Juma and I are back in Unguja (aka Zanzibar island). We made a rather hasty exit from Pemba when it was clear that Juma and I had some...well...intestinal issues. We're being treated, but we have better luck with health matters in Unguja than in Pemba, so we decided to spend our last days here. Justin will follow us in a couple days.
It was rather weird to leave Pemba, for the second time, without saying goodbye to my friends, especially since we really won't be back for a long time. At least until next summer.
We have less than one week here, then we'll all head to Dar es Salaam for a couple days, then a night in London, then it's home to Baltimore! Crazy. These eight months have flown by. At least in retrospect.
Showing posts with label ill-health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ill-health. Show all posts
Friday, August 13, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
our stay in California
We've been in California for 3 weeks now, staying with Vicki. Justin's siblings have been in and out, too. Vicki was doing pretty poorly when we arrived, then had a week of good days. Since she was doing well (coming to the pool and grandsons' baseball games in a wheelchair, sitting in the backyard around a bonfire and exchanging stories with her surprise-visit siblings), we made a quick trip to Utah to visit my family and some of Justin's relatives. We had a great time there, and I even had all my six siblings and my parents in the same room at the same time for a picture. It'd been a long time since that happened. (We never did get all the grandkids rounded up for a picture, though they were all there.)
In those four days we were gone, Vicki went downhill again and surprised us unpleasantly when we got back from Utah. She has made imminent progress toward death since then, and has been mostly unresponsive for a couple days now. We expect she'll last a couple more days.
Unfortunately, our plane tickets back to Africa are for Wednesday, and though we tried, we cannot change them (all flights are overbooked through August).
This time here with her has been really nice, though, and we are glad we came when we did so we had a good solid week with the Vicki we know and love. We will always remember and love you, Vicki. Here are some pictures of just some of the great moments we had with her. (And proof that I failed to follow her advice and always take tons of pictures!)
June 2009, on the Hogle zoo train in Salt Lake City, with granddaughter, Irelyn.
July 2008, a snapshot Juma took on a car trip to the airport for a family reunion outside Seattle.
March 2008, stubbornly not giving up and hiking to the top of very high sand dunes in Death Valley just weeks before she found out she had cancer.
May 2008, Juma welcoming Grandma home after her surgery when the cancer was discovered.
August 2007, on a ride at Santa Cruz boardwalk with grandson, Rylee
Summer 2003 (?), the picture Vicki has chosen to be remembered by.
In those four days we were gone, Vicki went downhill again and surprised us unpleasantly when we got back from Utah. She has made imminent progress toward death since then, and has been mostly unresponsive for a couple days now. We expect she'll last a couple more days.
Unfortunately, our plane tickets back to Africa are for Wednesday, and though we tried, we cannot change them (all flights are overbooked through August).
This time here with her has been really nice, though, and we are glad we came when we did so we had a good solid week with the Vicki we know and love. We will always remember and love you, Vicki. Here are some pictures of just some of the great moments we had with her. (And proof that I failed to follow her advice and always take tons of pictures!)
June 2009, on the Hogle zoo train in Salt Lake City, with granddaughter, Irelyn.
July 2008, a snapshot Juma took on a car trip to the airport for a family reunion outside Seattle.
March 2008, stubbornly not giving up and hiking to the top of very high sand dunes in Death Valley just weeks before she found out she had cancer.
May 2008, Juma welcoming Grandma home after her surgery when the cancer was discovered.
August 2007, on a ride at Santa Cruz boardwalk with grandson, Rylee
Summer 2003 (?), the picture Vicki has chosen to be remembered by.
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
travels
We are in California, at Justin's mom's house (his dad is now in an assisted living home in Utah). She has cancer and is not doing well, so we are spending some time here with her. We hopped on the first flight out of Zanzibar we could get, and 40 hours later, made it to Merced. We hadn't been here in two years, and Justin hadn't seen his mom during that whole two years. Glad to be here.
These pictures are in chronological order, I think. So you can see as we get more tired and more worn out.
We flew through Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Rome, Washington, DC, and finally to San Francisco.
These pictures are in chronological order, I think. So you can see as we get more tired and more worn out.
We flew through Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Rome, Washington, DC, and finally to San Francisco.
Friday, April 16, 2010
continuing
Well, I've been slacking on the blog! But since all my readers are also on facebook these days...But here's an update anyway.
We are still in Unguja (Zanzibar island) rather than Pemba. Justin went back for a couple days to get some our things, but we've been in something of a holding pattern waiting for my health to improve. For three weeks we stayed with our friends, then moved into our own place in Stone Town, the very place we stayed in 2004.
I'm feeling much better. I've actually started going to work instead of lying in bed reading books all day. I have more energy, more weight, more mental capacity, and more of a nice rosy glow to my cheeks, which were as pale as death before.
Justin has found research work to keep him busy at various departments and ministries. He also bought a Vespa, a moped. We both have licenses to drive it now, but I haven't dared yet. Justin also has started playing basketball at the court he used to play at in our first years here.
Juma started school at an international school here and made friends quickly, but school has been out for spring vacation these past two weeks. During the break, his best friends left town, so we've been having some family time. We went to a couple villages, stopped at a zoo, and have been enjoying the pleasures Zanzibar can bring us: beaches, ocean swims, actual Italian pizza and gelato.
Oh, and Juma lost another of his front teeth.
We are still in Unguja (Zanzibar island) rather than Pemba. Justin went back for a couple days to get some our things, but we've been in something of a holding pattern waiting for my health to improve. For three weeks we stayed with our friends, then moved into our own place in Stone Town, the very place we stayed in 2004.
I'm feeling much better. I've actually started going to work instead of lying in bed reading books all day. I have more energy, more weight, more mental capacity, and more of a nice rosy glow to my cheeks, which were as pale as death before.
Justin has found research work to keep him busy at various departments and ministries. He also bought a Vespa, a moped. We both have licenses to drive it now, but I haven't dared yet. Justin also has started playing basketball at the court he used to play at in our first years here.
Juma started school at an international school here and made friends quickly, but school has been out for spring vacation these past two weeks. During the break, his best friends left town, so we've been having some family time. We went to a couple villages, stopped at a zoo, and have been enjoying the pleasures Zanzibar can bring us: beaches, ocean swims, actual Italian pizza and gelato.
Oh, and Juma lost another of his front teeth.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
check up
Justin and I went back to Dar es Salaam today for a check up on how my health is improving. Blood tests confirm it is improving...slowly. Every day since I've been out of the hospital has been a little bit better than the one before. I'm still quite weak and tired, but better.
Justin has helped me out the whole way, and our friends are helping us take care of Juma. So it's all good.
Justin has helped me out the whole way, and our friends are helping us take care of Juma. So it's all good.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
the Sarah Illness Chronicles: day 2
Day 1 was last Wednesday. I woke up on Thursday, feeling better than the day before, having kept fluids down all night. But I was still pretty bad off, and talked to my friend Alison again. We decided flying to Zanzibar so she could take a good look at me wouldn't be a bad idea. Better safe than sorry, right?
Justin, always concerned for my health, had already spoken with a travel agent and reserved us three tickets on the earliest flight off the island. As I lay tired and breathless on the couch, sipping some thin, millet porridge--the first food I was able to keep down in 24 hours--Justin did a 15-minute packing job, grabbing the bare minimum: three days-worth of clothes, Juma's school books, our laptops. We left most toiletries--shampoo, toothbrushes, contact solution--behind, knowing I kept a spare set at our other apartment in Stone Town, Zanzibar. That turned out to be a dumb decision, because we never even made it to our apartment.
The airport is a short taxi ride from our place, and our oldest Pemban friend (also named Juma, and he happens to be first cousins with our oldest Zanzibari friend, Juma) picked us up. Every time I had to walk--to and from the taxi, to and from the airplane--I was completely exhausted. As we made our way to the six-seater prop plane, I felt dizzy and paused on the tarmac, head down, hands on my slightly bent knees. I suddenly noticed how very yellow my toes looked. It was as if the three-month tan on my toes was gone and replaced by yellow dye.
Our Juma, excited as ever to be on an airplane, kept chattering away and asking me to look at this and that sight out the window, but I asked him to please just let me rest, look straight forward, and concentrate on not being sick. After commenting that my eyes looked yellow, he obliged. Sweet thing that he is, this whole time he has been eager to help me out by running errands, taking my temperature, and relaying messages to Justin in the other room. Once on the first day, he gave me the under-the-tongue thermometer with a "here comes the airplane!" in a parent-feeding-baby voice. We both laughed heartily at that one.
Alison picked us up at the Zanzibar airport after the 30-minute flight. She started to ask me how I was feeling, but broke off and simply said, "I can see how you are feeling." In a word, awful. And that was better than the day before!
First thing, Alison brought me to her house and I collapsed on her bed. She gave me a little doctor's exam, and we decided to head to the main public hospital, Mnazi Mmoja, where I would see a skilled doctor recommended by other skilled doctors on the island. (It really pays to have connections here.)
The doctor there took another malaria test by microscope--still negative--but decided to give me an injection of a malaria drug anyway. My anemia came out so much higher (better) than the day before that we thought it must be an error. There was no way that looking like this
I had only mild anemia. I got an IV to fight the dehydration, and the doctor wanted to admit me to the hospital. Alison and I had already agreed that if he wanted me to stay the night, I would be better off staying the night in a clinic in Dar es Salaam on the mainland than here in Zanzibar. They just have better and more lab equipment, better trained doctors, and better overall services.
Justin arranged another set of tickets for yet another flight. I snapped a picture on the plane.
Alison offered to have Juma stay with her and her family of five, which we agreed was the best option. Juma was delighted; he gets along with their six-year-old son, Franklin, like they've been best friends forever. Franklin had just visited us last week in Pemba, and the boys were together for 72 hours without a single fight.
Alison knows the people who run the clinic in Dar, and called ahead to have an on-call doctor meet us there, since we'd arrive after hours. When we arrived, the nurse ushered me into one of their two beds (this is normally only an out patient clinic) and I collapsed into it and wished for unconsciousness. Shortly, the doctor came. The first thing she said, in her thick German accent, was "You are pale!"
Here, for the first time, the providers took my vital signs, took a full medical history, ran a full battery of lab tests, and didn't automatically consider malaria as my one-and-only problem. They did, however, test for malaria using a newer type of test which looks for antibodies to malaria rather than the malaria parasites themselves, which turned out to be "weakly positive." My anemia was bad, and there was talk of a blood transfusion. My billirubin count was high, which accounted for the yellow color--I was jaundiced. Something was going on with my liver. There was talk of hepatitis A, but since I've been fully vaccinated, that was put aside.
They started me on three different types of treatments: for malaria, an intestinal amoeba, and an unidentified bacterial infection, all of which had shown up in my various lab tests. It's possible that all or some of those things had been unwelcome visitors in my body for as long as many weeks, but had been intermittent or asymptomatic.
I got hooked up to another IV, and slept. Too late to find a hotel, Justin camped out on the clinic owner's office bed.
Justin, always concerned for my health, had already spoken with a travel agent and reserved us three tickets on the earliest flight off the island. As I lay tired and breathless on the couch, sipping some thin, millet porridge--the first food I was able to keep down in 24 hours--Justin did a 15-minute packing job, grabbing the bare minimum: three days-worth of clothes, Juma's school books, our laptops. We left most toiletries--shampoo, toothbrushes, contact solution--behind, knowing I kept a spare set at our other apartment in Stone Town, Zanzibar. That turned out to be a dumb decision, because we never even made it to our apartment.
The airport is a short taxi ride from our place, and our oldest Pemban friend (also named Juma, and he happens to be first cousins with our oldest Zanzibari friend, Juma) picked us up. Every time I had to walk--to and from the taxi, to and from the airplane--I was completely exhausted. As we made our way to the six-seater prop plane, I felt dizzy and paused on the tarmac, head down, hands on my slightly bent knees. I suddenly noticed how very yellow my toes looked. It was as if the three-month tan on my toes was gone and replaced by yellow dye.
Our Juma, excited as ever to be on an airplane, kept chattering away and asking me to look at this and that sight out the window, but I asked him to please just let me rest, look straight forward, and concentrate on not being sick. After commenting that my eyes looked yellow, he obliged. Sweet thing that he is, this whole time he has been eager to help me out by running errands, taking my temperature, and relaying messages to Justin in the other room. Once on the first day, he gave me the under-the-tongue thermometer with a "here comes the airplane!" in a parent-feeding-baby voice. We both laughed heartily at that one.
Alison picked us up at the Zanzibar airport after the 30-minute flight. She started to ask me how I was feeling, but broke off and simply said, "I can see how you are feeling." In a word, awful. And that was better than the day before!
First thing, Alison brought me to her house and I collapsed on her bed. She gave me a little doctor's exam, and we decided to head to the main public hospital, Mnazi Mmoja, where I would see a skilled doctor recommended by other skilled doctors on the island. (It really pays to have connections here.)
The doctor there took another malaria test by microscope--still negative--but decided to give me an injection of a malaria drug anyway. My anemia came out so much higher (better) than the day before that we thought it must be an error. There was no way that looking like this
I had only mild anemia. I got an IV to fight the dehydration, and the doctor wanted to admit me to the hospital. Alison and I had already agreed that if he wanted me to stay the night, I would be better off staying the night in a clinic in Dar es Salaam on the mainland than here in Zanzibar. They just have better and more lab equipment, better trained doctors, and better overall services.
Justin arranged another set of tickets for yet another flight. I snapped a picture on the plane.
Alison offered to have Juma stay with her and her family of five, which we agreed was the best option. Juma was delighted; he gets along with their six-year-old son, Franklin, like they've been best friends forever. Franklin had just visited us last week in Pemba, and the boys were together for 72 hours without a single fight.
Alison knows the people who run the clinic in Dar, and called ahead to have an on-call doctor meet us there, since we'd arrive after hours. When we arrived, the nurse ushered me into one of their two beds (this is normally only an out patient clinic) and I collapsed into it and wished for unconsciousness. Shortly, the doctor came. The first thing she said, in her thick German accent, was "You are pale!"
Here, for the first time, the providers took my vital signs, took a full medical history, ran a full battery of lab tests, and didn't automatically consider malaria as my one-and-only problem. They did, however, test for malaria using a newer type of test which looks for antibodies to malaria rather than the malaria parasites themselves, which turned out to be "weakly positive." My anemia was bad, and there was talk of a blood transfusion. My billirubin count was high, which accounted for the yellow color--I was jaundiced. Something was going on with my liver. There was talk of hepatitis A, but since I've been fully vaccinated, that was put aside.
They started me on three different types of treatments: for malaria, an intestinal amoeba, and an unidentified bacterial infection, all of which had shown up in my various lab tests. It's possible that all or some of those things had been unwelcome visitors in my body for as long as many weeks, but had been intermittent or asymptomatic.
I got hooked up to another IV, and slept. Too late to find a hotel, Justin camped out on the clinic owner's office bed.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
the Sarah Illness Chronicles: day 1
I'm finally feeling chipper enough to blog! This whole time, I always had my cell phone nearby to snap pictures, even when I was feeling like sh--. Well, not during the worst, worst bits, but most of the time. I've got photos of just about everything, but I'll spare you the IVs and blood transfusion bag, and all that gross stuff, and try to give a more complete summary than what I have so far in my quick updates.
So...For weeks now, I've lost weight. I noticed one day several weeks ago when wearing a pair of khakis that I could quite easily just pull them off without even unbuttoning them. They'd never been tight before, but certainly not loose enough that I was at risk of getting pantsed. Not good. Justin, our family tailor, adjusted the button so they'd fit better. I told myself that I was just getting more walking and less junk food, and that was the reason for the weight loss. Also, I had a couple bad bouts of gastrointestinal disturbances since being here, but I took some medications as recommended by my doctor friend, Alison, and it cleared up. (Or so I thought?)
Also, I'd noticed I've had signs of anemia (essentially, not enough red blood cells)--shortness of breath, dizziness, weakness. I wasn't too concerned, because I am chronically anemic anyway, and this is easily remedied by taking over-the-counter iron pills. These are readily available in Pemba, and I even published a paper on this very subject earlier this year. So I should have know better than to skip any pills...but I did.
This brings us to this past Wednesday, when I started in with some more gastrointestinal issues. By late morning, I was feeling markedly lethargic, and spent the time just dying for our housekeeper to just finish up the laundry and go the heck home so I could go take a nap. She finally left, and I brought Juma into my bed with me so I could keep an eye on him while he watched a movie on his DVD player. Justin was at work still.
I started to feel feverish, and had Juma take my temperature with our nifty forehead thermometer. The electricity had been off for three days in our house because of a fallen electricity pole, so it wasn't helping that I didn't even have the fan blowing on me. Before Justin got home for lunch, the thermometer read 103 degrees Fahrenheit. And it felt like it, too.
Yikes. I managed to eat some lunch, knowing I'd need my strength. Justin convinced me to go get a malaria test at the clinic where he got his stitches a few weeks ago. It's a private clinic, so they have a few more resources than the public hospital, and Justin's friend works there, so we knew we'd get treated nicely, at least.
This is how I felt there:
They readily agreed to give me a malaria test, and failed to do anything else like take my history and vital signs, or consider any alternative diagnoses. I read a paper last year about how malaria is currently quite low in Zanzibar and Pemba, but doctors are still prescribing malaria drugs as if it was still infecting every other person. So I was quite skeptical when my malaria test came out negative, but the doctors still wanted to give me anti-malarial drugs. Not that the drugs would hurt me if I wasn't positive, but I wondered if it wasn't malaria, what was it? I didn't want to be sent home with drugs for a disease I didn't have, only to continue to be wasted by an unidentified problem. (This, by the way, will likely be one of the topics of my dissertation. Talk about participant observation!)
Anyway, the treat-the-malaria-and-see-what-happens-route won out, and I took some drugs that we brought from the US, and we know are very effective. We learned our lesson in 1999! Unfortunately, my stomach wasn't too happy about that, and they came right back up. The doctors decided to give me an anti-nausea shot in my bum, and I tried the malaria meds again after letting that kick in. Again, they came right back up.
I was obviously feeling terrible by this point, wondering what my real diagnosis was and how on earth I was going to get better if I couldn't take anything. I asked them to check if I had anemia, since I suspected I had, and I might as well check it while I was there. The test showed I was moderately anemic, borderline with severely. That gave me a pretty big shock, and it definitely showed on my face, because poor Juma just about started crying, worried about his mom getting better.
The doctors wanted to give me an IV to get some fluids in me, but I was worried that would only dilute my anemic blood further, so we just went home. (I could've had one, I wasn't that low, but neither me nor they knew that.)
Back at home, I collapsed on the couch directly under the AC unit, the only cool place in our house. Thankfully, the electricity had been restored while we were at the clinic. I lay there, wishing I was unconscious, until I couldn't hold it anymore, stopped by the bathroom for some more doubly fun times, and then collapsed in bed around eight pm.
Our friend and my co-researcher, Dr. Alison, heard about my woes and called to hear more and make recommendations. She said if I wasn't improving the next day, I was welcome to fly down to Zanzibar so she could keep an eye on me and refer me to the best Zanzibari doctors, or I could fly to Dar es Salaam, the main city on the mainland, for some even better care.
I stayed in bed for twelve hours, alternating between sleeping and thirstily sipping oral re-hydration therapy and water. I was able to keep the liquids down, and by morning felt better.
Which still wasn't even close to good.
So...For weeks now, I've lost weight. I noticed one day several weeks ago when wearing a pair of khakis that I could quite easily just pull them off without even unbuttoning them. They'd never been tight before, but certainly not loose enough that I was at risk of getting pantsed. Not good. Justin, our family tailor, adjusted the button so they'd fit better. I told myself that I was just getting more walking and less junk food, and that was the reason for the weight loss. Also, I had a couple bad bouts of gastrointestinal disturbances since being here, but I took some medications as recommended by my doctor friend, Alison, and it cleared up. (Or so I thought?)
Also, I'd noticed I've had signs of anemia (essentially, not enough red blood cells)--shortness of breath, dizziness, weakness. I wasn't too concerned, because I am chronically anemic anyway, and this is easily remedied by taking over-the-counter iron pills. These are readily available in Pemba, and I even published a paper on this very subject earlier this year. So I should have know better than to skip any pills...but I did.
This brings us to this past Wednesday, when I started in with some more gastrointestinal issues. By late morning, I was feeling markedly lethargic, and spent the time just dying for our housekeeper to just finish up the laundry and go the heck home so I could go take a nap. She finally left, and I brought Juma into my bed with me so I could keep an eye on him while he watched a movie on his DVD player. Justin was at work still.
I started to feel feverish, and had Juma take my temperature with our nifty forehead thermometer. The electricity had been off for three days in our house because of a fallen electricity pole, so it wasn't helping that I didn't even have the fan blowing on me. Before Justin got home for lunch, the thermometer read 103 degrees Fahrenheit. And it felt like it, too.
Yikes. I managed to eat some lunch, knowing I'd need my strength. Justin convinced me to go get a malaria test at the clinic where he got his stitches a few weeks ago. It's a private clinic, so they have a few more resources than the public hospital, and Justin's friend works there, so we knew we'd get treated nicely, at least.
This is how I felt there:
They readily agreed to give me a malaria test, and failed to do anything else like take my history and vital signs, or consider any alternative diagnoses. I read a paper last year about how malaria is currently quite low in Zanzibar and Pemba, but doctors are still prescribing malaria drugs as if it was still infecting every other person. So I was quite skeptical when my malaria test came out negative, but the doctors still wanted to give me anti-malarial drugs. Not that the drugs would hurt me if I wasn't positive, but I wondered if it wasn't malaria, what was it? I didn't want to be sent home with drugs for a disease I didn't have, only to continue to be wasted by an unidentified problem. (This, by the way, will likely be one of the topics of my dissertation. Talk about participant observation!)
Anyway, the treat-the-malaria-and-see-what-happens-route won out, and I took some drugs that we brought from the US, and we know are very effective. We learned our lesson in 1999! Unfortunately, my stomach wasn't too happy about that, and they came right back up. The doctors decided to give me an anti-nausea shot in my bum, and I tried the malaria meds again after letting that kick in. Again, they came right back up.
I was obviously feeling terrible by this point, wondering what my real diagnosis was and how on earth I was going to get better if I couldn't take anything. I asked them to check if I had anemia, since I suspected I had, and I might as well check it while I was there. The test showed I was moderately anemic, borderline with severely. That gave me a pretty big shock, and it definitely showed on my face, because poor Juma just about started crying, worried about his mom getting better.
The doctors wanted to give me an IV to get some fluids in me, but I was worried that would only dilute my anemic blood further, so we just went home. (I could've had one, I wasn't that low, but neither me nor they knew that.)
Back at home, I collapsed on the couch directly under the AC unit, the only cool place in our house. Thankfully, the electricity had been restored while we were at the clinic. I lay there, wishing I was unconscious, until I couldn't hold it anymore, stopped by the bathroom for some more doubly fun times, and then collapsed in bed around eight pm.
Our friend and my co-researcher, Dr. Alison, heard about my woes and called to hear more and make recommendations. She said if I wasn't improving the next day, I was welcome to fly down to Zanzibar so she could keep an eye on me and refer me to the best Zanzibari doctors, or I could fly to Dar es Salaam, the main city on the mainland, for some even better care.
I stayed in bed for twelve hours, alternating between sleeping and thirstily sipping oral re-hydration therapy and water. I was able to keep the liquids down, and by morning felt better.
Which still wasn't even close to good.
day 5
Just woke up from another night in the clinic. No new treatments or procedures, just continuing as is, and slowly killing all the nasty visitors inside my body. Hopefully will be discharged tomorrow.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
the Sarah Illness Chronicles: day 4
I spent another night in the clinic. My labs are all going in the right direction, and I am slowly improving. I needed a transfusion, and luckily, Justin is a universal donor. As Justin said, "Now we're blood brothers!" Hee hee.
Juma is having a lovely time playing on the beach back in Zanzibar. He went to school yesterday, wearing a cute little school uniform and everything. We are keeping in touch by phone.
In case you want to reach us, Justin's phone numbers are working here:
+255 773 176 744 and +255 755 874 206 Just remember we are 10 hours ahead of CA, 9 ahead of UT, 8 ahead of TX, and 7 ahead of NY on daylight savings time.
We are also checking email sarah dot beckham at gmail dot com and facebook once or twice a day.
Juma is having a lovely time playing on the beach back in Zanzibar. He went to school yesterday, wearing a cute little school uniform and everything. We are keeping in touch by phone.
In case you want to reach us, Justin's phone numbers are working here:
+255 773 176 744 and +255 755 874 206 Just remember we are 10 hours ahead of CA, 9 ahead of UT, 8 ahead of TX, and 7 ahead of NY on daylight savings time.
We are also checking email sarah dot beckham at gmail dot com and facebook once or twice a day.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
deja vu
Quick update: I (Sarah) am sick. I have multiple infections, but am getting properly treated for them all in a clinic in Dar Es Salaam. Justin is here with me, and Juma is staying with our good friends, the McDows, in Zanzibar.
I'm steadily improving, and trust this clinic I am in.
I'm steadily improving, and trust this clinic I am in.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
another week down, 4 days to go
Juma enjoyed his summer camp this week learning about sea coast ecology and preservation ("Did you know zooplankton create oxygen?").
But the week was marred by illness. Juma started out the week with a sore throat and fatigue, and I finished off the week with strep throat, fatigue, and grumpiness. I'm still recovering, but I actually had the energy tonight to actually cook dinner. Well, to boil some pasta.
In better news, Justin's coming home on Thursday! We couldn't be more excited about his return. It's been a long, tough summer without him, and now we can say we survived it. Well, just four more days.
Four days. We can do it.
But the week was marred by illness. Juma started out the week with a sore throat and fatigue, and I finished off the week with strep throat, fatigue, and grumpiness. I'm still recovering, but I actually had the energy tonight to actually cook dinner. Well, to boil some pasta.
In better news, Justin's coming home on Thursday! We couldn't be more excited about his return. It's been a long, tough summer without him, and now we can say we survived it. Well, just four more days.
Four days. We can do it.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
home but sick
We got home just fine (though our luggage didn't) after a crazy, crazy rush to the airplane. I left St George in plenty of time to get to the Las Vegas airport, but then hit insane bumper-to-bumper, stop-and-go construction traffic in the city. I watched the minutes tick away as my rental car came due...an hour until departure...45 minutes until departure...30 minutes until departure...and all the exits were closed so I couldn't even get off...
We checked our luggage in 15 minutes before departure, waited patiently in the security line, and rushed off to the gate, sitting down 2 minutes after departure time. Juma about had a meltdown when he realized there were no two seats together and he thought he might have to sit in between two strangers instead of his mama. But a nice man let us take his seat, so we got to sit together (thanks, nice man!). So naturally, our luggage didn't make it on the plane. I had to go back to the airport to get it the next day.
And Tuesday, I woke up feeling horrible. And I still feel horrible. I did nothing but take Juma to school, pick him up, and sleep all day yesterday. Not much more productive today.
Anyway, here are some pictures from our vacation to Utah Valley; Salt Lake City; St. George, Utah; and Phoenix, Arizona.
Waiting in the airport to head to Utah...blissfully unaware that our next airport experience would be hellish.
On the Alpine Slide in Park City, Ut.
In the desert outside St. George. How on earth did anyone decide to settle this place? It was nice to see the sun, though. It's been raining all summer here in Connecticut.
All the Beckham cousins (plus two dads) next to some 3000-year-old petroglyphs drawn by Anasazi (?) Native Americans.
Cameron and Stephanie, aka the Newlyweds, whose wedding we attended in Salt Lake. Overlooking Green Valley in St. George.
"The Beckham Boys" with Cam and Steph and some nifty "alien" petroglyphs.
We checked our luggage in 15 minutes before departure, waited patiently in the security line, and rushed off to the gate, sitting down 2 minutes after departure time. Juma about had a meltdown when he realized there were no two seats together and he thought he might have to sit in between two strangers instead of his mama. But a nice man let us take his seat, so we got to sit together (thanks, nice man!). So naturally, our luggage didn't make it on the plane. I had to go back to the airport to get it the next day.
And Tuesday, I woke up feeling horrible. And I still feel horrible. I did nothing but take Juma to school, pick him up, and sleep all day yesterday. Not much more productive today.
Anyway, here are some pictures from our vacation to Utah Valley; Salt Lake City; St. George, Utah; and Phoenix, Arizona.
Waiting in the airport to head to Utah...blissfully unaware that our next airport experience would be hellish.
On the Alpine Slide in Park City, Ut.
In the desert outside St. George. How on earth did anyone decide to settle this place? It was nice to see the sun, though. It's been raining all summer here in Connecticut.
All the Beckham cousins (plus two dads) next to some 3000-year-old petroglyphs drawn by Anasazi (?) Native Americans.
Cameron and Stephanie, aka the Newlyweds, whose wedding we attended in Salt Lake. Overlooking Green Valley in St. George.
"The Beckham Boys" with Cam and Steph and some nifty "alien" petroglyphs.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
ankle
D'oh! Justin sprained his ankle playing basketball, poor thing. Yes, he was wearing his ankle braces (because of all the sprains he's experienced through the years).
Get well soon, Justin!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
bad news
Well, it's been pretty hectic and stressful here lately. Justin's mom, Vicki, has been sick for over a month now, and we found out last week that she has cancer. It isn't really clear yet what type she has, but we know she's going to need chemotherapy and radiation to follow up from last week's surgery.
She was in the hospital for a week, and had family and friends there to help her out. Since Monday she's been home, and we've been helping out, along with Justin's sister Andria. When the pain medications are actually working, Vicki feels pretty good and we've been spending as much time with her as possible (before we head to Zanzibar in a week).
Some people have been asking how Juma is doing with all this. Basically, he knows Grandma is sick, and he could tell you how cancer means "cells aren't listening to their DNA and are just making more and more without stopping," but he is fairly clueless about it, really.
Thank you for the well wishes, thoughts, flowers, texts, and support that have come this way. Vicki really appreciates the prayers, and knowing she has people who are thinking of her.
She was in the hospital for a week, and had family and friends there to help her out. Since Monday she's been home, and we've been helping out, along with Justin's sister Andria. When the pain medications are actually working, Vicki feels pretty good and we've been spending as much time with her as possible (before we head to Zanzibar in a week).
Some people have been asking how Juma is doing with all this. Basically, he knows Grandma is sick, and he could tell you how cancer means "cells aren't listening to their DNA and are just making more and more without stopping," but he is fairly clueless about it, really.
Thank you for the well wishes, thoughts, flowers, texts, and support that have come this way. Vicki really appreciates the prayers, and knowing she has people who are thinking of her.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
virus wrecks havoc
Saturday - The Beckham family's day was ruined by a few tiny viruses, commonly known as a stomach bug. Justin entertains Juma with movies, while Juma lays moaning on the couch, and Sarah sleeps all day.
Sunday- Juma is back to normal, Sarah is still recovering, and Justin is in bed with an entirely different virus, commonly known as the common cold.
Hope you had a better weekend than we did.
Sunday- Juma is back to normal, Sarah is still recovering, and Justin is in bed with an entirely different virus, commonly known as the common cold.
Hope you had a better weekend than we did.
Friday, December 07, 2007
another check-up
I went back to the doctor on Wednesday, and since it was a new guy, I had to re-hash everything (um, it's all right in the chart in front of you). Basically, my joints are still really stiff and painful, and some of them swollen, but the major fatigue I was feeling in September and October has lifted quite a bit. I had taken another anemia test before the appointment, and I found that I am only slightly less anemic than I was before, but at least it's improving. The doctor ordered re-tests on just about everything, to see if we get the same results of if something comes up positive this time. Also, he prescribed a 10-day course of a steroid which is used to treat arthritis.
So I took the first steroid last night, not expecting any progress from just one. But when I got up this morning, Justin asked me how I'm feeling and I realized I'm feeling as good as I've ever felt with this sickness. I could almost make a fist, when normally in the morning, I have an extremely limited range of motion in my fingers. Also, I realized when I walked through the kitchen on the hard stone floor, I wasn't walking tenderly to lessen the pain--there were no pain.
It is wonderful to feel almost normal again.
So I took the first steroid last night, not expecting any progress from just one. But when I got up this morning, Justin asked me how I'm feeling and I realized I'm feeling as good as I've ever felt with this sickness. I could almost make a fist, when normally in the morning, I have an extremely limited range of motion in my fingers. Also, I realized when I walked through the kitchen on the hard stone floor, I wasn't walking tenderly to lessen the pain--there were no pain.
It is wonderful to feel almost normal again.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
brush & floss; brush & floss; brush & floss...
Since we finally have insurance that covers dental check-ups, Justin suggested we make appointments with a dentist here in California. Just so we can get everything taken care of before we head to Tanzania. So...
1) I found the only place in the city that takes our insurance.
2) They were booked ahead for at least three months.
3) I found out the same non-profit dental provider has a branch in a town 45 minutes away.
4) I managed to get appointments with them for all three of us on Halloween.
5) We picked Juma up from school on the appointed day, and drove out there.
6) We didn't bring anything for Juma to prevent a meltdown in the car.
7) We didn't bring anything for Juma to prevent a meltdown in the office.
8) The address on the website and on mapquest didn't differentiate between I street and West I Street, so we got confused and lost and arrived late.
9) They didn't want to let Juma do anything more than get X-rays because we were late.
10) Justin exchanged appointments with Juma, so Justin got X-rays only.
11) Sarah and Juma got X-rays, and were told they have [Ashli, don't read this] 4 and 2 cavities, respectively.
12) The dental assistant told us "You need to start brushing Juma's teeth." We informed her we brush his teeth every morning and night. She said, "Then you need to brush them after every time he eats or drinks anything but water."
13) We went to schedule follow-ups for the fillings and Justin's exam. The next available date was January 7.
14) We begged and pleaded for an earlier date, but they wouldn't budge. We agreed to the date.
15) Then the receptionist asked when we want appointments for the fillings.
16) What the ^%$#@ are the appointments on January 7 for then?!?!
17) Cleanings.
18) Only.
19) So we asked for dates for fillings. January 27.
20) We're not supposed to be here by then.
21) We made the appointments anyway, with the promise that the receptionist would call us if there happen to be three cancellations on the same day.
22) We drove home.
23) All of that took six hours.
24) A few days later, we got a call about some cancellations and went in the next day.
25) The dentist filled ONE of Juma's fillings (he was perfect with only a shot) and ONE of Sarah's fillings. And told Justin he had four cavities, too.
26) That took 4 hours.
27) We realized they want us to come back FOUR MORE TIMES to do ONE FILLING EACH TIME.
28) We complained all the way home.
29) We found a friend of the family that would squeeze us in out of the kindness of his heart.
30) I called the out-of-town place to request our records be prepared so we could pick them up.
31) They said okay, we'll call you when they are ready.
32) I called them and said, I'm coming, get them ready.
33) I drove 45 minutes out there, popped in, grabbed the files, said thank you, and went back to the car.
34) The administrator ran after me, saying, Oops, I should have checked your ID.
35) I showed her my ID and got in the car. She went back inside.
36) As I was about to drive off, she approached again, saying she couldn't release Justin's records to me without his signing a release form first.
37) I explained he did sign one, the first time we were in, because we knew we might switch dentists from the beginning.
38) They could find no record of his signing any such form.
39) I protested, went inside, and tried to remember with the receptionist that we did sign the forms. Both of us remember the conversation where we discussed singing the forms, but she remembers us deciding not to right then, while Justin (I got Justin on the phone) and I remembered we did.
40) Still, there was no proof that we did. And HIPAA laws and HIPAA laws, after all.
41) The administrator explains to me then to Justin a way to get Justin's records to their sister office in Merced, then we could pick them up there by Thursday, the day of our appointment with the local dentist.
42) I realize we could just have Justin run to the local mailing store and have the dental office fax the release to him, and he could fax it back and I could go home with the records.
43) The administrator faxes the form to Justin. And we wait. And wait. And wait.
44) We have a little chat about Yale public health and how I could get a job at this non-profit.
45) I call Justin to see if he sent the fax. He had, and he was already back home, too. We figure out he sent it to the medical office's fax, not the dental office's, and the administrator has then fax it back to her.
46) Finally, I take the record and go.
47) By then, it's five o'clock and Justin's brother and his family are over for dinner, back in Merced.
48) I start driving, make an accidental turn, and in trying to correct it, I end up on a highway going north out of town instead of east, back toward Merced.
49) After at least a few miles, I realize my mistake. It's dark, so I can't tell direction by the sunset.
50) There are no turn offs. Just farms. And farms. And farms. I see some lights up ahead that make me think there's a right turn, so I decide to pull over there and consult a map.
51) There was no turn-off, just a bend.
52) I pulled over anyway, trying to ignore thoughts about women alone on secluded country roads, turned on my hazards, and grabbed a map.
53) No map of California, just one of the western states.
54) I found where the town had been, but the highway I was on did not appear on the map. Just not there. But I know I was northbound by the highway signs, so I figured I could keep going north, then cut right onto a highway that is on the map and that does go east to Merced.
55) It worked!
56) I took more wrong turns within Merced.
57) I got home just as the dinner guests were leaving.
Moral of the story?
Brush your teeth. A lot. And floss. And make appointments well in advance.
And get a GPS unit for the car.
1) I found the only place in the city that takes our insurance.
2) They were booked ahead for at least three months.
3) I found out the same non-profit dental provider has a branch in a town 45 minutes away.
4) I managed to get appointments with them for all three of us on Halloween.
5) We picked Juma up from school on the appointed day, and drove out there.
6) We didn't bring anything for Juma to prevent a meltdown in the car.
7) We didn't bring anything for Juma to prevent a meltdown in the office.
8) The address on the website and on mapquest didn't differentiate between I street and West I Street, so we got confused and lost and arrived late.
9) They didn't want to let Juma do anything more than get X-rays because we were late.
10) Justin exchanged appointments with Juma, so Justin got X-rays only.
11) Sarah and Juma got X-rays, and were told they have [Ashli, don't read this] 4 and 2 cavities, respectively.
12) The dental assistant told us "You need to start brushing Juma's teeth." We informed her we brush his teeth every morning and night. She said, "Then you need to brush them after every time he eats or drinks anything but water."
13) We went to schedule follow-ups for the fillings and Justin's exam. The next available date was January 7.
14) We begged and pleaded for an earlier date, but they wouldn't budge. We agreed to the date.
15) Then the receptionist asked when we want appointments for the fillings.
16) What the ^%$#@ are the appointments on January 7 for then?!?!
17) Cleanings.
18) Only.
19) So we asked for dates for fillings. January 27.
20) We're not supposed to be here by then.
21) We made the appointments anyway, with the promise that the receptionist would call us if there happen to be three cancellations on the same day.
22) We drove home.
23) All of that took six hours.
24) A few days later, we got a call about some cancellations and went in the next day.
25) The dentist filled ONE of Juma's fillings (he was perfect with only a shot) and ONE of Sarah's fillings. And told Justin he had four cavities, too.
26) That took 4 hours.
27) We realized they want us to come back FOUR MORE TIMES to do ONE FILLING EACH TIME.
28) We complained all the way home.
29) We found a friend of the family that would squeeze us in out of the kindness of his heart.
30) I called the out-of-town place to request our records be prepared so we could pick them up.
31) They said okay, we'll call you when they are ready.
32) I called them and said, I'm coming, get them ready.
33) I drove 45 minutes out there, popped in, grabbed the files, said thank you, and went back to the car.
34) The administrator ran after me, saying, Oops, I should have checked your ID.
35) I showed her my ID and got in the car. She went back inside.
36) As I was about to drive off, she approached again, saying she couldn't release Justin's records to me without his signing a release form first.
37) I explained he did sign one, the first time we were in, because we knew we might switch dentists from the beginning.
38) They could find no record of his signing any such form.
39) I protested, went inside, and tried to remember with the receptionist that we did sign the forms. Both of us remember the conversation where we discussed singing the forms, but she remembers us deciding not to right then, while Justin (I got Justin on the phone) and I remembered we did.
40) Still, there was no proof that we did. And HIPAA laws and HIPAA laws, after all.
41) The administrator explains to me then to Justin a way to get Justin's records to their sister office in Merced, then we could pick them up there by Thursday, the day of our appointment with the local dentist.
42) I realize we could just have Justin run to the local mailing store and have the dental office fax the release to him, and he could fax it back and I could go home with the records.
43) The administrator faxes the form to Justin. And we wait. And wait. And wait.
44) We have a little chat about Yale public health and how I could get a job at this non-profit.
45) I call Justin to see if he sent the fax. He had, and he was already back home, too. We figure out he sent it to the medical office's fax, not the dental office's, and the administrator has then fax it back to her.
46) Finally, I take the record and go.
47) By then, it's five o'clock and Justin's brother and his family are over for dinner, back in Merced.
48) I start driving, make an accidental turn, and in trying to correct it, I end up on a highway going north out of town instead of east, back toward Merced.
49) After at least a few miles, I realize my mistake. It's dark, so I can't tell direction by the sunset.
50) There are no turn offs. Just farms. And farms. And farms. I see some lights up ahead that make me think there's a right turn, so I decide to pull over there and consult a map.
51) There was no turn-off, just a bend.
52) I pulled over anyway, trying to ignore thoughts about women alone on secluded country roads, turned on my hazards, and grabbed a map.
53) No map of California, just one of the western states.
54) I found where the town had been, but the highway I was on did not appear on the map. Just not there. But I know I was northbound by the highway signs, so I figured I could keep going north, then cut right onto a highway that is on the map and that does go east to Merced.
55) It worked!
56) I took more wrong turns within Merced.
57) I got home just as the dinner guests were leaving.
Moral of the story?
Brush your teeth. A lot. And floss. And make appointments well in advance.
And get a GPS unit for the car.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
sarah's health update
Since May of this year, my joints have been painful and stiff, my fingers and feet swollen and painful. I could still function fine, and was able to enjoy my summer. In mid-August, I even made a daily habit out of long bike rides after Juma went to school.
Since the end of August, the pain intensified, took up residence in my wrists, shoulders, and knees too, and found a new companion in major fatigue. I didn't have insurance all summer (that would treat me anymore besides at Yale, that is), so I just toughed it out with my new unwanted friend, ibuprofen. By September, though, I, or rather, Justin, realized I just couldn't take it anymore and sent me to a clinic. I would have rather just gone to sleep. Ten, 12, 14 hours a night had become normal for me.
The fatigue, it seems, is likely anemia, so I've added iron pills to my diet. (Funny, eh, that I got more-than-mild anemia when I spent all last summer studying it and encouraging women to take iron?) The pain, though, is still a mystery, and I am just got the results for some more tests: everything negative or normal. So the mystery remains, but at least I know I don't have lupus. It seems that something auto-immune is going on.
For several weeks, I lived in a painful daze of sleeping until 10 or 11am, picking Juma up from school, sleep-talking his way through his homework, trying to find activities for him to do where I could just sit there, and going to bed by 9pm. Oh, and wondering when the heck this was going to end.
In the past couple weeks, it seems the iron has kicked in and the fatigue lifted somewhat (I got up at 8am twice in the last week!). In the past week, I've actually had a few nights where the pain in my joints didn't wake me up for my large, middle-of-the-night dose of ibuprofen. And I've finally been alive enough to feel like I could get some of my to-do list tackled. This week, I've made dental appointments for us, reviewed Swahili grammar, and started learning Arabic script.
I'm not looking for sympathy here, just a mutual celebration that finally, finally, things are looking up.
Since the end of August, the pain intensified, took up residence in my wrists, shoulders, and knees too, and found a new companion in major fatigue. I didn't have insurance all summer (that would treat me anymore besides at Yale, that is), so I just toughed it out with my new unwanted friend, ibuprofen. By September, though, I, or rather, Justin, realized I just couldn't take it anymore and sent me to a clinic. I would have rather just gone to sleep. Ten, 12, 14 hours a night had become normal for me.
The fatigue, it seems, is likely anemia, so I've added iron pills to my diet. (Funny, eh, that I got more-than-mild anemia when I spent all last summer studying it and encouraging women to take iron?) The pain, though, is still a mystery, and I am just got the results for some more tests: everything negative or normal. So the mystery remains, but at least I know I don't have lupus. It seems that something auto-immune is going on.
For several weeks, I lived in a painful daze of sleeping until 10 or 11am, picking Juma up from school, sleep-talking his way through his homework, trying to find activities for him to do where I could just sit there, and going to bed by 9pm. Oh, and wondering when the heck this was going to end.
In the past couple weeks, it seems the iron has kicked in and the fatigue lifted somewhat (I got up at 8am twice in the last week!). In the past week, I've actually had a few nights where the pain in my joints didn't wake me up for my large, middle-of-the-night dose of ibuprofen. And I've finally been alive enough to feel like I could get some of my to-do list tackled. This week, I've made dental appointments for us, reviewed Swahili grammar, and started learning Arabic script.
I'm not looking for sympathy here, just a mutual celebration that finally, finally, things are looking up.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
adventures
We've settled into Merced, but a nasty little virus has taken turns torturing Justin, and now me. I'll spare you the details, but it's pretty incapacitating, though relatively short-lived. Juma hasn't been bothered by it (knock on wood), and we haven't spread anything to Lance's kids, whom Juma plays with every day.
Other than that, we've had a couple adventures. One is swimming lessons for Juma. This for the kid who cries, or at least panics, every time he has to take bath. He just cannot stand to get his head, especially his face, wet. And swimming lessons involve actually going under water. The teacher, the same one who taught Juma's Aunt Andria many years ago, is nice enough to take it easy on him, but push him just enough.
Our other adventure began when Justin read in the local paper that the city bus rides are to be free of charge, to help keep down smog levels. Feeling all environmentally friendly, we decided to take the bus to the farmer's market downtown. It was a great idea, except that Rick (Juma's grandpa) had to ride in a wheelchair; Justin is still in his walking boot for his bum ankle, and Juma is five and really good at complaining. Oh, and it was about 90 degrees by 10am. The bus stop was only a few blocks away, though, so we made it all right.
The bus ride itself took us on a 30 minute tour of Merced ("And on your right, you'll see the really crappy Walmart; avoid it at all costs...There's the high school where Justin played some pretty great practical jokes; ask him about it sometime...Don't miss the Merced Mall on your left; dubbed the Most Pathetic Mall by people who grew up here...").
The farmer's market featured some great local fruits and vegetables, and we loaded up on white peaches, pluots (combo of plums and apricots), tomatoes, nectarines, and plums. Then we had to wait until the next bus would come by...30 minutes later. We spend the time at a nearby cafe, drinking cold drinks and chatting. We almost missed the bus as it came by again, but the driver was nice enough to stop for us.
So our 15 minutes at the farmer's market took up all morning, and with the heat, we were drained the rest of the day. But, hey, we saved on gas.
Other than that, we've had a couple adventures. One is swimming lessons for Juma. This for the kid who cries, or at least panics, every time he has to take bath. He just cannot stand to get his head, especially his face, wet. And swimming lessons involve actually going under water. The teacher, the same one who taught Juma's Aunt Andria many years ago, is nice enough to take it easy on him, but push him just enough.
Our other adventure began when Justin read in the local paper that the city bus rides are to be free of charge, to help keep down smog levels. Feeling all environmentally friendly, we decided to take the bus to the farmer's market downtown. It was a great idea, except that Rick (Juma's grandpa) had to ride in a wheelchair; Justin is still in his walking boot for his bum ankle, and Juma is five and really good at complaining. Oh, and it was about 90 degrees by 10am. The bus stop was only a few blocks away, though, so we made it all right.
The bus ride itself took us on a 30 minute tour of Merced ("And on your right, you'll see the really crappy Walmart; avoid it at all costs...There's the high school where Justin played some pretty great practical jokes; ask him about it sometime...Don't miss the Merced Mall on your left; dubbed the Most Pathetic Mall by people who grew up here...").
The farmer's market featured some great local fruits and vegetables, and we loaded up on white peaches, pluots (combo of plums and apricots), tomatoes, nectarines, and plums. Then we had to wait until the next bus would come by...30 minutes later. We spend the time at a nearby cafe, drinking cold drinks and chatting. We almost missed the bus as it came by again, but the driver was nice enough to stop for us.
So our 15 minutes at the farmer's market took up all morning, and with the heat, we were drained the rest of the day. But, hey, we saved on gas.
Monday, July 02, 2007
10-year reunion
This last weekend, when I was in Laughlin, my high school class had their 10-year reunion. The old student body president called my mom looking for an update on me, and I guess she lied ;), because he was impressed about what I've been doing the past 10 years. He asked me to write up a little blurb for them to read about me. This is the blurb they read (I'm assuming they read it):
......
Sarah Wilson Beckham, MVHS 1997
You may remember Sarah Wilson, now Sarah Beckham, as That One Girl on the Drumline, or as One of Those Kids Who Took Too Many AP Classes. Or perhaps you remember her as One of Those Rare Girls Who Managed to Hang out with Kartson Carr Without Drooling Over Him. What you probably do not remember about Sarah is that she always had a passion for Africa. Ever since she was too young to remember, she wanted to trek to Africa and learn Swahili.
As a junior in college, her opportunity finally came to go to Tanzania, on the East African coast, with a study abroad program. Armed with two semesters of Swahili language courses and some anthropology, she arrived on the tropical island of Zanzibar, 30 miles off the coast of Tanzania. She was majoring in International Development, and hoped to study how village women made money in the informal economy. But fate had a different path for Sarah. Two weeks after arrival, she found herself sick with body aches, fatigue, and a high fever. She had malaria. Her husband of only five weeks, Justin, took her to a Russian-trained Zanzibari doctor, who treated her with some drugs. The drugs did not cure her malaria, though, and she tried treatment after treatment. Finally, after five weeks, five rounds of drugs, a dozen malaria tests, two nights in a hospital, four different medical clinics, and some crazy drug-induced dreams, Sarah overcame the resistant strain of the parasite.
Instead of doing the sensible thing of just flying home, Sarah stayed in Zanzibar. Inspired by her harrowing experience with malaria and the local health care system, Sarah decided to focus her attention on public health issues in Africa. The rest of that semester in Tanzania, she studied peoples’ experiences with malaria, a preventable and treatable disease that kills at least one million children every year worldwide. Sarah went back to Tanzania again two years later, in 2001, this time leading a group of college students. Three years later, in 2004, she returned once again, bringing her two-year old son along (he got malaria, but Sarah knew how to treat it properly this time).
In 2005, Sarah began a graduate school program at Yale in public health and African Studies. For her summer internship in 2006, she returned to Tanzania to study maternal anemia in a high-poverty area where 50% of infant deaths are related to anemia. She is currently drafting a paper for publication that gives recommendations on how to improve the situation there. This fall, she will once again travel to Tanzania with her husband and now five-year old son, to do research on how poverty, illiteracy, and local culture affect access to medicine for people living with HIV/AIDS. She will graduate with a joint master’s degree in 2009, and hopes to work to improve public health interventions by making them better fit the local political, social, and economic context.
She has never gotten malaria again.
......
Sarah Wilson Beckham, MVHS 1997
You may remember Sarah Wilson, now Sarah Beckham, as That One Girl on the Drumline, or as One of Those Kids Who Took Too Many AP Classes. Or perhaps you remember her as One of Those Rare Girls Who Managed to Hang out with Kartson Carr Without Drooling Over Him. What you probably do not remember about Sarah is that she always had a passion for Africa. Ever since she was too young to remember, she wanted to trek to Africa and learn Swahili.
As a junior in college, her opportunity finally came to go to Tanzania, on the East African coast, with a study abroad program. Armed with two semesters of Swahili language courses and some anthropology, she arrived on the tropical island of Zanzibar, 30 miles off the coast of Tanzania. She was majoring in International Development, and hoped to study how village women made money in the informal economy. But fate had a different path for Sarah. Two weeks after arrival, she found herself sick with body aches, fatigue, and a high fever. She had malaria. Her husband of only five weeks, Justin, took her to a Russian-trained Zanzibari doctor, who treated her with some drugs. The drugs did not cure her malaria, though, and she tried treatment after treatment. Finally, after five weeks, five rounds of drugs, a dozen malaria tests, two nights in a hospital, four different medical clinics, and some crazy drug-induced dreams, Sarah overcame the resistant strain of the parasite.
Instead of doing the sensible thing of just flying home, Sarah stayed in Zanzibar. Inspired by her harrowing experience with malaria and the local health care system, Sarah decided to focus her attention on public health issues in Africa. The rest of that semester in Tanzania, she studied peoples’ experiences with malaria, a preventable and treatable disease that kills at least one million children every year worldwide. Sarah went back to Tanzania again two years later, in 2001, this time leading a group of college students. Three years later, in 2004, she returned once again, bringing her two-year old son along (he got malaria, but Sarah knew how to treat it properly this time).
In 2005, Sarah began a graduate school program at Yale in public health and African Studies. For her summer internship in 2006, she returned to Tanzania to study maternal anemia in a high-poverty area where 50% of infant deaths are related to anemia. She is currently drafting a paper for publication that gives recommendations on how to improve the situation there. This fall, she will once again travel to Tanzania with her husband and now five-year old son, to do research on how poverty, illiteracy, and local culture affect access to medicine for people living with HIV/AIDS. She will graduate with a joint master’s degree in 2009, and hopes to work to improve public health interventions by making them better fit the local political, social, and economic context.
She has never gotten malaria again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)