yesterday i was feeling worse. i blamed it on the fact that i wasn't getting enough sleep so i stayed home and took a 4 hour nap. yep. 4 hours.
when i woke up and as the night continued on my back pain turned into full body aches and my nausea turned into having pretty much no appetite at all.
um... surely this is nothing at all right? i mean no vomiting. no diarrhea. no fever... well... until around 8:00 i grabbed that ol' thermometer which read at a nice 100.1 degrees. that's not too high. probably it's just from it being hot out, right??!!!
today we went to the clinic and someone (ooh, it's me!) got a little prick on her finger. then bing-bang-boom and...
negative. phew!
yeah. it would appear that certain malaria meds have some interesting side effects. these are the common ones. the ones i was experiencing are in green.
diarrhea
dizziness
drowsiness
headache
lightheadedness
loss of appetite
muscle aches
nausea
stomach pain or upset
strange dreams
tiredness
trouble sleeping
vomiting
never a good thing when the medicine you're taking to prevent a disease causes the exact same symptoms as the disease.
so it's officially time to say goodbye to the big bad mr. mefloquine. on to doxycycline.
9 comments:
i'm glad it's not malaria! hopefully the next one will work well!
so glad you're posting on here!
ditto shar. :)
i've been feeling some of the same symptoms... maybe I have malaria!!!
I have to say I never feel great while on the medication either. But if your symptoms get worse, don't ignore them. Get re-checked. This is your mother speaking!
fear not mother dearest. WILL do :) we have to go to the clinic everyday for KG this week so if anything needs checking that makes it VERY easy. but you'll be happy to know i am feeling much better today.
AND yesterday i realized that THIS is exactly what i was feeling in kenya airport last year remember??!!! it all makes so MUCH sense!
Andy had the "strange dreams" and "anxiety" on that medication- it was awful!! He only takes doxy now :-) I hope you are feeling better!
okay - you kind of scared me at first!! glad all is well. i love you! and we NEED to skype. i get teary when i hear your journey cd.... :)
larium right? i have heard you can get nightmares with that too, that's why i refused to take it! we were are thinking about going doxycycline now too...cheaper than what we are on now. (ok i am so boring...)
-trish
oh goodness - we just got mefloquine to take while in ethiopia. would it be a good thing to use the other medication? seriously this is freaking me out. i would prefer not to be sick and having strange dreams. yikes.
kim, i've taken mefloquine every time i've come to africa and have experienced side affects 2 out of the 4 times... both times i've had them it's been after i've been here longer. so it's up to you. doxycyline is cheap and side effects aren't as harsh, but it also makes your skin sensitive to the sun so if you DO switch make sure you wear sunscreen! :)
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