Cholera Scare

So this morning I woke up at 3am with horrible abdominal cramps. This wouldn't be the first time, so I laid there until it passed, thinking about what I had eaten the day before. Then at 6am I woke up for school and like usual, had some water and cereal for breakfast. In the next 20 minutes I had watery diarrhea about 4-5 times. This is a sign of cholera. Also, everytime I take a sip of water, I get nauseous. Vomiting is also a symptom. By the way, I live in the heart of the cholera outbreak (yes the disease from Oregon Trails). So I call my friend who's a health volunteer and she says I should go to the hospital. So I go there at 7:30 am. They open at 6am but the doctor wasn't there. I spoke with the janitor in fulfulde/french and he told me that the doctor usually gets in around 8 or so. So I waited in the waiting room, as it started to fill up. Around 8:45 the doctor showed up and even though I was the first person there of course 2 people cut in front of me. When I finally got to talk to him, he said it was probably not cholera because I wasn't projectile vomiting but he said to go get medicine and come back to see how I feel. So I went to the pharmacy to get one kind of medicine. The other stuff I needed was at the clinic. After getting lost on my way to the clinic (again the problem of not having addresses or streets), I finally got the other pill. As I was walking back to the hospital, I took it on the street. Bad call. I immediately felt it start coming back up. I puked numerous times by the side of the road. As I pulled into the hospital again, the principal of my school rolls up in his car. Ca va? no ca va pas. We go talk to the doctor again and he says I should get an IV and stay awhile. The filing system here is basically they give you a little notebook that you keep and everytime you go to the doctor you bring it and he fills in notes. So my brand new notebook says “suspicion of cholera” on the front page. Meanwhile I talked to the Peace Corps medical office and they were in agreement with this plan. So my principal had brought along the school nurse, so she stayed with my in my hospital room. 4 months in Cameroon and there are still surprises. I've come to be able to recognize when a place is clean by Cameroonian standards. This hospital room was definitely not. It was your typical cement room. There was a small metal bed frame circa 1910 and a mattress. No sheets- you bring your own. I was SOL since I didn't know this. There were flies, mosquitoes, spiders and grasshoppers in the room. The walls were filthy. There was a bathroom- no toilet seat, soap or toilet paper. After I purchased my IV supplies at the pharmacy ($15), they hooked me up. The day passed as they came in periodically changed bags and I tried to nap. At one point the school nurse took some of the pills I had bought (no idea why) then disappeared for an hour. Apparently she threw up from them too. Why should took them will remain a mystery to me. Finally since I didn't throw up or have diarrhea anymore they let me go home, instructing me to change my clothes and shower when I got home. I just ate a PB and J sandwich so we'll see how I feel......