More drama.....

Not wanting to alarm my nearest and dearest, I didn’t blog about this yesterday. But as its all turned out fine and I know there are certain friends (Johnnie) that enjoy hearing about my misfortunes, here is the latest…..


Thursday evening, the young YDF volunteers threw me a going away party at my house which included playing nice singing, clapping, jumping in my garden. It would appear that YET AGAIN, I was bitten by a spider!

So, Friday saw the little bite on my leg which was annoyingly itchy but nothing more, develop into a rather large, painful blister....

Saturday morning, feeling quite ill, I went along to Chipata Health Centre to seek medical advice. The nice doctor said I had been bitten by “dangerous spider”. He popped the blister and giggled as the yukky liquid spilled all over his practice floor, gave me a course of anti-biotics and said I’d be fine in a few days. He also advised AGAINST covering the now popped blister. I’m afraid I felt quite poorly all afternoon, leaving Francis and Alan to do all the work for our party that night. During the party, despite feeling less than 100%, I joined in the merriment as much as possible – I’m nothing if not a martyr to the cause of partying!

Sunday morning with the prospect of an 8 hour drive to Lusaka ahead of me, I wanted to curl up and die! I don’t travel well at the best of times and with the nausea and vomiting before even left the house, I was dreading the journey…. Luckily for me, the lovely man who was driving the car had a medical background and seeing the now puss-filled lump on my leg, put me in the front seat with my foot elevated as much as possible and fussed over me throughout. He wanted to take me straight to a clinic on arrival in Lusaka but relented when I promised I would go first thing in the morning.

Dan & Helen who are accommodating me here is Lusaka were great. Dan took me to the clinic first thing Monday morning where the doctor confirmed it as a spider bite. He said the blister should never have been burst and it should have been kept covered to prevent infection, which is what I now have and why I was feeling so sick! A nurse cleaned and dressed it and I was sent on my way after being told to report back to the clinic at 4pm for the surgeon to decide if it needed operating on…!!!! At that point I did not want to be in stupid Africa, I wanted to be home, with my Mam feeding me 'googies' to make me all better!!
But I was a very brave little soldier and duly reported back as instructed.



I am delighted to report that the surgeon said it was okay and did not need to be cut out! I was sent on my way with a tube of antibiotic cream and a large bag of saline solution to clean it with. When I arrived back at Dan & Helens, they could only see my top half through the window and seeing me carrying this bag, they thought I was hooked up to a drip!!!

So…. sorry to disappoint you Mr Evans but the good news is I have been to the clinic again this morning for another dressing change and I am allowed to travel to Livingstone this afternoon!!!!

I believe and I very much hope that all who kindly donated to my fundraising page http://original.justgiving.com/tinawilliams6  will agree that although I did not manage to honour my pledge to hold a live spider whilst here, the fact that I have suffered at the teeth of these cruel arachnids, will suffice. 

Please say yes.....