Thursday, January 19, 2012

At Least It's Not Malaria

Today is my tenth wedding anniversary. And I was throwing up last night. :-/ I think I might have caught one of the bugs going around my family. Last year, I was sick the day after our anniversary, but that was from food poisoning.

I keep telling myself that at least it's not malaria.

There's a story to that.

Hubby and I were really young when we got married (I was eighteen and he had just turned twenty), and we shocked everybody by meeting and getting married super fast. For us, it was God's hand in our lives, and we were both certain we were meant to be together. I know some people who meet and marry super fast, and others who wait years and years--everyone is so different. It worked for us.

A couple of weeks before we got married, Hubby was on a pre-planned mission trip in the Darien Jungle in Panama. When he got back to the States, he didn't feel so great. Three days before our wedding, he was slammed with a headache and a fever of 104 and I think some other things. My mom told me to take him to the ER. I did. And the ER was apparently busy or something (even though they didn't look it), and they left Hubby lying on the floor (because he hurt too much to stand up) for about three hours until they got him back into a room.

The doctor decided that with the symptoms Hubby had, it might be meningitis. We told the doc that Hubby had just been out of the country, but he never bothered to do any blood tests. All he did was a spinal tap, said no, Hubby didn't have meningitis, and didn't bother to look and see if he had anything else. He said Hubby had the flu and told him to go home and alternate taking Tylenol and Ibuprofen.

This was Wednesday. We were getting married Saturday. I have a picture of him from the wedding where he's lying across his brother and sister's laps, because his head hurt so much he couldn't stand up.

But we still got married. Saturday night, Hubby was okay. Sunday night, he woke up at about 2AM with a ton of energy, declaring he wanted shrimp. I was all O_o. Monday morning, however, he was in so much pain and so sick that he couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't open the window blinds because the light hurt him. And he didn't want to go back to the ER (understandably) because of what had happened the last time he tried.

However, about 8PM, Hubby woke up (he'd been sleeping all day) and told me he had figured out how to steal an 18-wheeler truck. I was like "!!!!??????!!!!!! You're hallucinating. I'm taking you to the hospital." If the physical symptoms weren't enough, that did it for me. (For the record, Hubby would never, ever steal a truck, 18-wheeler or otherwise. ;))

I managed to get him out of the house and to the car. I parked in front of the ER and ran inside to tell someone I needed a wheelchair, because he couldn't even get out of the car. Forget getting out of the car, he couldn't even open the door. When I returned to the car, he was still fumbling with the door handle, but didn't have the strength to get it open. (When he remembers this, he swears I was only gone from the car for a few seconds.)

This time, the nurses rushed him right back to a room in the ER. (We saw one of the nurses who had seen us on Wednesday, and she goes, "Please tell me you at least got married!") And the doctor who came in immediately took a blood sample. Turns out Hubby had--you guessed it!--malaria.

Once they started pumping Hubby full of painkillers, things were much better. And then they had two specialists come in, and they were great. They were hilarious, though, because they had never dealt with a malaria case. (I mean, it's Tennessee. Who expects malaria?) So they were like "we're going to find a treatment" and then they left me with Hubby in the room. A short while later, they came back into the room, very confused and telling me they were having trouble finding Panama on a map of South America.

I went, "Um, Panama is in Central America." They brought me out into the hallway, where they had a map of the Americas on the computer screen, because they were looking to find out what kind of malaria was in different parts of the world or something. I showed them where Panama was, and then stood there while they went to the CDC's website to look for treatments. They were scrolling through it, talking to each other and going "no, that's preventative, we need a treatment!" Then they realized I was still standing there and looked at me and said, "We really do know what we're doing!"

I was very, very amused. But, you know, they didn't go to school to study geography; it was probably unimportant in light of all the medical knowledge they had crammed into their brains. They were absolutely awesome doctors. They did know what they were doing.  They got Hubby on the right medications (it took two tries--the first med they gave him made him not be able to hear). However, he had developed pneumonia, so we were in the hospital for a week because of the malaria and pneumonia. I spent numerous hours sitting in the dark hospital room (since Hubby couldn't stand the light), writing and chatting on AIM and staying sane. I ran back and forth between the hospital and apartment to shower/pick things up. It was quite a honeymoon. :p

And here it is, ten years later, and even though I'm not feeling well, I have the most awesome, supportive husband and I am so grateful for him.



17 comments:

  1. I'M SO SORRY YOU'RE SICK :( NO FUN!!

    But thank you for sharing that story...you knew it was love when he decided to stick to that wedding date feeling like he did, lol

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  2. What a way to start your marriage! Funny the doctors couldn't find Panama on a map.
    Sorry you are sick today! Hope you find a way to celebrate your tenth anniversary anyway.

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  3. Aw, Laura. I'm glad you shared this story. And I'm glad you've got such a great sense of humor about it . . . now. I'm sure it must have been scary when you were going through it.

    I hope you get better soon. Sorry you're throwing up. Yuck.

    Happy Anniversary!

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  4. Awesome story! Not that your husband had malaria, just how it all turned out.

    I was sick at our wedding. I lost my voice, which was lots of fun, but it was just a cold. At least it wasn't malaria. :)

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  5. I love your wedding photo!!

    I hope you feel better soon.

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  6. Happy anniversary! :) I hope you feel better soon. Everyone in my household has at least something and I think my son caught every single virus!

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  7. Happy Anniversary and get well soon.

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  8. That's one of those stories to look back at an have a chuckle, even though it wasn't funny at the time.
    I see you already commented on my blog for the post on the award you got, but I thought I'd come on and officially tell you about it. So...I gave you a blog award on my blog.

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  9. I have this same bug so I know what you are going/went through. I spent most of the night on the floor of the bathroom. I feel better today though. I finally ate some chicken noodle soup. I guess staying hydrated is a priority since your losing a lot of fluids.

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  10. Awesome wedding picture and a funny story so double win.
    (Did he ever say what he wanted the 18 wheeler for?)

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  11. Oh my word that's one heck of a honeymoon.

    Yeah after that, anything else isn't as bad as Malaria. Glad to know that your hubby made it through alright.

    Hope you feel better soon.

    :-)

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  12. That is the BEST story! THE BEST! My new moto will be, "At least it isn't malaria." Thanks for sharing :)

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  13. hope you're all better now! and happy anniversary =)

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  14. Happy anniversary! And wow, um, quite a honeymoon you guys had! I almost laughed out loud at the fact that you had to tell the doctors where Panama is, but (like you said) they didn't study geography!

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  15. OMG, I'm glad he's better now! I've seen a bunch of malaria cases and luckily I've been able to work with some great infectious disease specialists who find this stuff very easy to deal with.

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  16. Wow, what a scary beginning to your marriage! Now that's a great story. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

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Thanks for sharing your thoughts!