It all started here…

I will start off with painting a picture of my circumstances at that moment of my life.

I was a very active, well balanced person at the peak of my life. I finished matric in 2018. During my school years I had various achievements, everything from equestrian, athletics, netball and academics. In 2019 I started University, studying a Bachelors of Science degree. I did well for myself and most importantly, I really had a blast of a time. Academically, I obtained an award for being part of the top 10% of students in my field of study. Socially, I made great friends and enjoyed the University life.

Over the December vacation of my second year of study – 2020 – we went to Mozambique. It is summer during that time of year and thus very high temperatures. Like any typical beach vacation, we bought some fresh fish from a local fisherman. That night we put the Barracuda fish on the grill and it was delicious.

Before I continue there is a part to the story that I have to explain first. I had a pet rabbit that I sneaked over the border with us on vacation. Obviously, she wasn’t allowed in the hotel rooms that we stayed at, so I had to do some more sneaking every time we check in at a new resort.

The next morning we were moving on to a next resort. Needless to say, I had to sneak in my rabbit. We were walking behind the hotel employee showing us to our rooms. Just as my rabbit started wiggling around in the open bag that I was carrying close to me, the hotel employee turned towards us to point that we arrived to our rooms. In an attempt to avoid him from seeing the movement in the bag, I quickly turned around and made my way into the room. Here a whole new chapter to my life unknowingly began…

As I stepped into the room, I collapsed. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak. The whole world around me was spinning. I was so nauseous! I started vomiting and didn’t stop, even though there wasn’t much to come out any more. I had a very high fever and the sweat was dripping from me. I remember feeling so bad that I was praying for any relieve of this feeling.

My mom kept trying to give me nausea medication, but it immediately came out. She tried to pick me up to put me in the bath. She thought that spraying me down with cold water would help to break the fever. She couldn’t get me up. She ended up spraying me down with the hand shower right there where I was. That was the last I remember. I guess I passed out.

The entire episode lasted around 45 terrifying minutes. By the time I passed out the rest of the family just arrived at the hotel as well. They helped my mom to lay me down on the bed. I woke up another hour later feeling as if nothing happened. I felt 100% healthy again.

Trying to make sense of what just happened, we came across something called ciguatera poisoning. That brings us back to the Barracuda fish of the previous night. According to what we could find through Dr Google, it was a foodborne illness that you could get by eating a predatory fish that is high up on the food chain. The symptoms were consistent with what I have experienced.

It was weird that I was the only one out of our group that got sick, but we left it at that. I mean, what else could it have been?