn’t show up. By the time the parasite count is high enough to register as positive on the tests (especially the field tests, which is what most hospitals out here use), the suffering individual is already beyond keeping down any pills and has a few other symptoms contributing to dehydration and extreme fatigue. At this point, a good hospital is your only hope. I’m glad that Timothy has become so proficient at self-diagnosing.

We go through a lot of mosquito spray.

Having two small children in the house, we have layered on as much anti-mosquito protection as we reasonably can. We have bug zappers, “Doom” plug-ins, we’ve sprayed all the openings to the house, sleep under mosquito nets, and go to bed early. That being said, sometimes the little buggers get through. And it only takes one.

Please pray for our babies. I’m not so worried about Timothy and myself. If we get malaria, it’s painful, it’s ugly, but it IS treatable. If Monica or Frederick get it, first we have to figure out that they have it (“Frederick, where does it hurt?” still isn’t very effective), then we have to get them treatment before the dehydration, vomiting, and diarrhea become… too much.

Please, please remember my babies when you pray for yours. We are doing what we can to protect them, we trust in God’s grace and provision for the rest.

We praise God that He has again enabled Timothy to realize the problem before it became life threatening. We praise Him that Timothy had the fore-thought to have Coartum on hand. We praise God for providing the means to protect our family, as much as possible, from malaria. His faithfulness alone keeps us, body and soul, from day to day.

God bless Coartum.