Leukemia or Typhoid?

The doctor just called with the test results.

Since October 24th we have had this gy-normous question hanging over our heads:
                Does Jeff have leukemia or some other sort of blood cancer?
                Or . . . Did he merely have typhoid fever?

We got our wish!!  It was TYPHOID !!

His leukocytes and other blood numbers are now back to normal - PLUS the Ecuadorian doctor even did the test for typhoid fever but he apparently didn't notice the positive result.  He just told us to see a hematologist ASAP, that leukemia can progress quickly.

So at 2pm on that memorable day in Otavalo, Ecuador I immediately went to an internet cafe and began researching possible causes of his abnormal lab results.

In the meantime Jeff was in our hostel room, doing his best to connect to the airlines on Skype to see about flying back home immediately.

What I found in the course of my jet-speed research was that his symptoms directly matched the first week of typhoid fever.

What I had to get my brain wrapped around was this:  He didn't have ANY intestinal symptoms at all, and I've always thought that typhoid was an intestinal disease.  Yes, it does involve massive and even fatal intestinal symptoms - but NOT until after the first week of infection.  

By my calculations, Jeff was in his 4th day of high fever, severe headache and fatigue.  My research sources told me that many people don't have intestinal issues at this point of infection, while others may.

Everything fit together.  But if we were to run off to find a hematologist, it would be many more days or even weeks before getting treated (for the wrong disease), during which time the typhoid fever would progress into the life threatening stages.

So I ran upstairs at the hostel, convinced Jeff to get off of Skype, and explained my new theory of his condition.  We researched cures for typhoid, left the hostel to go to a pharmacy, and purchased the agreed-upon antibiotic AND lots more Tylenol for the fever.

By 4pm the same day as he'd seen the doctor and had the lab work done, he took his first dose of antibiotic.

Though he actually felt somewhat better the next day, it took well over a week for the fever to finally stop.  And we haven't known how his white and red blood cell counts have been doing after taking the antibiotic - until this morning.

We voted for TYPHOID!  And thank God, we won.

(Please do not attempt to do this trick in your own home.)

Now we can again finally enter the planning phase for our future life in Colombia.
Stay tuned for The Escape.