Another Amoeba?

The day to fly out of Ethiopia has finally arrived. We load our suitcases, say goodbye to the Giles family, and head into town. Before we head to the airport we have a full day ahead of us.

Our first stop: Bingham Academy. The entire drive to Bingham I was crying. So I told myself: stop crying (because we all know that works). Then I made a deal with myself: “You can cry when you see Joy Heddleston. But not before.” So we pulled into the parking lot, and I get ahold of myself. I hop out of the van and start walking. The first person I see: Joy Heddleston. I made a deal with myself, and you better believe I kept it.

We spend our time with the Bingham staff. We pray together a few times. Kait was sick, so we prayed for her. Then we went to Mallory’s piano recital. After Kait and I ran over to Joy’s apartment to say ‘Ciao!’ we loaded up and drove away from Bingham.

We decided to eat at Tivoli’s. Kait puked on the way there. My stomach started acting a little funky, but not enough to concern me. We ate dinner, except the puking Kaitlyn, and hopped back in the van. We had to stop at Sishu’s, a local restaurant with super awesome burgers, to deliver some pottery. Then came our last drive – the drive to the airport.

The drive was mostly hilarious. I was quoting Hot Rod when Rod Kimble and Kevin Powell were talking about the ‘safety word’. Rod says, “Why am I saying what what whay?” Darby, Mallory, and I could not stop laughing. We get to the airport, get all thousand bags onto carts, and say our goodbyes to the Fehllas (my hilarious and loving nickname for the Fehl family). Kait and I get our luggage checked, through security, and to our gate in no time. As we are waiting for our plane my stomach starts acting up. It’s mostly fine. Until we are about two hours from D.C. Then I start puking, and other things. My symptoms are eerily similar to last month when I had Bert, my amoeba.

After we landed in D.C. I texted Bethany to tell her I’m about to die and need to go to the doctor when we get into Indianapolis. Bethany picked us up from the airport in Indy, we grabbed some dinner, and went to the hotel. Kait and I drove to a clinic to get a prescription for Bert 2.0. Of course, it wasn’t that easy.

I am in the room, chillin’ on the bed, freezing my tail off. A nurse walks in; a young, African American woman. She takes my vitals and asks me what is going on. I told her that I was in Ethiopia for about 6 months, just got into the States earlier that day, had an amoeba last month, took metronidazole and it made me sick, and now I think I have another amoeba. Not a big deal. I just need some medicine to kill it, and I’ll be on my way. She asked me my symptoms from the metronidazole, so I told her. I became really dehydrated, weakness, slight fever, and black urine. The woman almost had a heart attack. She slapped the cabinet door, looked at me and said, “NUH! UH! NO YOU DID NOT!” Naturally, I laughed.

The doctor came in and I told him the same thing. His reaction was something else. He told me this: “You need to see a GI (gastro intestinal) specialist immediately. You’ve had this going on for over a month. You might have to have surgery and get part of your intestine taken out. You could DIE!” Naturally, I laughed. I reminded him that I had an amoeba last month and it was taken care of. He did not give me any medicine, or a prescription. He did give me information for a GI Specialist. And a stool sample kit.

Whatever was wrong is gone now, no thanks to the doctor. And CMF now has a full stool sample kit to use at their disposal.