{"id":3245,"date":"2022-01-12T04:33:01","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T09:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.charlesconklin.com\/4cambodia\/?p=3245"},"modified":"2022-01-13T22:41:32","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T03:41:32","slug":"chikungunya-and-slow-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.charlesconklin.com\/4cambodia\/2022\/chikungunya-and-slow-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Chikungunya and slow recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Doctor said that it could take up to six weeks to recover from Chikungunya <\/a>but I was optimistically thinking that meant that I’d be at 70% and improving for most of that time. That has not been the case and I’m still not at 100% eight weeks later. I am getting closer to ‘normal’ but I still have this lingering weakness and fatigue. Dengue<\/a> was more painful but this recovery has been challenging in it’s own ways. One of my friends told me that it took her a whole three months to fully recover from Chikungunya…so that put my experience in perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first few weeks I was barely functional. My physical stamina was extremely shallow, to the point where just walking to the bathroom and back had me wheezing. Chikungunya had a similar effect on my mental stamina. Just writing an email wiped me out and left my mind clouded and with a terrible headache. The same would happen after short conversations. I have never experienced something mentally like this before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there was the lingering pain. Chikungunya gave me a clear preview of what arthritis is like. Actually, in 14% of cases Chikungunya can leave a person with permeant chronic arthritis…so yikes! I had expected the joint pain from when Crystal had Chikungunya<\/a> but there was bizarre pain too. For instance, the skin between my fingers felt like large popped blusters rubbing together but when I checked – of my course – my skin was still intact. There were similarly bizarre and unpleasant sensations across my body but I don’t have the words to describe all of them. And then was the random itching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My physical regulation was completely thrown off from Chikungunya. I found myself awake and asleep at weird hours, shivering in the heat, and sweating in the cold. One day, I needed to present on the impact of climate change on rural farmers in Cambodia so I rallied by drinking coffee for the first time since getting sick…and then I was awake until 3:30AM. I was able to use melatonin\u00a0tablets to regulate my sleep cycle a bit but it did nothing that day I had caffeine. Needless to say, I’ve cut coffee out of my daily routine. Which is a shame given how delicious grown in Cambodia coffee is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been doing better the last few weeks but still dealing with lingering waves of fatigue and my body still figuring out how to regulate itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I’ve been sick, it’s been a fantastic month for Mennonite Central Committee in Cambodia. A lot of the work that we’ve been doing over the last year has come to fruition with MCC being awarded that grant we applied for<\/a>, signing a new broader MoU with the Ministry of Rural Development, moving ahead on some exciting new projects, and taking some steps forward on the environmental front. So that’s been a strong reminder of the grace of God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Doctor said that it could take up to six weeks to recover from Chikungunya but I was optimistically thinking that meant that I’d be at 70% and improving for most of that time. That has not been the case and I’m still not at 100% eight weeks later. I am getting closer to ‘normal’… <\/p>\n

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