And.....I'm back!!!

Hi everyone!

So here I am, back on the radar again!  Where have I turned up?  Back home in Atlanta, at the moment.  It's been great hanging out with family, old friends and making tons of new friends. I got back about a month and a half ago ( I think).  I usually only spend a week or two here before returning to my assignment so everyone keeps asking me, "How long will you be with us?!"  To which I have to reply awkwardly, "um....I'm not sure..."  I'll have to take you back 8 months to December 31st to explain.

My service day ended great as always.  I had dinner and went to the room to hang out with the girls.  After awhile I started feeling "not well."  Nothing I could really put my finger on but nothing to worry about.  After about an hour, I started feeling nausea and told my roommate I was going to the outhouse as a precautionary measure.  That was the beginning of the end.  I have NEVER been so violently ill!  While I hugged the outhouse toilet on my knees wondering if I'd make it to the new year, more and more time went by.  After about an hour, the sister we live with asked the girls where I was.  They had been joking that I was hung over from the new year (the jokes your friends make when you are not around!!).  They didn't realize I had been gone that long.  When they came out I think I nearly scared them to death at how sick I was.  They tried to get me to go to the hospital but despite being unable to stand, I refused.  Hospitals in the larger cities are fine but near us they are VERY unsanitary often with no gloves, makeshift stretchers and bodily fluids splattered all over the place.  I decided to take my chances on the outhouse floor with bugs crawling around me.  Knowing my stubbornness and seeing I was getting worse by every passing minute they started making concoctions.  At first I refused but after while I gave in.  One sister gave me piping hot water with tons of lemon juice to kill bacteria in my stomach.  I took one sip and instantly knew I had gone very, very wrong.  After two hours of violently vomiting that was like pure acid!  It felt it sear its way down my throat and at the moment it hit my stomach  I can't even explain the pain.  Right when I thought I couldn't possibly get anymore sick, I did.  Finally, they gave me a nausea pill which eventually quieted me to the point of them being able to help me back to bed.  Everyone slept around me and whenever I made a sound or movement they were there to hold my hair give me water or whatever I needed.  I continued quite ill though out the night but finally got some sleep in the morning.  That afternoon was our pioneer meeting and day one of our CO visit.  I mustered up a smile and a nice dress and got through it.  I did the same for the rest of the week not stopping to rest  until after the visit.  After about two weeks I felt better though still abit tired.  This continued on for months...violently ill one week then fine for 2 or 3.  Even when I was "better" I could never quite get my energy up.  I had to stop doing our overnight trips in the mountains and give myself extra walking time in local territories.  FINALLY, one day in May, I woke up not feeling great but not horrible.  I got dressed for the meeting and hopped in the back of the pickup to head to the hall.  In the truck I was noticeably quiet as I felt my strength waning quickly and I struggled to hold on in the truck.  Again all I could really say is I just didn't feel well.  Once we got to the hall, I decided to get in line for the outhouse even though the meeting had started.  As I stood there waiting, I went from bad to worse at lightning speed.  I kept trying to focus my eyes but I couldn't.  I started seeing spots and realized OH NO I'M ABOUT TO FAINT!!!  I tried to move so that I wasn't in eye shot of everyone in the hall but I couldn't move with out collapsing.  The last thing I remember is trying to say a quick prayer not to faint in front of everyone (talk about EMBARRASSING!!!!).  Just as I was fading, the sister came out of the outhouse and I half way got the word "help" out in Spanish when I passed out in her arms.  Like I said it was in front of the hall so EVERYBODY saw (ugh).  As the meeting continued half the congregation was in the parking lot with me.  I was now on my knees in the grass in my prettiest dress (it was our first meeting after our renovations so I wanted to look nice).  There I was, shivering and seeing nothing but feet around me as I threw up.  Nice.  As I struggled to keep conscious, I agreed to see a doctor.  They drove me to the nearest doctor which was a couple of towns away.  He was actually just a pharmacist.  I couldn't get out of the truck and he didn't bother to come see me.  He just asked the brothers what my symptoms were and prescribed a bunch of shots and medicine.  They are really big on injections.  I resisted since they couldn't really tell me what it was an injection of.  I finally gave in and accepted it all.  (I later found that in spite of my telling him I was allergic to sulpha, he gave me an injection with sulfa, DOH!).  Unfortunately, the medicine didn't work but I was able to find a really good private doctor in another town.  He finally found that it was a kidney infection.  Unfortunately, after several medicines it got worse instead of better and I had to really look at returning to the States.  The last medicine started clearing it up but I still was a little sick.  In all this, I had still been getting to all of my meetings and walking to all of my studies--miles away although with increasing difficulty.  In the final week or two I couldn't even get out of bed and realized I wasn't helping so I had might as well go home and get better.  The brothers and sisters piled into the back of the pickup and drove two hours at 3AM to see me off.  They still call and text me every few days to see how I am.  I had one study who walked to the next community over to borrow a cell phone and got enough money to talk to me for two minutes just to know I was ok and to tell me not to worry because she and her mom are still making the long walk to the meetings and still commenting!  They know me well because I was concerned although I was constantly reminding myself that Jehovah would care for them better than I ever could.
 So, here I am trying to get good and strong.  The first couple of weeks all I did was stay in bed and eat all my moms yummy cooking (that's enough to cure ANY ailment!).  I had to pace my self with service doing alot of letter writing and eventually getting out.  Then of course in the last couple of weeks I figured I was miraculously "cured" so I was going full force in service only for my health to knock me back down and remind me I'm not OK.  Talk about frustrating!  Kudos to all of you serving with health problems!!  So I continue to try and work on modesty (will I ever get it??!!) and do my best to get better.  I'm sitting here doing a detox now hoping that will help until my doctor's appointment comes up.  I'm also checking on another condition I had before going to Nica to see if I will need surgery *gasp*  I find out Friday what the answer is to that.  So....will I be able to return to my assignment in December like I hope?  Not sure.  I'm just going to make it a matter of prayer to get better soon and that Jehovah use me in some capacity, somewhere :-)

I'll try to put some other posts up as to fun things that have been happening in the last months soon :-)
Nica/Atlanta Chica ;-)

PS- I put an email address in my profile if you have any questions, comments or concerns that you don't want to post for the world!