My fever felt extremely high and my main symptoms were muscle aches and
just the feverish feeling, along with a touch of diahrea. I knew that
these were pretty much the exact symptoms of both dengue and malaria (as
well as of course common influenza and common viruses), I decided I
best head to the hospital especially in case it was dengue. There are 3 strains of Dengue, and I had been sick by one in Thailand. Once you have had one strain, your body recognizes the other strains, but does not have immediate immunity against them, so instead puts up such a big fight, that your autoimmune response can actually be quite dangerous too you without good medical care. I didn't think it was dengue as it was the dry season in the galapagos and dengue carrying mosquitos mostly die out during this time (this is why there have been major dengue outbreaks in thailand, malaysia, and singapore because for some reason they have stopped having complete dry seasons which has allowed these species of mosquitos to persist and breed all year round.), but I figured it was best to be on the safe side. Unfortunately it was Sunday, so the hospital was closed, and I had to go to the ER.
I saw someone in the hospital...not sure if it was a doctor, nurse practioner, or something else, but she diagnosed me with an infection of the throat (which was interesting as I only had a slight sore throat). Of course in order to diagnose me with such she shoved a flashlight into my mouth, which touched the inside of my mouth. I couldn't help but think of how many sick people's mouths that flashlight had been in! Gotta love third world hospital standards (right Lucas Stringfield with those rusty tongs on that island in the Philippines). I also had a fever of 39.5C =103.1F. As a result of all of this, she gave me 3 shots. One was a shot to make sure I wasn't allergic to penicillin, even though I had told her I wasn't. I got another in my arm for the fever and then she pulled down my pants and gave me the penicillin right on a butt cheek (much to the amusement of the mom and little girl sharing the room with me I am sure). I then had to lie on the bed for a couple hours with a wet towel on my head until my fever dropped down to 38 degrees. The good thing is that in Ecuador, public hospitals and doctors are free as I was worried what an over 2 hour visit to the ER would cost.
5-20. I was still feeling quite bad the next day. Usually you feel better pretty quickly with antibiotics if it is a bacterial infection you have. As my hospital spanish lingo is not super great, I was still feeling a bit uneasy that maybe I was mis diagnosed or that the lady who helped me didn't understand my fear of having malaria or dengue as I had been in malarial zones as well. So I decided to visit a private clinic run by a couple of doctors specializing in SCUBA dive medicine but trained in the USA and France. He looked at me and was aghast at how bad my infection was in my throat. He told me he wasn't concerned about malaria bc of how my throat looked nor dengue. Plus he said the last case of Dengue in the galapagos had been back in January during the wet season. He just said I had a bad infection and that penicillin was the wrong drug to have given me. He couldn't test me for strept or anything since I did already have an antibiotic in me. He said they should have given me Azithromyacin (known back home as the Z-pack). So I got this prescribed for me and continued on with our galapagos trip.
I saw someone in the hospital...not sure if it was a doctor, nurse practioner, or something else, but she diagnosed me with an infection of the throat (which was interesting as I only had a slight sore throat). Of course in order to diagnose me with such she shoved a flashlight into my mouth, which touched the inside of my mouth. I couldn't help but think of how many sick people's mouths that flashlight had been in! Gotta love third world hospital standards (right Lucas Stringfield with those rusty tongs on that island in the Philippines). I also had a fever of 39.5C =103.1F. As a result of all of this, she gave me 3 shots. One was a shot to make sure I wasn't allergic to penicillin, even though I had told her I wasn't. I got another in my arm for the fever and then she pulled down my pants and gave me the penicillin right on a butt cheek (much to the amusement of the mom and little girl sharing the room with me I am sure). I then had to lie on the bed for a couple hours with a wet towel on my head until my fever dropped down to 38 degrees. The good thing is that in Ecuador, public hospitals and doctors are free as I was worried what an over 2 hour visit to the ER would cost.
5-20. I was still feeling quite bad the next day. Usually you feel better pretty quickly with antibiotics if it is a bacterial infection you have. As my hospital spanish lingo is not super great, I was still feeling a bit uneasy that maybe I was mis diagnosed or that the lady who helped me didn't understand my fear of having malaria or dengue as I had been in malarial zones as well. So I decided to visit a private clinic run by a couple of doctors specializing in SCUBA dive medicine but trained in the USA and France. He looked at me and was aghast at how bad my infection was in my throat. He told me he wasn't concerned about malaria bc of how my throat looked nor dengue. Plus he said the last case of Dengue in the galapagos had been back in January during the wet season. He just said I had a bad infection and that penicillin was the wrong drug to have given me. He couldn't test me for strept or anything since I did already have an antibiotic in me. He said they should have given me Azithromyacin (known back home as the Z-pack). So I got this prescribed for me and continued on with our galapagos trip.
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