Imagine the worst stomach pain you’ve ever felt. Coupled with horrible headaches, nausea, and the inability to stand up straight. Add to that emergency runs to the bathroom (I’ll spare you of the details). Now add to that 100 degree heat, bouts without electricity, and your only food options being rice, beans, and mystery meat. This is parasites in a third world country.
I encountered my lovely companions about two weeks ago. One would think that in a country like Nicaragua, parasites would be easy to diagnose. Wrong. I went to the clinic three different times and even made a visit to the hospital in Managua (keep in mind, you have to be DESPERATE to go the hospital in Managua). Not until 8 days later and a proper test (again, sparing you the details) did I find out that I had not one, but two types of parasites – worms (yes, you read that correctly) and ameba (not just any ameba, special ameba that were growing in cysts on the insides of my intestines). Sounds fun, right?
I’ll get back to my regular posts tomorrow. In the meantime, I thought I’d let you all share in the glory of the last two weeks here.
Meds. Nicaraguans love their meds. Someone’s sick? Just give them a pill. They’re not getting better? Give them three more. I received literally 15+ different types of medicines in 8 days…and then I took a photo.
