Notice: Don't read if you get queasy with bodily functions or talk about bodily functions. I will not be held liable for you throwing up your lunch.
Parasites are extremely common in Venezuela. They are also one of the most common ways for "gringos" to get sick.
Of course, with my stomach of steel and my fortunate luck, I never thought I'd get one. Well, parasites don't care about your luck and I don't really have a stomach of steel. Nonetheless I had a parasite.
It started with a pain, however it was around the time of my period and I often have horrible problems with abdominal pain around that. I mean, if you don't know me that well, I'm talking not being able to walk, crawling through a ditch and hitchhiking home, kind of pain. So, anyways, I missed whatever signs a parasite would normally have had. Also, my stool had been soft for a while because I have traveling a lot, and usually my body doesn't keep up as well as my emotions. Therefore I didn't think anything of it.
When I started to feel a bit of a fever coming on I went to the pharmacy with some Americans and we bought some OTC parasite medicine (all parasite medicine is OTC). We took it at 16:30 on Tuesday night. I then walked home and laid down to wait it out, this was around 18:00. The cramps came worse and worse and so did the runs. Yeay! How exciting! ... except not. My hermana made me soup for dinner, but she just thought I was tired, which I was, I was exhausted beyond belief. I ate and found my stomach rejecting it within two hours. It was wonderful tasting it a second time. (If you aren't understanding the thick sarcasm, then please continue thinking that I enjoy this).
I tried to keep myself hydrating but that didn't work either. I ended up throwing up anything I put in my stomach, and I found myself in the bathroom about every two hours.
Eventually, when you run out of food though, you don't have the runs anymore. Think about it. Classy and strategic.
Anyways, wednesday I decided to try and make it to school. I had to take two long breaks on the walk there because my stomach was cramping so bad I couldn't continue, plus I vomited a bit. When I made it there, I was late, and I told the coordinator I was sick and going to take a Taxi home. When I got home I told my mom I had a parasite and that I needed to lay down. I spent the next 22 hours in bed, with brief visits to the bathroom.
I drank a lot of coconut water, which is supposed to help, and I got a shot in the butt to stop me from throwing up. As I got the shot (which my sister gave me), my other sister and my mom were watching. It was a true family event. Nonetheless, I made it to school the next day.
Now (a week later) my stool isn't back to normal, but the cramps have stopped. I also can't eat as well as I used to. My portions are smaller than most people's and if I eat too much I throw up a little, because my body still isn't digesting everything at the rate it used to. However, that too is getting better now. I wasn't able to drink for 5 days, so there were some nonalcoholic strawberry daquiris on the beach, which I would never complain about. I'm supposed to take a feces sample to a lab to see if we killed the right parasite, or if I have to treat myself for another one.
I was fortunate to have a wonderful family that checked on me and brought me medicine and went out of their way to feel well away from home. Even now, they are helping by making lighter foods that I can keep down.
It really is everything you ever dreamed of, or thought of. I'll keep you posted.
Besos :*
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