July 4, 2012

Giardia Lamblia: The Diet of Peru (100% Proven to Work)

What a way to spend the Fourth of July. While my family was in Virginia, eating amazing food, spending the entire day of the lake, and oh did I mention eating amazing food, I'm here in Peru completing one of Peru's most famous diets, Giardia. For those of you who don't know, and I was one of them, Giardia Lamblia is an intestinal parasite that sticks to or invades the lining of the intestine, prohibiting the body from absorbing any type of nutrients. That's right, for the 4th of July this year, I celebrated with a week-long invasion of parasites in my intestines. Let me tell you this, when you have parasites inside of you, you know it. When you're sleeping on your bathroom floor with cramps ten times worse than menstrual cramps, it's the only logical thing. The picture that is posted with this entry is where I slept three nights in a row, me sitting, with my arms crossed on my bathroom table and my head in my arms.

In case you yourself are traveling and want to know what typical symptoms are of Giardia, the medical books say this: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and a general sick feeling. Also, weight loss is common because of the intestine's lack of ability to absorb nutrients. But honestly, those symptoms could describe any type of stomach illness. If I wrote the book, this would be my description of the symptoms.

1. You feel like you are 2 steps away from death. No really, at many points you just wish you would die instead of spending another minute in the bathroom.
2. Nausea? Check. Just the thought of food sends you running for the bathroom. Don't even try to think about eating through the nausea because food goes straight through you. So it's better to not eat at all. Drinking anything is basically impossible, you won't even finish swallowing before you're back in the bathroom.
3. Therefore, loss of appetite. And I mean there is no hunger at all. There are only cramps that are caused by little parasites feeding on your intestines.
4. Lack of any kind of strength you ever thought you had. Most of the times I slept in my bathroom because I didn't have the strength to walk out of my bathroom and to my bed. I couldn't even sit up (hence the table to sleep on). It was pointless anyways since you have to go to the bathroom every 30 minutes to an hour.
5. Therefore, lack of sleep. I did not sleep or eat for 3 days straight. That's another reason you know you have parasites because you haven't eaten in 3 days and yet you're still incredibly sick.
6. Everything that comes out of you is green. Your nose, your mouth, your ears, eyes, everything is some shade of green.
7. The taste that is constantly in your mouth and that you're burping up, well there's really only one way to describe it. You know how as people get older, they start to acquire a pretty distinctive smell? I don't want to say rotten but that's kinda what it is. Well that's the taste you have in your mouth ALL THE TIME.
8. And finally, weight loss? Check. When I came to Peru 3 weeks ago, I weighed about 120lbs. Right now (when I was at the hospital), I'm 48kgs, which is about 105lbs. And I've only had it for four days. I can't imagine where I'd be if I hadn't gone to the hospital. 

The treatment for Giardia is actually pretty simple. For me, I went to the hospital, had blood drawn, they tested my intestines (I would prefer to not go into detail how they did that) and because of my dehydration, was given an IV. What a glorious thing! The hour that I was lying in that bed, in air conditioning, having cold liquid seep into my veins seemed like the best hour of my life. I was then given medicine to take for 3 days, and reluctantly I left. I could have stayed in that bed and slept for hours if they'd let me!

Naturally, the next question that comes to mind is how on earth did I contract this awful illness? Once again, the books say drinking contaminated water is the most common way for adults. However, considering I work with children all day long, who don't always wash their hands, I helped clean up trash and mud from the recent flooding, and also just that my hands can't always been germ-free. I don't see how I could have completely prevented it. So just beware for those who are considering traveling to another country, you can never wash your hands too much!