It’s back. Malaria has once again reared it’s ugly head in the peaceful and mundane Mulaire/Lemoine realm. It was confirmed this morning with the visit of our friend Lisa, the Nurse Practitioner of the US Embassy. Madeleine is suffering from a relapse to last year’s episode with Malaria. Despite all the precautions we have taken since taking up residence in tropical Africa, that little anophetes bugger that bit Madeleine last year, and thus infecting her body with zillions of malarial parasites, is still the culprit causing her this second bout with the disease.
We both started taking Mephaquin a few weeks ago. This is a preventive malarial drug. In the past, we had chosen the more expensive Malarone as preventive treatment. Then it was decided that, to continue supporting our pill popping malaronic habit, we would have to sell either our house or one of our children. We decided not to do that. So we decided to go with Mephaquin, the far less expensive prophylaxix medicine which entails taking one pill a week. Dr. Toews, our family doctor for the past 150 years, had told us about Mephaquin before we left for Guinea. There is still no vaccination for malaria and all malerial drugs are preventive, meaning, they do not really prevent one from getting malaria, but they will prevent one from dying from malaria. Sounds kind of OK to me.
The reason that we initially went with the more expensive medicine as opposed to the cheaper Mephaquin was because we were intimidated by the list of possible side effects of taking Mephaquin. The list is long, exhaustive, but interesting : dizziness, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, diarrhea (challenging spelling...mental note to self: include in next spelling bee at school), abdominal pain, balance disturbances, headache, fatigue, sleep disturbances, severe nightmares, numbness, reddening of skin, fainting, palpitations, difficult breathing, sweating, digestive disorders, irregular heart rate, itching or skin rashes, loss of hair, visual disturbances, hearing disturbances, chest pains, ringing in the ear, weakness, feeling unwell, tiredness, fever, shivering, coordination disturbances, sensory deficits of the nerves, shaking, water retention, muscle pains, muscle cramps, joint pain, (and this is where things get really interesting), convulsions and psychic disturbances, hallucinations, aggression, panic attacks, confusion, restlessness, mood changes, and suicidal thoughts.
Well, so far so good. We have been on Mephaquin for two weeks and none of these symptoms have sneaked up on us, except for the fact that since day one of our treatment, my nocturnal reverie has been nothing less than spectacular and utopia. I have been dreaming like crazy, unlike anything I have ever dreamt before in my whole life. We are talking vivid, spirited, colorful, almost HD-like kind of dreams that I can actually remember when waking up. Makes for interesting breakfast chatter. I have even attempted to manipulate or program my dreaming before going to sleep and, needless to say, I look forward to going to bed, especially if there is nothing good on TV, which is usually all of the time.
One night last week, I had decided that I wanted to dream about having a conversation with Nelson Mandella over coffee at a Starbucks somewhere. Fell asleep with the wishful thought of having an interesting conversation with an interesting person, while drinking a good cup of coffee in a normal coffee shop.
I kind of missed the mark, but still had an interesting dream. I dreamt of being lost at the Winnipeg airport with Pamela Anderson. I was lost in the labyrinthine entrails of the airport, anxious and frightened, but was all of a sudden shown the way out by Pamela Anderson. Thanking her for having shown me the way out of the airport, I hugged Pamela at the exit. I was envious of her fine sense of direction, touched by her empathy towards me, and inevitably, undeniably, and poignantly impressed by her voluptuous bosomy corpulence.
I am not too certain under what category in which the vividness of my dreams would fall under in regards to side effects of taking Maphaquin. It could be ‘hallucinations’ or ‘physic disturbances’, but in the end, its all good. I guess having grown up during the Strawberry Field Forever era in the late 60’s, and, although I have never engaged first hand at ‘tripping’ on hallucinogens before, vivid dreams under the influence of cheap drugs should not be too foreign to me. I may end up not getting my intellectual conversation with Nelson Mandella, but, hey, being saved and shown the way by Pamela Anderson sure beats getting malaria.
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