(no subject)

[slemslempike]

I finally took myself to the clinic, and I have roundworm. I can't google it because even pictures of worms are too horrendous for me, but it sounds rather disgusting. I asked Anne to look for me but she's "busy" with some sort of "work".

The clinic I go to is called Care Plus International. I first went when I had malaria. You go in to see the doctor, who asks you your symptoms and then sends you to the lab to give a blood sample, which they run straight away and then the doctor diagnoses you, writes the prescription and away you go. It's amazing how efficient places can be when it's all private healthcare and the vast majority of people are so poor that they couldn't begin to pay for treatment at nice places, so there's only ever a handful of patients/customers.

The first day I went I got to go and lie down in their tiny ward room with AC to wait for the medicine to take effect, which was nice and soothing. Unfortunately, as my malaria was combined with a bug, I threw up my medicine that evening, and had to go back to the clinic the next day. As she hooked me up to the rehydration drip the nurse scolded me for not coming in as soon as I was "vomiting too much". I guess I'm just not good at gauging the moment that one goes past the normal amount of vomiting and into too much.

Because I had vomiting more than the appropriate amount, I wasn't allowed the oral antibiotic anymore, so I had to go to the clinic for three days in a row to have it intraveneously. IT REALLY HURT. It was cold going in, and then seemed to be trying to explode out of my veins as it moved up my arm. Takes a long time to get everything in there, too. Quite often staff members will come into work with the stent (do I mean stent?) in their hand as the clinics leave it in for the whole time it's needed.

This time when I went back I wasn't vomiting at all (perhaps this was too little vomiting?), so I didn't have to have any injections, just a rather chalky pink deworming pill to chew. The nurse did take my vitals, and on seeing the amount of kilgrams I weigh, said "you're heavy!" in rather a charming way - not disapproving, or particularly approving come to that, just surprised and interested to see how much I weighed.

ETA Anne found me some no-pictures pages to look at. There could be lots of quite big worms in my intestines right now. THEY CAN SPREAD TO LUNGS TOO. But I don't think they're in my lungs. I really hope they're not in my lungs.

Comments

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Ugh, poor you. Hope it all clears up soon.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I hear that the deworming tablets work very well very quickly. So hopefully I'll be all better by the time I go on leave next weekend.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

OH YUCK! I am not going to look up roundworms because I already know what they look like because animals get them and I was paranoid about getting them as a child. But at least the pill works. But at least the pill works. I hope that you are (a) less worm-infested, and (b) feel better, soon.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I'm sure I will. I was pleased to find that the pill, though not tasty by any stretch of the imagination, was not nearly as bad as it could have been.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I am haunted by the memory of an absolutely horrific threadworm medicine as a young child. It remains the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Urk. I am not going to google it either, because, yuk. Sorry. I hope the antibiotics repel the worms.

I think you probably mean cannula rather than stent. Do they put it in the hand there? I have had them in the hand and wrist but the nurses usually avoid those as it is more painful there, and mine, mostly, goes in the crook of the elbow.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

That does seem more likely - the cannulas are in the back of the hand. I've had them at elbow before, but I suppose it's impractical for walking around with.

[cellardor.livejournal.com]

I am also not going to google but poor you. Hope the pills are v speedy.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Me too! I am taking it as carte blanche to eat pizza instead of salad because no-one washes pizza in unclean water.

[mockduck.livejournal.com]

That's really refreshing about the non-judgemental 'you're heavy' utterance. If only you could have recorded it :)

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

One of my colleague often tuts disapprovingly whenever she thinks I've lost weight (after being ill) - I always reassure her I have every intention of eating my stomach back on!

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Ugh, hope you're all better soon - at least it was something easily treatable.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

It's supposed to be a one dose solution, but I'm going to chew another one in three days just to make sure. I have no intention of taking my worms on holiday!

[nwhyte]

Yuck. Best of luck. To us pampered westerners it seems really counterintuitive that salad should be so much more dangerous than food that has been thoroughly cooked. Like you, I learnt that the hard way!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I am mostly encouraged that the symptoms were mild enough that I didn't have to rush to the clinic immediately, but hoping that this doesn't mean the worms are comfy enough to be difficult to dislodge...

[slightlyfoxed.livejournal.com]

Oh, wretched, sorry. Hope they move out, pronto.
Possibly only Miss Manners knows how much one should vomit.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I would love to see a Juba Miss Manners column!

[majea.livejournal.com]

I admit that I could barely read this entry, because the first sentence gave me a whole world of heebie jeebies and YOU POOR THING. You should not have worms in your body. Like, ever. But the cure will work quickly, right? (Please say yes. Please say yes.)

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

It should work within three days! That's quite quickly. I'm now worried about how the worms will come out...

[girlofprey.livejournal.com]

Oh God dude. I'm sorry. I hope that clears up soon. Maybe all the worms will just spontaneously die.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

But they still have to COME OUT. Come out of my BOTTOM. I hope very much the tablet dissolves them or something so I don't have to deal with that.

[alltheleaves.livejournal.com]

I think there was a House episode where someone had this, don't feed your medication to collies because it kills them. Hope you feel better soon.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Good to know! I haven't seen any collies here. Was it a deliberate poisoning of collies?

[whatho.livejournal.com]

I can help you on the question of how much vomiting if too much. The answer is ANY. ANY VOMITING IS TOO MUCH VOMITING. Thanks for the warning. That I boldly broached. In other news, so you have the least appropriate condition it's possible for you to have. A bit like if I were diagnosed with monkeys in the spleen it something. Get Wormless Soon. Weirdly, Hallmark doesn't do a card for that.

[the_antichris.livejournal.com]

Erk! I hope you feel better and the deworming pill works as quickly as advertised.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I have slept a little better, so I hope I am on the way to recovery.