Find PART ONE here

Bonaire- A lasting Impression….
We boarded our flight to Atlanta, and were pleasantly surprised that we were flying Delta Comfort. This meant great snacks, and free drinks, which we were happy to partake in. We’re done diving, right?! So, we both have Woodford Reserve on the rocks, and watched Pan on the little TVs. The flight was rather uneventful, and pleasant, we even had all three seat to ourselves! As we were landing, though, something didn’t feel right. In fact, I felt like I’d been hit by a train. I chalked it up to fatigue and dehydration, and the woodford, that probably didn’t help with that dehydration. I took a couple of Tylenol, and that helped take the edge off, but the next morning, I was getting worried. I had deep deep pain in my shoulder, my elbow, my hip, and my knee, but also a more generalized malaise throughout my body. At this point, I am worried about decompression sickness. While we did stay within the recommended limits, it was just so. We were right at 24 hours post dive before flying. We did run close to exceeding our no-deco time, although we never actually did. There have been many cases of unearned DCS, and that’s where I think this is going, so I call DAN, the Divers Alert Network, and they tell me that it actually doesn’t sound like DCS. It usually doesn’t have the overall body aches to go with it, but that if it was still there in the morning, I should consult a doctor. I was actually relieved that evening when the fever set in, because I knew that DCS does not present with a fever. Yay, no ride in the hyperbaric chamber, I thought. Little did I know I was in for a lot worse than a boring four hours in a chamber. Monday, the aches got worse, the fever got higher, and I felt very flu-like. By Wednesday, we started to think this may be more than the flu. There were no upper respiratory issues, just a horrendous headache, body ache, and fever. I went to my local doctor, and we discussed some of the possibilities. Mosquito-borne is what I keep thinking, reading up on Dengue, Chikungunya, and Zika. My symptoms most closely matched dengue, but either way, there is not treatment, just rest, Tylenol, and fluids. By Thursday night, my fever spiked to 104, and I woke up to take a Tylenol, immediately vomiting up the water I tried to take it with. I lay on the bathroom floor, and the fever finally broke, leaving me in a sad pile of sweat, exhausted and weary. My husband was pulling 12 hour shifts at the hospital, so I called on friends to try to get my hands on apple juice and apple sauce and anything else that I could stomach. Friday night, we consulted with a Filipino co-worker familiar with Dengue on what the average timeframe is. She was quite startled that I’d had a high grade fever for so long, and told him he need to consult with Infectious Disease. They told him I needed bloodwork, so we called the on call doctor at the clinic to get them to put orders in. The phlebotomist, the best I have ever had, was quite startled by the amount of bloodwork I needed. It was drawn off both arms, which is no fun at all, but she made it as painless as possible.

That evening, we got confirmation that my platelets were low, and my liver enzymes were high, a very good indicator of Dengue Fever, so I was praying I had to be at the end of the typical seven day duration. Of course, they ran a malaria smear, and salmonella to check for Typhoid, but both came back negative. The fever was unrelenting, and on Monday, my nose started to bleed, which is a sign of severe dengue. Due to a snowstorm, the doctor’s office was closed, so I called the on- call for that morning, and he got even more bloodwork ran, including a stool sample, which I grumbled about. Who wants to poop in a plastic container, then spoon that poop into another container, and walk through the hospital with it to drop at the lab? Ew! I asked the lab manager if results were back on Dengue yet, and she said she would check when I brought the stool sample back, so I was under pressure to get this done. I was back down to the lab within an hour. We had some blessed luck this day, due to the snowstorm, the hospital put my husband up at our favorite hotel in Roanoke, so we watched the Grammy’s while enjoying room service, and I had about as much fun as you can have when you have a high grade fever.

The next day, Tuesday, I was to see the Infectious disease doctor, and the hotel was awesome enough to let me stay until two, as my appointment was at 2:30. The doctor was amazing, and spent a solid two hours taking a full history of everything I did, and everything I ate in Bonaire. He did inform me, though, that fever in returning travelers often goes undiagnosed, which is very disheartening. I want to know what this affliction is! By Thursday, I’m still feeling the same, and I sent him a message through the hospital’s system saying that if he was planning on meeting with me again this week, I had a client luncheon Friday I didn’t want to miss, but I was completely free Thursday. His office called a few minutes later and scheduled me for the afternoon. I told my husband, I hope he wasn’t just bringing me in because of the message. I didn’t want to waste his time, I just wanted him to know I couldn’t meet Friday, if he was wanting, too. In hindsight, I found this whole dialogue quite comical.

I get to the office, and go through the routine, my temp is 100.9 with Tylenol coursing through me. I get back to the room, my husband is with me this time, and we wait quite a while for the doc to come in. He informs me that he’s been consulting with the chief of the department on my case. They just got the labwork back. I have typhoid fever. I’m pretty sure I was in shock. I mean, sure, I’ve heard of it, but mainly from the history books. I knew I had a vaccination before Bali, and that was just in October, and Bonaire is supposed to have clean water, and be no risk, and what?!?!?!?! He shows us the slides, which I must admit, were pretty cool, but also looked like an alien could be growing in my intestines. I didn’t understand anything he said about all of it. All I knew was that they found it in the stool culture that I didn’t want to give, and their theory is that the bloodwork was negative due to the antibiotics I took for traveler’s diarrhea. One of my questions was “what about the dengue?” I think I just thought I’d had it for so long, I couldn’t accept anything else. In one of my fever delirium’s I’d actually wrote a song about Dengue! We’d finally got the results back, and it was most definitely negative. We talked about the most likely culprits for how I got it, and the fruit I consumed so much of at Harbour Village is the most likely culprit, based on incubation period, and the history of what we ate throughout our stay. Next steps include more bloodwork, (Why, oh why?!) antibiotics, and a call from the health department so they can report to the CDC. My husband has been an amazing trooper through all of this, taking great care of me and even whipping up all of the Blue Apron meals that my friend Shellie happened to get us for Christmas. (That turned out to be a complete lifesaver!) I’m now day 6 into antibiotics, the fever has backed off to a low-grade level, but still likes to spike every so often, and I haven’t been able to work for a month.  I’m so glad I didn’t have decompression sickness, right? Ironically, that great book I read at the beginning of the trip, it’s about a woman whose son dies of typhoid fever from an ice cream vendor at the beach. Ah, irony.