Bacterial Enteritis

The following has been edited by me (Caleb), and is composed of emails from Liz.

I always figured that if one of us got sick from the water here, that we would have gross diarrhea for a day or two and then be back on track. It does not always work that way I guess.

Yesterday I woke up with a stomach ache. Convinced it was from not eating dinner the night before, I went for a run, and continued life as normal. On par for the day was isolating the skeleton after a postmortem on a Galapagos fur seal that died suddenly, and isolating the skull from an 8 day old dolphin head. Enough to make anyone sick I suppose!

I had a headache after lunch, so Maria gave me an ibuprofen which seemed to help. A few hours later I had chills, the kind where your skin hurts to the touch. Then nausea for a bit. I mostly thought I was being a wimp, since I do not get sick very often. By the time we arrived back at our hostel around 7:00pm, I figured I had better lie down.

Then the craziness began.

I don´t know how high my fever went, but my friends say I was laughing hysterically for almost half an hour straight, then singing songs such as "lunch lady land" by Adam Sandler, conjugating Spanish verbs (with good accuracy btw!), and staring at my hand for minutes at a time, bending a finger and saying "that finger, no, that finger". Oh, and the princess bride....talking about how kappybara´s are like the rodents of unusual size. And discussing how my parent’s phone number is like a pizza number.

2 acetominophens with codiene later, I came mostly back to the real world and went to the hospital. They said it is likely a bacterial infection from pretty much anything. I will take acetominophen and ciproflaxacin for 3 days and go back for blood work if my fever comes back. I wish we could culture, so I would know what is trying to take over my body.

I puked last night after the hospital, but I am feeling much better today. Some stomach cramps and tired, but I think the craziness is purged from my system!

On the upside, I think we will enjoy having a few days of rest. Our trip has been very busy so far. And I don´t really like decomposing dolphin heads anyways.

I hope you are all healthy : )

Liz