Liz's belated news

Hello all,I am sorry there has been no news from me for a while, but I have a brilliant excuse! I went away for a month's holiday, left the DRC in the capable hands of Tess and Nicole. I have a blood disorder call Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, TTP, very rare, very scary. I had a relapse just before I had to return to DRC. The condition causes platelets to become sticky and bunch together and then chop up red blood cells - you may recall my previous entry 'Grapefruit wars', the big bruise was due to me not having so many free platelets left in my blood, not that Nicole didn't throw real hard either! So all the debris in the blood stream got stuck in the small capillaries in my brain and my nephrons (little tubes in the kidneys) and I started seizuring because there was not enough oxygen getting to my brain. My whole body was numb and I tried to call my dad and I thought it was my time, but my dad came and then I swam in and out of consciousness. My dad said I kept pulling catheters out and screaming at nurses until they strapped me down to the bed. I can't remember any of this, except for the lumbar punch which is quite clear as it was \****!! painful! I was unconscious for about a week and had to have plasma transfers each day for a week until my platelet count came up. I came around on about the 4th October because I was supposed to be on a plane back to DRC! I told the nurses to get hold of my dad and instruct him to change my flight dates!So my brain was pretty fried and my short term memory was affected. I still have kidney pain and weird brain moments, but the headaches are all but gone and my blood tests look OK. Every time my brain starts going wierd, I have an anxiety attack coz I think I am going to seizure again. I swear I have been severely traumatised, but it is not my time to die.... so we carry on. I have to seriously think about getting a paid job, especially with this condition, can't be a volunteer all my life. I have been doing work here in South Africa with an animal welfare organisation called CLAW - community led animal welfare. They do all the vet stuff for dogs and cats from Soweto. I have been training their staff on basic veterinary things. I also get expired drugs from Onderstepoort and take it to them. So, Nicole and Tess will be carrying on the info about the chimps in DRC and hopefully, I will have some news on other welfare work that me and AWARE will be involved in. Watch this space!!Luv liz