Zika

Oh, Zika! We would have been fine if you had not paid a visit to our home.

Stephen served in Zone 18 in Guatemala, the most dangerous zone due to a lot of gang activity. Thankfully, the ministry they were working with has a great relationship with the gangs so they were not in danger. Unfortunately, they saw the impact this gang activity has on the people of Guatemala City. The first time I got to talk to Stephen while he was away, he was sharing some of these stories with me. He prefaced his conversation with, "this may freak you out." After telling me, I said, "Oh...I thought you were going to say you got bit by a mosquito." His response..."well yea that happened too...we got eat up by mosquitos today, but Jose said Zika hasn't been a problem in Guatemala City."

Lucky us...Stephen came home with Zika.

About a week after being home he started feeling bad. His skin kind of burned at first and he didn't have much of an appetite. It wasn't terrible; he didn't even tell me he didn't feel good. Then, the next day the rash started showing up.

We were out on the lake and it progressively got worse. Stephen often breaks out in a heat rash on his hand when he is exposed to too much sun (white boy probs). It was really hot that day on the lake so I thought his whole body was breaking out in a heat rash. He told me when we got in the car that a rash was a symptom of Zika. I was still holding out hope it was heat related. When he cooled down and the rash still hadn't gone away, we were pretty certain it was Zika. The next day at church one of the students who had been with them in Guatemala ran up to Stephen and said, "I got the Zika!" That was their running joke all week so we thought he was joking until his dad confirmed it. He said, "Yea I broke out in a rash all over my body." Stephen pulled us his sleeve and said, "Did it look like this?" Yes. The next day Stephen literally slept all day.

He had a doctors appointment at 3 and got up in time to eat a little and get there on time. I kept going in to make sure he was okay because it's rare for him to sleep that much. The rash stuck around for a few days, but eventually went away. By the end of the next week he was back to normal.

Most people freaked out when we told them. While it is very frustrating, it really isn't that big of a deal. It's like having a mild version of the flu. It's not fun, but thankfully also not deadly! It is very scary for women who are pregnant and risky for those trying to get pregnant. That's where the biggest frustration comes in as we were hoping to start a family soon...Zika puts a 6 month waiting period on that. We're hoping he can be checked again in a few months to confirm it's fully out of his system.

It's annoying, but we're grateful he showed symptoms so we knew about. Only 1 out of 5 people who have it show symptoms. And, we're so grateful it isn't more serious than a virus that just has to run its course.