Spotted Mosquitoes

After turning the final corner, I stood dead in my tracks. Looking into an open outdoor space of about 100 people coughing, wearing masks, bloodshot eyes and crying babies, I felt like I was in a movie. I had no idea how much of an issue the flu and Dengue were in Guadalajara. I was suddenly thankful of the horrid mask I too had to wear. Who knew what all of these people were sick with standing around me. All I knew was I wanted to get in the office, get my medicine, and get out FAST.

Rewind...
Wednesday morning: I woke up to a weird ache on my lower back. After close examination in the mirror and with the help of two friends, we decided it was either a rash or a bite. The rash was raised, swollen and red, yet I had absolutely no idea where it came from. It was so big and painful there was no way I could simply forget bumping into something, being burned by a candle, or drunkenly injuring myself without knowing. All options were out of the question. This odd rash simply "appeared." I let it be and boggled my brain the next two days about where it could have possibly come from...

Thursday: I began to develop a cough and my muscles began to feel sore. I didn't think this was too out of the ordinary due to my weak immune system and the fact of about 50% of my class being sick with something.

Friday: Went to school utterly exhausted. I thought this was because I went out three nights in a row with friends. Although, I did not drink too much any of the nights so maybe it was just exhaustion. I began to think... Wow, turning 26 does feel a lot different. My poor body can't take it anymore. On the walk home from school, I explained to Gabi how every muscle in my body ached. How my eyes seemed like they were burning and had an ache all on its own. I got home at 11:30 a.m. and slept until 4:30 p.m. After waking up to eat something and find out what my friends were doing, I crawled back into bed around 7 p.m. and did not wake up until the next morning at about 9:30 a.m.!!

Saturday: Sick, sick, and more sick. I decided I should probably go to the doctor to get checked out for Dengue Fever (a fever people get from mosquitoes carrying the illness which causes aches, burning eyes, exhaustion, lack of hunger, etc.). My good ol roommie accompanied me to the emergency room where they proceeded to do a blood test and cotton swab swipe of my nose. We were informed to come back in at least 2 hours for the lab results. Of course on the way home, the hospital called and said they needed another test since the cotton swab test had too much mucus on it! So, three rounds and back at the hospital, I waived my doctor down, who looked at me and said, "I have bad news... come here."

WHOA WHOA WHOA!! First off, you do not tell a sick patient, "I have bad news." Do you know how many crazy things went through my head? I thought they were going to say I have cancer or something!

Diagnostics showed I apparently have Dengue Fever and the Flu. Right now there are six types of different flus floating around in the Zapopan area alone. The nasty rash I noticed Wednesday morning, however, was the mosquito bite of a Dengue Fever carrier. So of course, I of all people get two different types of illnesses, both attributed with fevers, at the same time!

The first sign of Dengue is an odd rash on lower extremities (check). Next up are symptoms which include dry cough, headaches, pain in the eyes, exhaustion, lack of hunger, and body aches (check, check, check, check, check, and check). During my chat with the doctor, after joking around about being the "special patient" with not one but two flues, I let out a few coughs. All of the doctors gave my doctor "the look." She came back to me with a surgical mask in hand, looked me dead in the eyes and said, "I'm sorry. Please don't hate me, but you have to wear this for the next five days." ACK!! Of course I started crying (there was a lot of emotion going on during the day. I think it was from being exhausted, feverish and sick). After filling out a bunch of forms and getting some medicine, my doctor told me I would now have to go to another hospital to get some type of a transfusion/medicine. Who knows, a lot gets lost in translation.

My doctor escorted me outside and asked a valet guy to give me a hand so the taxi driver would not up the charge for being a foreigner. The gimmick ended up being him telling the driver I just had surgery and couldn't talk. This way he would never know I was from the States! The drive ended up being a lot of gestures, nods and shakes. Interesting...

The next hospital visit is a story all on it's own.