Rumble in the Jungle

The only thing worse than being some 2,000 miles from home and being in a jungle in 100 degree heat and getting sick, is having your child get sick under those conditions. Wednesday evening, Henry came down with a fever. Before we came to Caye Caulker, we took so many precautions to ensure that this wouldn't happen! We started the kids on vitamin B1 supplements (to ward off mosquitos), took them to an allergist to get medication for their mosquito allergies, started them on Zyrtec, got vaccinations for Typhoid and Hepatitis A and began taking weekly Malaria medication. We thought we had our bases pretty well covered. In spite of our efforts, though, our Bugsy has contracted something that his body doesn't like.

Wednesday was a sleepless night as I watched him sleep on and off and prayed as his fever went up to 102.9. I spent a great deal of the night on the computer researching information about Malaria and what we should be watching for. By morning, his stomach was beginning to to hurt, so I felt better thinking it was probably just something that he ate. Ruby, Kim's wife, told us that there is a doctor from the mainland that comes to the island daily, but this - of course - is his week off. She also told us that, although Malaria is on the mainland, they don't see it here on the island. We brought along some Azithromycin, so we started him on it. By the time he went to bed last night, his temperature was back to 98.6 but is back up a bit this morning. I'm taking it as a good sign that he doesn't want to stay in the house today - he wants to get on the bikes and ride. We'll continue to monitor him and give him the antibiotic and hope that things turn around soon. If not, I guess we'll be making a trip into the mainland. Ugghhh!