Possibly a case of anxiety running away with me, but I wonder if someone more knowledgeable can help.
15 years ago I was in Africa for a year. I took doxycycline as an antimalarial. About five months in after a night out the next day I was very ill. I was starting to drift in and out of sleep and was a bit deliriois and not sure if I was awake or asleep, not speaking much sense. My concerned friends took me to the hospital. I could hardly walk and felt like I wanted a huge cabinet to press down on top of me to take the pain away. At the hospital I just begged them to give me something to sleep. They put me on a drip overnight for hydration. They did a test which they said showed I had malaria. The next day I felt 1000% better and left hospital and was back to myself.
Nowadays when I get ill I have a very low tolerance to that achey feeling. There was one instance when I had to call 111. As soon as I mentioned to the Dr I had had malaria they said it can stay in the system.
That passed..fast forward to today. I started an immunosuppressant as I have a rare condition (not autoimmune) and I feel like crap. The 2nd night I had awful aches. I had a thunder clap headache 2 weeks in and now 2.5 weeks on I feel very achey. In the back of my mind I wonder about this malaria thing. Is there any chance of malaria still being present and recurring and how do you even check these things/what is the risk?
I am hoping side effects die down and am embarrassed how much I am worried but as my condition is rare no one seems to know what side effects are acceptable or not.