Perma-Sick Scott

As you may know, my older brother Scott has spent the last few weeks in hospital. He returned from teaching in India at the beginning of October with malaria and gastroenteritis, and has since been very ill.

We admitted him to the local hospital almost 3 weeks ago with a suspected case of dysentery. He's been treated for a whole bunch of illnesses, from dysentery through typhoid to a range of unnamed viruses (virii?), but the doctors have been unable to give him a real diagnosis. He's constantly nauseous and has frequent panic attacks, but isn't running a temperature or displaying any other symptoms typical of dysentery.

My mother, obsessive Internet convert that she is, has spent countless hours searching web sites for a possible illness to pin on him, and seems to have struck gold. Apparently the medication Scott was taking to treat his malaria can cause depression and panic attacks as a side effect (he had his first panic attack a couple of days after going on the medication). My mother took this information to Scott, who mentioned it to his doctors. He was told that they had begun to suspect the same thing, and planned to put a camera down his throat to rule out a few possibilities before settling on that. Since then he's been feeling much better, and hopes to finally come home tomorrow to be treated as an out-patient. Hopefully escaping from the hospital and sleeping in his own bed will help settle the anxiety that brings on the attacks.

Anyway, as has become a custom whenever I mention my brother, you can donate to his marathon fund here, so put down that cranberry sauce and open your wallets. God's watching.