sick
so today is my first official day out of the compound since sunday. well, sunday doesn't really count because i was only out for an hour. i got the death-plague. four of us had it. all of us survived, but barely. (ok, i'm kidding on the barely, but it was bad). friday, saturday, and sunday i had a nasty cold. then from monday until today lauren, april, and i have been on the verge of puking our guts out. to top it all off, i got a migraine yesterday afternoon.
today is the first day since monday that i have eaten more than 4 pieces of toast and half a piece of fruit. progress! i still feel pretty gross, but i'm getting stronger by the day. i'm even in arusha today. my friend genevieve from washington d.c. was sick too, but with a really gross cold. since she was the ambulatory one she helped me get everything i needed all day long (tea, water, toast, calling cards, phones, playing cards, etc.) and in exchange i was her trusty sickly sidekick all week. until lauren started staying home then we became the pathetic trio. and once april dropped we were a full on plague-gang.
did i mention that four out of the four people who got sick with the nasty strain that i had (lauren, april, michelle, and me) were placed at the orphanage? huh. what a coincidence.
in summary, today was my last day at the orphanage. it was lauren and april's last day as well. michelle, possibly the smartest of us all, decided not to look back and get out while she still had her intestines. i decided that i couldn't risk getting that sick again. so i'm switching my placement, hopefully to St. Lucia's nursing home, which houses 3 women with severe AIDS (ranging from ages 13 to 30) and about 10 orphans who are HIV positive.
One orphan, James, who is twelve years old and about 4 feet tall is currently being treated for Tuberculosis. TB is the main cause of death for HIV positive people. While AIDS patients usually die from diseases and infections that run rampant due to a SEVERELY decreased immune system, few people actually die of long-term effects of the AIDS virus itself (such as the virus attacking the central and peripheral nervous systems). TB is estimated to cause the death of 1/3 of the world's HIV positive people. Because James is currently on treatment, he is not contageous, which is good for the other patients in the home as well as the employees and volunteers, and we all hope that the drugs will help him live as long of a life as possible. TB is very treatable as long as it is not a multi-drug-resistant strain.
at the new placement i would be doing everything from washing floors, doing dishes, picking vegetables, cooking, playing with the children, feeding patients, bathing patients, to doing home visits. home visits consist of one tanzanian volunteer who takes about 3 of us to the store first to buy groceries for the AIDS patients we visit and then to the homes of former St. Lucia's patients who are currently being cared for by their friends or family members. we distribute whatever drugs we have that can help them, and give medical advice.
FACTS ABOUT DRUGS (PRICES AND AVAILABILITY): in case you were wondering, tanzania provides free anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs to all patients with a helper-T cell count below 200 per microliter of blood. in non-gibberish terms, this means that if you have AIDS (and are probably already beginning to experience the severe infections that come along with a severely damaged immune system) you can get free drugs to help combat the AIDS virus. it is possibly once you start taking these anti-AIDS drugs to decrease the virus in you so much that your immune system bounces back (to a helper-T count above 200) and you are no longer considered an AIDS patient but actually just someone who is HIV positive. however, the drugs to combat the infections a person will suffer are not free. (if you have some time, try looking up Diflucon and Zacki Achmat in South Africa). the drugs to fight infections are VERY expensive and can cost a US citizen up to $30,000 per year. i'm not sure of the prices here, but with the average annual income at only $200, these drugs can't possibly be affordable. in addition, anti-retrovirals are most effective when used as preventatory, to keep someone from getting "full-blown AIDS" once they know they are HIV positive. this prevents such potential costly infections and diseases. however, funding for such preventatory anti-retrovirals (ARV's) is not available here. kinda sucks, huh?
today is the first day since monday that i have eaten more than 4 pieces of toast and half a piece of fruit. progress! i still feel pretty gross, but i'm getting stronger by the day. i'm even in arusha today. my friend genevieve from washington d.c. was sick too, but with a really gross cold. since she was the ambulatory one she helped me get everything i needed all day long (tea, water, toast, calling cards, phones, playing cards, etc.) and in exchange i was her trusty sickly sidekick all week. until lauren started staying home then we became the pathetic trio. and once april dropped we were a full on plague-gang.
did i mention that four out of the four people who got sick with the nasty strain that i had (lauren, april, michelle, and me) were placed at the orphanage? huh. what a coincidence.
in summary, today was my last day at the orphanage. it was lauren and april's last day as well. michelle, possibly the smartest of us all, decided not to look back and get out while she still had her intestines. i decided that i couldn't risk getting that sick again. so i'm switching my placement, hopefully to St. Lucia's nursing home, which houses 3 women with severe AIDS (ranging from ages 13 to 30) and about 10 orphans who are HIV positive.
One orphan, James, who is twelve years old and about 4 feet tall is currently being treated for Tuberculosis. TB is the main cause of death for HIV positive people. While AIDS patients usually die from diseases and infections that run rampant due to a SEVERELY decreased immune system, few people actually die of long-term effects of the AIDS virus itself (such as the virus attacking the central and peripheral nervous systems). TB is estimated to cause the death of 1/3 of the world's HIV positive people. Because James is currently on treatment, he is not contageous, which is good for the other patients in the home as well as the employees and volunteers, and we all hope that the drugs will help him live as long of a life as possible. TB is very treatable as long as it is not a multi-drug-resistant strain.
at the new placement i would be doing everything from washing floors, doing dishes, picking vegetables, cooking, playing with the children, feeding patients, bathing patients, to doing home visits. home visits consist of one tanzanian volunteer who takes about 3 of us to the store first to buy groceries for the AIDS patients we visit and then to the homes of former St. Lucia's patients who are currently being cared for by their friends or family members. we distribute whatever drugs we have that can help them, and give medical advice.
FACTS ABOUT DRUGS (PRICES AND AVAILABILITY): in case you were wondering, tanzania provides free anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs to all patients with a helper-T cell count below 200 per microliter of blood. in non-gibberish terms, this means that if you have AIDS (and are probably already beginning to experience the severe infections that come along with a severely damaged immune system) you can get free drugs to help combat the AIDS virus. it is possibly once you start taking these anti-AIDS drugs to decrease the virus in you so much that your immune system bounces back (to a helper-T count above 200) and you are no longer considered an AIDS patient but actually just someone who is HIV positive. however, the drugs to combat the infections a person will suffer are not free. (if you have some time, try looking up Diflucon and Zacki Achmat in South Africa). the drugs to fight infections are VERY expensive and can cost a US citizen up to $30,000 per year. i'm not sure of the prices here, but with the average annual income at only $200, these drugs can't possibly be affordable. in addition, anti-retrovirals are most effective when used as preventatory, to keep someone from getting "full-blown AIDS" once they know they are HIV positive. this prevents such potential costly infections and diseases. however, funding for such preventatory anti-retrovirals (ARV's) is not available here. kinda sucks, huh?