Malaria, malaria, malaria!

Last night, our intern coaches arrived for training and, much to our surprise, Nathan came down with malaria. It began with a migraine headache and nausea and then he spiked an intense fever in the middle of the night. Although malaria is pretty rare in the states, it's actually common among PBT missionaries. We're especially on the watch for it in people who have recently traveled to one of our fields.

Due to the fact that it is so uncommon, doctors in the states are generally very uncomfortable with treating it and rarely know how to diagnose it. This is why we purchase malaria treatments overseas so we can self medicate! It could actually be very dangerous to wait on the doctors here. Nathan has had 7 pills today and will continue taking two pills a day for the next four days. He's showing improvement, especially since he was very unresponsive this morning. Now that he's begun the meds, he'll probably recover from the malaria faster than he would have the flu. Had he not responded quickly to the meds, we would have known that it wasn't malaria after all.

An additional concern is how much he'll be able to be involved in the weekend of activities with the interns. I flew solo today for coaches training, which wasn't too bad, but it is definitely complicating things. I really need my partner in this - he complements so many of my weaknesses and we make a pretty good team. Please pray for us to manage all that needs to happen in the coming days and to get the rest we need. I'm running low on steam tonight. . .