Will has been complaining of having “gas in his belly” for a few weeks. Other symptoms… complaining of tummy pain (‘gas in my belly’), diarrhea for days, disinterest in food… made us worry enough that we spoke off and on about taking him to the doctor. Finally, when he complained of his ear “popping” (Will-speak for ‘ear infection’), and then spiked a scary-high fever Sunday night to emphasize the point, we took him in.
He’s on Amoxcil for the ear. I relented, since he no longer requires torture to take medicine. (Guilty Mom admits: I thought it’d help with Kate’s medicine taking. It has, so I feel validated… but still guilty.)
We talked about the tummy stuff, too, with the pediatrician. It seemed timely since he’d thrown up that morning after spiking yet another fever. I was a bit nervous about the possibilities and had to suppress my inward groan when she said, “do you think it’s giardia?”
Yeah, actually, I do.
Although his symptoms may be falling off. It took three days to get enough poop sampled to fill the three vials for the lab. They were big vials. Will had to inform us when he needed to poop and I lined the toilet with aluminum foil at the back with instructions of what to do where. He seemed a bit disappointed tonight, when I told him we no longer needed to collect ‘specimens.’
“Oh, well,” he said. “Maybe next time.”
—
Another note. I saw my primary care doc for a follow-up yesterday morning and mentioned that giardia could be in our house. (Paul has been showing symptoms, too. Maybe Kate and I as well, although with me, I tend to have to be explosively bleeding internally before I even suspect something is amiss.) She was adamant that none of us could have this… we’d be sick, sick, sick… vomiting, diarrhea constantly, etc. “Really?” I said, “I thought that you could carry it and not even have symptoms?” “No way,” she said, “you’d be really, really sick. You wouldn’t be able to be up and around like this at all.” “Okay,” I said, “I must have misremembered.” I was still wary, based on my conversation with the pediatrician. So I checked it out. According to the CDC, I was right. Damn. I like this doctor and don’t want to have to go through the trouble of finding another. I don’t expect anyone to be 100% all the time, but now I’ll carry doubt.
laloca | 10-Apr-08 at 3:38 am | Permalink
far be it from me to contradict an actual MD, but i had giardia repeatedly as a teenager (yay peru!), and maybe once i was “sick, sick, sick.” most of the time it was diarrhea and the most horrific gas imaginable. oh, and burps. terrible, horrible, sulphuric burps.
(giving lie to my opening statement, i find i don’t really trust US docs when it comes to tropical diseases.)
shokufeh | 10-Apr-08 at 6:55 am | Permalink
As I read through that last paragraph, by the time I got to the fourth line, I found myself thinking, “If I were Holly, I’d be looking for a new doctor.” Especially given your propensity for international travel. (Though there’s a lot of giardia, including mild/asymptomatic cases in the US, so I don’t know what your doctor’s excuse is.)
Anonymous | 10-Apr-08 at 8:41 am | Permalink
It’s also possible (believe it or not) to have constipation with giardia (kind of like alternating diarrhea w/constipation in IBS.) I had a terrible case two years ago with very little actual diarrhea – it was gas, weight loss (I’m still down 20 pounds from two years ago) and extreme lactose intolerance. I was diagnosed by an actual parasitologist…for what that is worth. Hope everyone is feeling better soon and that the Flagyl isn’t too hard on you.
Kak | 10-Apr-08 at 11:58 am | Permalink
Collecting stool samples. Just another one of the amazing moments in parenting that no one ever tells you about before you have kids. We had to do it with Reeves a few weeks ago. What fun.
Andrew Kottenstette | 12-Apr-08 at 9:08 am | Permalink
Every once in a while we will read of a case of Giardia here in my area, local to Pueblo, Colorado. It’s more often than not a visitor to the state who was hiking in the mountains and decided to drink the “pure mountain water” right from the stream. To that effect the mountaineering outfitters have started selling a small portable ceramic filter which makes drinking “pure mountain water” actually possible. I would suggest you take one to Peru, or wherever else you may think you’ll run into a questionable supply of municipal water.
Andrew Kottenstette | 12-Apr-08 at 9:33 am | Permalink
Now I’m curious, expecting to hike close by soon, and imagine what it would be like not having to take a bunch of water with me.
Here’s one lead:
http://www.ahappycamper.com/products/water_purifiers/