Amoeba

As I’ve mentioned in the past, serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer is full of its ups and downs. So far, my low points have lasted for only a few days at a time, perhaps a week, or more frequently I’ve had severe highs and lows within the same day. But inevitably, there comes a time when you just hit a big low. It’s normal. January was my first big low point.

A number of factors played into this past month being difficult, but it sort of reached a climax (or whatever the opposite of a climax is) this past week when I was hospitalized for Amoebiasis. Yes, you read that correctly, amoeba. Cool, right?

About a month after I moved out to my village (around September), I started complaining about stomach pains. My doctors diagnosed gastritis and tried a variety of antacids and the like, and my symptoms generally went away for a short time, but always reappeared, so we tried a different medication. My Nohno and Pahpa gave me a local medicine that also seemed to help a bit. I’ve also been getting periodic stomach massages from my Nohno which definitely made me feel a little better. Additionally, my life has also been plagued by irregular bowel movements (brace yourself, this is about to get a little graphic)—days of diarrhea followed by days of constipation—occurring cyclically. And then there’s my weight loss (it has finally leveled off, with a total loss of 30 lbs).

Now, obviously, looking back it seems absurd that we never considered that I might have a parasite. But really, you must think about what life is like for an American living in a developing country. It’s rough on your body. Living conditions, sanitation, and access to clean drinking water is all very limited. You’re eating strange foods, living in a new climate and environment 24/7. Volunteers get sick. It’s just a fact of life. None of my symptoms by themselves caused us any alarm. We weren’t alarmed, that is, until last Wednesday when I was suddenly overcome with fever and unable to hold food or water in my stomach.

At that point I was taken to the hospital and given an IV to get me rehydrated. During the several lab tests that were run, it was discovered that not only did I have Amoebiasis, but the count of parasites in my system was so high that it indicated that I’d had an amoeba for quite some time. Say, maybe 4 months. I guess my body decided it finally had enough.

Amoebiasis comes from fecal-oral contamination. In the US, people usually get amoebas either from being simply unhygienic or from eating food prepared by unclean hands. Here, those are definitely still possible causes, but due to the sheer volume of my infection, the likely cause is contaminated water. I had been drinking the water in my village because it is piped from a large tank with some sort of filtration system, and was deemed “clean” by trusted members of my community. Plus, the last Volunteer who lived with my family is reported to have drunk the water, so I decided it seemed harmless enough. Clearly, I was mistaken.

So I stayed in the hospital for two nights, being pumped full of drugs, and then was released into the care of one of my Peace Corps doctors and have been staying at the Peace Corps sick bay for the last two nights. Today I’m finally able to head back to my village (armed with large jugs of purified water, no less)! I’m ready to get back into the swing of things, but I definitely have to take it easy for a while. The amoeba is not yet eradicated, and I have plenty of pills to continue taking. I have to return to the hospital in one week to have more tests run to check my progress. It’s all very exciting.

My stay in the hospital really wasn’t all that bad. I was so weak for the first day that I sleep pretty much nonstop, but then on the second day I was more alert and able to chat with my roommates (four Pohnpeian women and their assorted family members). Everyone was so kind to me and concerned, and the women sent their children all around to bring me things that I needed. When I finally left the hospital, they all wished me well and I was actually oddly sad to leave their company.

I had plenty of my own visitors, though. One of my Peace Corps doctors came several times each day, bringing me snacks and keeping me company. Another member of the staff, sort of a mother-figure showed up unexpectedly with lots of beverages and helped me to call relevant parties to update them on my recovery. One of my cousins came one his way to and from college each day to check on me and my sister Ioren spent the night in her car so she could be close by if I needed her. Turns out I did need her, because showering with an IV in is not a one-person job. Especially not bucket showering with an IV. That was interesting, let me tell you. I felt like a child, being bathed and clothed by someone, and letting her comb and braid my hair, but I am immensely grateful.

But the point is, I was well taken care of. It was definitely very comforting. I have never been hospitalized before, so I was a little nervous about what would happen, especially in a foreign country so far from friends and family, but silly me. I forgot that I have friends and family here in Pohnpei who love and care about me. Duh.

Now, I just have a bunch of pills to take, some of which are quite large. (If you’ve forgotten, I learned to swallow pills here in the Peace Corps, so I’m still not very good at it yet). I spoke to my mom a few weeks ago and I told her about trying unsuccessfully to swallow some huge antibiotics I was taking for a sinus infection (again, January was not my favorite month), and she reassured me that it just takes practice. Well, that may be true, but as I have recently learned, what it really takes is the right motivation. When I go to swallow one of my monster pills, a little voice inside my head just starts screaming “CHRISTY, YOU HAVE A PARASITE LIVING INSIDE OF YOU! YOU WILL SWALLOW THIS PILL! SWALLOW IT NOW! DO IT!” And you know what? It works.

So, the good news is that I am on the road to recovery. All of the crap I had been putting up with for the past few months that I thought was just part of the job will actually go away, which is VERY exciting. Plus, let’s be honest, I kind of feel like a badass.

This whole experience has put a lot of things in perspective for me and has actually helped pull me out of the January funk.

I mean, hey, shit happens. Sometimes you get an amoeba.

Stay well,

Christy