Fun News: I'm participating in a medical trial to test the efficacy of a type of treatment for malaria. I will be subjected to a series of blood draws and given periodic suppliments of chloroquine and Azithromycin. After a few weeks, I will be "challenged" which in this case means a cup of five malaria infested mosquitoes will be placed over my arm until they all bite me. Then I will continue the drugs if and when I present the symptoms of malaria AND they find it in my blood. During that time, (approx. two weeks) I will have to spend my nights in a hotel in case my symptoms crop up. The hope is that I won't contract malaria at all under these treatments.
I'm very excited.
Here is the log of how the first day went.
Day 1 of Malaria Trial
First they took basic vitals, blood pressure and temperature, and then did a brief series of medical questions to make sure nothing changed since the last time I was in. After, I saw the phlebotomist (experts in blood draws) and they draw a few vials of blood for basic testing. Then the exciting part: taking the chloroquine and the azithromycin. The chloroquine was a pill and the azithromycin was a powder mixed into some water. The powder drink tasted like bananas. It's a whopping 2 grams of antibiotic and I was told that 5 people had reportedly vomited from it that day. Thankfully I had breakfast before to stave it off, but I suffered from some solid nausea for a good part of the rest of the day. This will happen for the next five Mondays. Not really looking forward to that, but it's a small price to pay to help the fight against malaria!
And for those worrying about my health: they've had hundreds of people go through this trial with no one even being hospitalized. Very very safe.
Today's Workout
(Out of commission due to medication symptoms)
I'm very excited.
Here is the log of how the first day went.
Day 1 of Malaria Trial
First they took basic vitals, blood pressure and temperature, and then did a brief series of medical questions to make sure nothing changed since the last time I was in. After, I saw the phlebotomist (experts in blood draws) and they draw a few vials of blood for basic testing. Then the exciting part: taking the chloroquine and the azithromycin. The chloroquine was a pill and the azithromycin was a powder mixed into some water. The powder drink tasted like bananas. It's a whopping 2 grams of antibiotic and I was told that 5 people had reportedly vomited from it that day. Thankfully I had breakfast before to stave it off, but I suffered from some solid nausea for a good part of the rest of the day. This will happen for the next five Mondays. Not really looking forward to that, but it's a small price to pay to help the fight against malaria!
And for those worrying about my health: they've had hundreds of people go through this trial with no one even being hospitalized. Very very safe.
Today's Haiku
Nausea preamble
just air or will lunch follow?
whew, only a burp
just air or will lunch follow?
whew, only a burp
Today's Workout
(Out of commission due to medication symptoms)
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