Croup, Not Malaria

Daleen phoned this morning from her parents house where she and my son are visiting. Colin is sick. He has croup, accompanied by a pretty bad fever. While I feel bad for my boy and want him to be well, I was a little relieved to hear this. Since yesterday, I'd been concerned he might have malaria.

I phoned Daleen yesterday and she told me he felt very warm. She took his temperature while we were talking and confirmed he had a fever. No big deal I thought. He frequently gets minor fevers or small colds, as do all kids his age. She asked if I thought she should take him to see a pediatrician. I asked if she had given him anything yet and she said no. So, I suggested she try giving him some children's Tylenol which usually does the trick and then, if that didn't work, she should think about taking him to see a doctor. She then mentioned he had a couple of mosquito bites but that was probably unrelated.

After we hung up, I started to worry.... a little. Tzaneen, the town where Daleen's parents live is also home to the Malaria Institute of South Africa. It is in the far northern region of the country, not far from the border with Zimbabwe and Mozambique. People in that part of the country do get malaria, although is is more prevalent in the rural areas than in the suburbs where my family is. When I first started going down there, I used to pop Mefloquine tablets (an anti-malarial drug) like they were candy and I used to almost bathe in bug spray. However, in recent years, I haven't taken anything and usually forget to put on the Off and I've been completely fine.

The mosquito bites and fever bothered me. While I have never had malaria, I have been with someone who did get it. My friend Matt and I were working in Dakar, Senegal when he got it and it was pretty bad. We were teaching a training class and by the end of my talk, he was laying on a couch with a severely high fever and he was shivering and complaining he was freezing to death. Now that scared me because I had no idea what it was and I certainly didn't want to get whatever kind of Ebola Virus that I was sure he had. It really hit him quickly and bad and he was in rough shape for the whole week we were there.

What I didn't remember, until this morning when Daleen phoned, was that Matt had actually gotten it during a previous trip to Cameroon and that it had taken two weeks to incubate before the symptoms showed. I somehow doubt Colin had gotten bit by a malarial mosquito in November in Powhatan before they left on their trip. (I wished I'd remembered that yesterday.)

So Daleen took Colin to the pediatrician in Tzaneen. South African doctors, by the way, are definitely some of the best on the planet. (Did you know it was a South African doctor who performed the first heart transplant?) After a night of fever and coughing, Colin was diagnosed with croup. They gave him some antibiotics and he is getting a nebulizer breathing treatment. Daleen says trying to keep a nebulizer mask on a two year old is slightly more frustrating than trying to herd cats.

I feel terrible that my little guy is so sick. I know he's going to be fine and Daleen and her folks are taking great care of him, but it's just my automatic Dad response. I can't help but want to go over there to be with him. I'm sorry this is happening on his vacation with his grandparents as well. I know he'll be fine and I'm looking forward to seeing him a week from Thursday, when he comes home to me well.