Well, I'm beginning the 2nd round of my Ascaris meds... 2 pills of 400mg of Zentel for 3 days. I took the 1st round two weeks ago while in Bangkok.
What is Ascaris??
A PARASITE! (Happy 9-month anniversary to me and Saigon!) :P
I had gone to the doctor's for blood work and a day or so later received an email from her, saying that I have a parasite and to begin taking the medication as soon as possible.
I wasn't sure what all of that meant... but I knew it didn't sound good... and that, yes, meds ASAP sounded best.
So... I Googled it. Of course. ...And found this wikipedia article on Ascaris.
(I loved Sarah's reaction to that... "You Googled it?! ...that's the worst you can do!" hahaha. So true.)
The first line of the article includes the words, "giant intestinal roundworms"... OMG.
I promptly began freaking out while alone in my hotel room... that I have WORMS inside of me!! Just sitting on the bed with my laptop, I became super uncomfortable and couldn't just sit there.
Turns out, Ascaris can actually be pretty serious... and even resulting in death, although... it is the most common parasite -- especially in a tropical climate.
So... my first evening in Bangkok was spent at the "iLife" store attempting to get a new hardrive for my laptop...
...My second evening in Bangkok was spent finding two pharmacies in order to stock up on the needed medication to get rid of this thing inside me!
THEN my mom sent me an article about Ascaris (more scary stuff...) and said that I probably have to do the 2nd round of medication 2 weeks after the 1st in case the original worms laid eggs. O.M.G. She's right! Ahhhh... I hadn't even thought of that. Gross. Gross. Gross.
One of my favorite reactions was from my friend, Barb, ..."Parsites? See, you really are an exotic traveler." haha... that did make me feel better in a sense.
Anyway... I won't get in to specifics... but I'm glad I found out about this thing and am taking care of it.
I plan to get my blood tested for parasites (crazy, right?!) on a regular basis now... apparently that's just another 'normal' part of living abroad in Vietnam.
OMG why did I google it? Yuck gross and all that stuff. You're right it's all part of living where you are. Glad they found it and you're on meds. Is there a way to avoid it?
ReplyDelete~Aunt Lenore
Aunt Lenore - I agree! ...it's common in tropical areas (like southern Vietnam)... especially in areas with poor sanitation (like Vietnam). :P ...I do eat my share of street foods, which probably doesn't help but I figure I'll just get tested every now and then.
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