Dengue

That´s right dengue. I made it almost one year exactly in country and came down with dengue. For those of you who don´t know dengue is a virus transmitted by mosquitoes and there are more cases of dengue than malaria here in the DR. Although mine started a little abornmally. I was on my way to San Juan on a motoconcho and started feeling light-headed and like I was going to pass out so when we got to the stop in San Juan I sat and rested until I felt a little better. Then I proceeded to walk down the street, but only made it about half a block before I got the light-headed feeling again and had to go into a shop and sit down. So I went back to the stop with the intention of going back to my site, but I couldn´t even sit on a motoconcho without feeling light-headed. I called one of the Peace Corps doctors and she said it was probably from the heat, to have a Coca-Cola and water and let her know how I feel. Well, the Coke and water helped well enough for me to make it back to my site. But then, that evening my temperature started went up to 101 and my back and legs started acheing. I took some medicine to make my temperature go down but by the middle of the night it wore off and my body was still all achy. By 6:00 am my temperature was up to 102. I called the doctor and she told me to come in. They sent me for blood tests, gave me some ibuprofen for the fever and aches, told me to drink lots of water, and gave me two options, go to the hospital or get a private room at the little hostel like place we normally stay at. I opted for that rather than being all alone at a hospital. It was a nice relaxing weekend and by Monday I was feeling much better although I had a crazy looking rash all over my body. It was even worse on Tuesday but I felt well enough to go back to my site. The rash lasted a couple days more and was a little itchy going away and I was pretty low energy for the next couple weeks. But I am better and doing well now. Here´s some pictures of my rash.


Here´s the rash on my neck.


Here´s the rash on my elbow and forearm