To think we were going to climb Mt Wilhelm!

We did have planned for this Easter long weekend a climb of PNG’s highest peak – Mt Wilhelm. We’d had it planned for the last 4 months or so with a fitness regime which included a lot of stair walking. Unfortunately, my reoccurring malaria kept hindering the fitness progress. Although, with my recent bouts of malaria I am not feeling horribly sick in bed, I don’t have that much energy after a day at work, hence limiting the physical activity I had planned.

We decided to postpone the hike for later on in the year. Luckily as on Wednesday I was tested positive for malaria again, for the 8^th time. Then yesterday Rich was feeling sick with nausea and headaches that we took him to get a malaria and typhoid test. As I was in the waiting room while Rich was seeing the doctor the nurse came in and asked me, “Do you want to see your husband, he has been admitted.” Admitted! I went into see him and he was lying on a bed and the doctor was putting a drip into his hand. There was little communication as to why this was all happening, so naturally I started to get quite anxious. Turns out he had a viral infection and his white blood cell count was significantly high. He was dehydrated, hence the drip and starting taking antibiotics. After 5 hours he came home and Nurse Me learnt how to change my first drip! (Although an hour later the drip stopped working so I called Raul, my boss who also happens to be a medical doctor. The malfunctioning drip wasn’t a result of the inexperienced nurse’s actions). Rich came off the drip and today he’s walking around, although still weak.

To think we were going to climb Mt Wilhelm this weekend!!