She'd been running a fever all day Monday, so on Tuesday when it climbed again in the late morning, I told Joel we needed to take her to the doctor. Our neighbors' little girl was in a similar position on Friday, and was diagnosed with malaria, so I was well aware of the possibility.
Even though she was running a fever (and not a particularly high one either) she was acting fairly normal. The nurses and the doctor all put it down to teeth after hanging out with her for a little while- she just seemed to be in too good a mood to have malaria! I insisted on having the test done, for my own peace of mind.
We got the call late Tuesday evening that it had indeed come back positive for level 1 malaria. I don't know what the highest level of malaria is, but, level 1 is the lowest. So she didn't have it bad, but she had it.
We went and got the antibiotics right away and prepared to give them to her. Can I just say that 10mLs of banana flavored thick stuff does not go down easy- especially down a baby who is already tired and not feeling 100%. In the end I had to pinch her nose closed so that she would open her mouth...and just after we got the last mL in, she gagged and brought up ALL of the medicine, plus some of the applesauce she had for dinner, and some of the milk she'd had before that. Sigh. It was not pretty. And of course then we just had to do it all over again.
Today, the medicine went down easier, thank goodness! She was still running a fever, so she also got some drugs for that. Here's hoping tomorrow is better than today was. It's only a three day course of antibiotics, so, by tomorrow or the next day she should be 100%.
Even though malaria is highly treatable when caught early, it is some scary shit. Joel was the one that got the call that the test was positive, and had the privilege to share the news with me. I'm not going to lie, he had tears in his eyes when he told me. The last thing you want to do as a parent is to put your child in harm's way. It kills me that I cannot be awake all night wearing night vision goggles making sure that not a single mozzie gets near her. It kills me that they choose to bite her over me.
We had a conversation about Beni and I leaving Angola even earlier than planned. Like now. In fact, Joel was quite sure that as soon as he told me the news, I would insist on it. I did not. I knew, because I know Beni, that even though a test says she's sick, that she was ok. I mean, yes, she's sick, but, she's ok. If she had a raging fever and any other symptoms (vomiting or diarrhea or anything), I might feel differently. But as it was, I knew we just needed to get her meds, and she'd be ok.
The scary thing is that, this could all happen again next week. The incubation period for malaria is 6-10 days at a minimum. That means that this malaria she has now is from a bite we didn't even know she got. I'm usually pretty good at noticing when she gets them. I know she got 4 bites Saturday night, so hopefully those don't lead to anything (I would assume that if there was anything incubating from the Sat bites, it would also be killed by the abx she's on now).
The thing is, if we did leave Angola now, we'd go back to Michigan...which is covered in snow and surely full of winter-time germs and maladies... the flu, colds, and loads of other diseasey germs that can bring a child way, way down... and many of which (the flu, for instance) don't have a cure. A child can die from the flu and there is no cure. At least malaria has a cure. You know? Malaria is scary because it's foreign to so many of us...but...at least it's got a cure. Right?
So here we are... and I think we're all going to go ahead and stay here. We'll continue to be vigilant about killing mosquitoes, and of course, insisting on malaria tests any time Beni is "off"- heck, even if she doesn't have a fever! It's worth it for the peace of mind.
But oh it sucks that our baby had to get malaria. It should have been me, or Joel. The desire to protect is so very primal, and the realization that you cannot always do so, is so very humbling.
And I have to say... to make matters worse, I'm pretty sure she's cutting her second tooth, so that is causing her pain as well. And, she is also trying out those teeth on ME, which is not cool. So, we've had a lot of tears over boobs being put away, over not feeling well, over being tired because we're not sleeping...it's just been a few of "those" days.
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