Medical Leave- From being sick to my flight home
Beginning of November
This is what happened. I contacted the PC medical team because for a few months I was noticing that my left arm would occasionally go numb or would feel like pins/needles throughout the entire arm. Of course, I acknowledge that is strange but at first it wasn’t happening that often, so I ignored it. When it started to happen weekly, I brought it up. We brainstormed ideas of what it could be, and we decided there was a slim possibility that my Nexplanon insert could be hitting nerve endings and could be causing the issue. We decided I would come to Monrovia and get it removed by one of the NGO doctors at a local hospital. We had to wait for her schedule to open, so a few weeks passed, and I got the call to come in. I barely said goodbye to my neighbors (assuming id be back in a day/2) packed by stuff and left early Friday morning. The ride to Monrovia was rather uneventful. I remember this little girl next to me hacking up a lung and thinking, damn I’m going to get her cold, other than that super uneventful. I arrived in Monrovia early morning and went straight to the PC office. After being at the office for a few hours we (other ppl there as well wanting to see the Dr) were told that the NGO Dr we were supposed to see was actually busy and we wouldn’t get to see her. Now this is beyond frustrating because I hate the whole hassle of traveling, so to have done it for no reason is just a pain. They told us we could head back to site later that day.
We had a pretty chill day, people ordered food and hung out in the office, nothing too stressful, but as the day went on, I started to feel a bit strange. When I took a deep breath I felt as if I wasn’t able to get air in my lungs, like I was constantly out of breath, and when I could get a big breath in I wasn’t able to actually get enough oxygen. I told PC doctors, they said I should just stay the night and we would reevaluate the next day. The next day I woke up early, went to the office and they sent me down the street for an X-ray of my chest to make sure everything was okay. Had the X-ray and as I waited for the results, I just chilled in the PC office. As the day went on, I started to feel worse and worse. I had a headache, fever, and chills. The results came back normal but being I was getting other symptoms we decided I would stay longer.
Woke up the next day and felt worse, massive headache, more aches, fever even with medication treating it, and my eyes hurt. Also let’s touch on that, what a weird symptom people get, their eyes hurting, as if I cant open them all the way without them feeling strained, like you’re perpetual overly stoned. The next few days are somewhat a blur to me. My headaches were getting so bad that even if I doubled on Moltrin and Tylenol it wasn’t putting a dent on it. I could barely move without feeling as if I was going to fall over and my entire spine was hurting. Walking/ going up stairs felt as if someone was walking next to me hitting me in the head with a hammer (slightly black out while going up stairs) while squeezing me so tight that I couldn’t get a breath in, and I could feel my entire spine just burning/aching like it was on fire. I remember laying in bed thinking I must be dying because never in my life have, I been in so much pain. Now some may think, hell it can’t be that bad, maybe she is being dramatic. Well, I’m not, the only other time I’ve been anywhere near that sick is when I had Mono freshman year, my face swelled up so bad that I looked like Quasimodo ugly sister, I had to basically drop out that semester because I was sick for 2 of the 3 months. Somewhere in the height of my sickness the NGO doctor came back and we got an appointment with her, we got picked up at the hotel and drove over. The drive was agonizing, it felt like shards of glass were being stabbed into my spine at every bump of the road, and let me tell you, there are a lot of bumps. The “procedure” to get the Nexplanon was super simple. She also told me that it is in a very superficial spot in the arm and the chance that it was causing any tingling/numbness would be very very rare. My “easy fix” idea had just been shattered. PC medical was checking in on me every so often and I would call with updates, but I was basically bed ridden unless they seriously needed something from me. I couldn’t keep a normal temperature; I didn’t have strength to do anything and I could barely sit up/move without feeling as if I would pass out.
I had now been very ill for about a week, of course I had been keeping my parents updated on what had been happening. The relaxed let’s see what happens treatment I was receiving was less than pleasing and I was so sick that my dad decided he would come to Liberia to help me out/be my advocate and if necessary take me back to the States. After that decision was made, he was there 2 days later. The day he arrived was the first day I woke up and didn’t feel like ablute piss. The next few days were filled with PC Dr appointments, conversations about treatments, and what’s happening next. A few days passed and the convo started turning away from how sick I was and to the actual issue on why I came in the first place, my arm. Throughout this sickness my arm had gotten a thousand times worse. I couldn’t let my arm relax all the way without feeling as if I was toting a small child on the end of it. I always had to keep it at a slightly raised resting place . I would get tingling sensations in the top of my spine throughout my entire arm, this time however it wouldn’t last minutes it would last hours. I was emotionally drained, still dealing with post symptoms of whatever virus I had gotten and just the general stress that all of this had been mentally. I was telling PC all my issues and they were in contact with Washington PC to see what I needed to do. At my current state I was unable to use my arm. I had strength in my hand but felt as if I didn’t have any, it was “flaring up” several times a day and lasting hours every time. I realized that the life I was living where lifting things and needing to use both arms wasn’t going to work for me at my current state. PC Washington agreed and decided that PC Liberia didn’t have the tools to diagnose what was happening and they would send me home to figure it out.
What crazy is that although I knew that it’s what needed to happen, I was devastated. What was supposed to be a 1-2 day trip turned into a 2+week stay and in just a moment they decided I would leave the next day, go to my site for a hour pack my entire life and get on the plane the next day. DEVESTATED. I remember driving in the car to my site crying because I had to leave with an unknown issue, unknown if I would come back. I called John and Rachel and told him/her what was happening and told them I’d be at the house and to meet me there so I could stay goodbye. I tried to pack all my things and say goodbye to everyone I could in the small amount of time I was given. I was fairly certain I would be able to come back (little did I know) so I asked John to watch over my house and make sure everything stayed in order for when I came back. I got back in the PC car with my dad and we headed back to Monrovia, as the next day I had my flight. We discussed my dad flying back with me, because although I was better, I was still functioning at about 50%. We decided that I would be able to deal with the flight, so he booked his flight to head back to Saudi.
I don’t think words can really describe how sad it is to pack up an entire life of people you genuinely love so much unknowing if you will speak to them again, not because you don’t want to speak to them, but because it’s not possible to reach out and talk to a lot of them, not knowing if you will even be returning. The amount of love I felt from my community is unlike anything I’ve ever felt and makes my experience worth it a thousand times over.
Little did I know the fight I still had ahead of me during my medical leave.
Beginning of November
This is what happened. I contacted the PC medical team because for a few months I was noticing that my left arm would occasionally go numb or would feel like pins/needles throughout the entire arm. Of course, I acknowledge that is strange but at first it wasn’t happening that often, so I ignored it. When it started to happen weekly, I brought it up. We brainstormed ideas of what it could be, and we decided there was a slim possibility that my Nexplanon insert could be hitting nerve endings and could be causing the issue. We decided I would come to Monrovia and get it removed by one of the NGO doctors at a local hospital. We had to wait for her schedule to open, so a few weeks passed, and I got the call to come in. I barely said goodbye to my neighbors (assuming id be back in a day/2) packed by stuff and left early Friday morning. The ride to Monrovia was rather uneventful. I remember this little girl next to me hacking up a lung and thinking, damn I’m going to get her cold, other than that super uneventful. I arrived in Monrovia early morning and went straight to the PC office. After being at the office for a few hours we (other ppl there as well wanting to see the Dr) were told that the NGO Dr we were supposed to see was actually busy and we wouldn’t get to see her. Now this is beyond frustrating because I hate the whole hassle of traveling, so to have done it for no reason is just a pain. They told us we could head back to site later that day.
We had a pretty chill day, people ordered food and hung out in the office, nothing too stressful, but as the day went on, I started to feel a bit strange. When I took a deep breath I felt as if I wasn’t able to get air in my lungs, like I was constantly out of breath, and when I could get a big breath in I wasn’t able to actually get enough oxygen. I told PC doctors, they said I should just stay the night and we would reevaluate the next day. The next day I woke up early, went to the office and they sent me down the street for an X-ray of my chest to make sure everything was okay. Had the X-ray and as I waited for the results, I just chilled in the PC office. As the day went on, I started to feel worse and worse. I had a headache, fever, and chills. The results came back normal but being I was getting other symptoms we decided I would stay longer.
Woke up the next day and felt worse, massive headache, more aches, fever even with medication treating it, and my eyes hurt. Also let’s touch on that, what a weird symptom people get, their eyes hurting, as if I cant open them all the way without them feeling strained, like you’re perpetual overly stoned. The next few days are somewhat a blur to me. My headaches were getting so bad that even if I doubled on Moltrin and Tylenol it wasn’t putting a dent on it. I could barely move without feeling as if I was going to fall over and my entire spine was hurting. Walking/ going up stairs felt as if someone was walking next to me hitting me in the head with a hammer (slightly black out while going up stairs) while squeezing me so tight that I couldn’t get a breath in, and I could feel my entire spine just burning/aching like it was on fire. I remember laying in bed thinking I must be dying because never in my life have, I been in so much pain. Now some may think, hell it can’t be that bad, maybe she is being dramatic. Well, I’m not, the only other time I’ve been anywhere near that sick is when I had Mono freshman year, my face swelled up so bad that I looked like Quasimodo ugly sister, I had to basically drop out that semester because I was sick for 2 of the 3 months. Somewhere in the height of my sickness the NGO doctor came back and we got an appointment with her, we got picked up at the hotel and drove over. The drive was agonizing, it felt like shards of glass were being stabbed into my spine at every bump of the road, and let me tell you, there are a lot of bumps. The “procedure” to get the Nexplanon was super simple. She also told me that it is in a very superficial spot in the arm and the chance that it was causing any tingling/numbness would be very very rare. My “easy fix” idea had just been shattered. PC medical was checking in on me every so often and I would call with updates, but I was basically bed ridden unless they seriously needed something from me. I couldn’t keep a normal temperature; I didn’t have strength to do anything and I could barely sit up/move without feeling as if I would pass out.
I had now been very ill for about a week, of course I had been keeping my parents updated on what had been happening. The relaxed let’s see what happens treatment I was receiving was less than pleasing and I was so sick that my dad decided he would come to Liberia to help me out/be my advocate and if necessary take me back to the States. After that decision was made, he was there 2 days later. The day he arrived was the first day I woke up and didn’t feel like ablute piss. The next few days were filled with PC Dr appointments, conversations about treatments, and what’s happening next. A few days passed and the convo started turning away from how sick I was and to the actual issue on why I came in the first place, my arm. Throughout this sickness my arm had gotten a thousand times worse. I couldn’t let my arm relax all the way without feeling as if I was toting a small child on the end of it. I always had to keep it at a slightly raised resting place . I would get tingling sensations in the top of my spine throughout my entire arm, this time however it wouldn’t last minutes it would last hours. I was emotionally drained, still dealing with post symptoms of whatever virus I had gotten and just the general stress that all of this had been mentally. I was telling PC all my issues and they were in contact with Washington PC to see what I needed to do. At my current state I was unable to use my arm. I had strength in my hand but felt as if I didn’t have any, it was “flaring up” several times a day and lasting hours every time. I realized that the life I was living where lifting things and needing to use both arms wasn’t going to work for me at my current state. PC Washington agreed and decided that PC Liberia didn’t have the tools to diagnose what was happening and they would send me home to figure it out.
What crazy is that although I knew that it’s what needed to happen, I was devastated. What was supposed to be a 1-2 day trip turned into a 2+week stay and in just a moment they decided I would leave the next day, go to my site for a hour pack my entire life and get on the plane the next day. DEVESTATED. I remember driving in the car to my site crying because I had to leave with an unknown issue, unknown if I would come back. I called John and Rachel and told him/her what was happening and told them I’d be at the house and to meet me there so I could stay goodbye. I tried to pack all my things and say goodbye to everyone I could in the small amount of time I was given. I was fairly certain I would be able to come back (little did I know) so I asked John to watch over my house and make sure everything stayed in order for when I came back. I got back in the PC car with my dad and we headed back to Monrovia, as the next day I had my flight. We discussed my dad flying back with me, because although I was better, I was still functioning at about 50%. We decided that I would be able to deal with the flight, so he booked his flight to head back to Saudi.
I don’t think words can really describe how sad it is to pack up an entire life of people you genuinely love so much unknowing if you will speak to them again, not because you don’t want to speak to them, but because it’s not possible to reach out and talk to a lot of them, not knowing if you will even be returning. The amount of love I felt from my community is unlike anything I’ve ever felt and makes my experience worth it a thousand times over.
Little did I know the fight I still had ahead of me during my medical leave.