Health problems and the last days of school

2 years ago today Group 30 said goodbye to PST and swore in as Peace Corps Volunteers!  Certainly the time has gone by in some sort of time warp.  I can say that I'm glad things are drawing to a close.

I have been meaning to post an update for about a week now, but something happened about 2 and a half weeks ago that’s commanded my attention and cast a shadow on the joy I should have being so close to the end of my service.

In my last update, I mentioned that I thought I had a UTI, and visited the doctor and state hospital in Gobabis on Monday  of last week (also my last week of school). The doctor gave me antibiotics, which I took without much relief, and suffered through the last week of school (luckily Wednesday was International Teachers Day, so it was a 4-day week).  I collected the lab results on Thursday afternoon – everything came back normal. I saw the GP again on Friday, he also found no infection (but of course he didn’t, I’d been on antibiotics all week), and he sent me home with a medicine to help with “bladder spams,” without really explaining what bladder spasms were. (This is, by the way, an endemic problem in Namibia.  Doctors prescribe tablets without talking to the patient about the tablets or the condition for which they're being prescribed.  My host mom was told she has high blood pressure and later was told she has diabetes and was prescribed tablets for both but the doctor never told her why she has either, how she can make changes to help both, or even what either of them really are.)

Since the antibiotics didn’t clear up my symptoms, I did what most people would do: I started googling.  I googled my symptoms and the medication the GP gave me and was horrified by what I found: overactive bladder syndrome.  And the more I read, the worse I felt. Could this mean the end of climbing? No trip to South Africa after COS? No road trip after arrival in the states? No more camping? No more backpacking? On Sunday (a week ago) I called the PCMO (Peace Corps Medical Officer).  She agreed that I needed to see a specialist, and said she call the urologist in Windhoek, but not until Tuesday, since Monday was Columbus Day (which is somehow STILL a government holiday and Peace Corps staff here get Namibian holidays AND US holidays off). I was actually pretty irked by the fact that she wouldn’t do me the favor of calling to book an appointment on Monday, since I was feeling pretty awful and was pretty miserable and the Namibian doctors were (of course) working. 

I was supposed to go to another PCV’s site in the bush on Sunday to help her with a gardening workshop, but given that I couldn’t fathom standing on the road trying to find a lift, or sitting in a car on a gravel road for 2+ hours, I had to forego it.  

As luck would have it, I got a call Tuesday afternoon (this past week) from the Medical Secretary telling me that there was a cancellation spot with the urologist the following morning, and could I make it to Windhoek in time. I promptly dragged myself out of bed (yep, still in bed at 3pm), hastily packed, and headed to Windhoek.

The urologist was a nice lady who refused to believe that someone my age in good health would have a sudden onset of overactive bladder (OAB).  Since I’d stopped antibiotics 5 days prior, she didn’t send me for more labwork, as it was likely nothing would show up or grow on the culture.  She gave me a regimen of antibiotics and sent me on my way, confident that it was just a UTI that ailed me.  I regained a little hope.

I’ve been following a diet which restricts food that irritates the bladder – no alcohol, caffeine, citrus fruit, tomatoes, and nothing spicy.  I started to feel better Friday, and wondered if it had less to do with the antibiotics and more to do with the restriction of bladder irritants.  I felt good enough to go climbing yesterday (and it was a wonderful, wonderful day)! But today, I’m back to feeling pretty awful, and I’m five days into the antibiotics, so I’m fairly confident in saying that it’s no UTI.  However, yesterday gave me hope that if it turns out to be something more permanent, it’s manageable with diet and advil. 

Enough about my bladder, back to life as a PCV. 

Last Monday I felt a bit sentimental about it being my last week of school. I had no idea how to fit in all the things I wanted to do into the 4 days remaining. By Thursday and Friday, I was pretty much over
being sentimental. And I realized that anything I hadn't been able to accomplish at school for one reason or another was probably not going to be accomplished hastily in 2 days.

My principal had planned to be out of school on Friday, so Thursday (the 6^th) my colleagues held a little farewell for me at school.  Namfarewells tend to be meaty and awkward, both of which I was really not looking forward to.  This farewell was short, sweet, and only slightly awkward. Yolande made a fruit tray for me, and the other teachers presented me with a small statue of elephants, because Gobabis purportedly means “the drinking place of elephants,” although I read somewhere that it’s a misnomer/mistranslation.  And I’ve definitely never seen any elephants drinking anywhere near Gobabis.  A couple of my colleagues thanked me for the work I’ve done during the last 2 years, but mostly they sat around eating their meat pies and drinking their cans of soda.  Of course, it would have made sense to hold this gathering during break time, but instead it was held the period after break, when all the teachers should have been teaching. At the end of the little party, I invited everyone to a farewell bring-and-braai at my house on Saturday. (A braai is an African barbeque, and a bring-and-braai means that you’re responsible for bringing your own meat to braai.)  I also invited the people at the Ministry of Education that I’m friends with.

On Saturday I ran around buying ingredients to make a couple salads (beet/carrot salad, and a barlay salad with avocado/cucumber/tomato salad), and bought some soda for those who didn’t bring their own beer. Blair and I cleaned the house, and then played cards to kill the time. And then no one came.  The only people to come were actually the only people I really cared were there – Yolande and my friend Lydia and Lydia’s son Vija. And it was really, really nice.  We taught Vija how to play Go Fish, and sat around and talked and ate and laughed and had a generally nice, relaxing time. 

While I feel a little pathetic writing about having a party that no one came to, the truth is that really I’m not surprised (and neither were any of the other PCVs that I recounted this to).  If I had provided the meat and beer, all of my colleagues and their friends would have been there. Instead of feeling pathetic, I’m actually just insulted and feel a little slighted that I spent 2 years of my life trying to help my school and my colleagues couldn’t have the decency to bring what they would have eaten for dinner at home anyway to my house to partake in a less formal farewell.  But like I said, the people who matter were there, and at the end of the day I appreciated not having to clean up after a wild braai and not having to go through my house checking to be sure no one stole anything.

I COS in 19 days, and depending on my health, I have one more gardening workshop to do with Caitlin.  My post-COS plans have changed a little, but I’m still really looking forward to some time in Cape Town and surrounding areas, and to getting back on the rocks several days out of the week, as long as my body cooperates.

Thanks for reading!