Chikungunya?

Last Saturday, we, the students of the ACM India program, met our host families over lunch and went home with them. That night I noticed a rash snaking it's way across my arms and legs. Unsure what to do and unwilling to wake up my newly acquired host parents (Rajastree and Milind) I went to bed. Around two in the morning, I awoke freezing cold with a fierce aching in all of my joints, especially my wrists and ankles. Since then I have been to the doctor several times and had to give a blood and urine sample, but they still don't know what exactly it is. The running bet is on Chikungunya the non-fatal younger brother of the well-known Dengue Fever. I'm feeling much better now with only swollen and aching ankles along with intense fatigue to remind me of my unfortunate introduction to Indian illness. They tell me it was a very mild case; but if that is so, then Indian viruses are Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the gate to the underworld, compared to our chiwawa-sized diseases. So far I've tamed the unknown beast, but I'll let you know what it is when the tests come back.

Get ready...

It's finally happening. I leave for India today, Friday the 13th, hopefully not a terribly inauspicious date. This is not my first overseas adventure or even my first study abroad in Asia, but India has so far proved more challenging than Thailand and Southeast Asia. In fact, it started out as the trip in which nothing worked out...

I went to my small hometown's clinic to get my check up and vaccinations. They didn't have half of the shots that are generally recommended, so I had to schedule an appointment at the closest travel clinic in Des Moines. The doctors there were very knowledgeable but they recommended I get vaccinated for Japanese encephalitis, a disease I've never heard of, am still not sure that I needed, and that required a second shot 28 days later. The doctor also gave me a series of typhoid pills to take on my own that had to be refridgerated in order to keep the bacteria alive and prescribed me Malarone for malaria prevention. He said that even though it was expensive he would not let me use anything else, and when he said expensive he meant it; it was going to cost us almost 10 dollars a pill. Malarone was also nearly impossible to find. My mom and I hit four different Walgreen's and none of them were able to fill the prescription. Finally, we called our small town pharmacy which was able to order some and willing to argue with our insurance company until they agreed to pay for 90 of the 100 pills in my prescription.

I chose to stay after and travel a bit, but my flight itinerary was changed. Instead of departing on my trip home from Mumbai (an essential since I plan on leaving my huge rolling bag at the ACM office in Pune) to New Delhi, a difference of around 500 miles!! I didn't even know an airline could change a departure city! I talked to travelocity and they said that AirIndia has discontinued flights out of Mumbai but they will be adding some more after November. They are supposed to contact me in the next week to confirm that my original flight out of Mumbai will be reinstated. If they don't I will call them and see what's up.

So now everything seems to be sorting itself out and I'm driving to Chicago where I'll be flying out from O'hare. So here we go! India!!