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BPAL Madness!
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Something I Never Wanted to Hear

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Confection

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No one ever wants to hear a doctor say the word "larva" when making a diagnosis.

 

It seems I brought a little something back from my two-week trip to Africa.

 

The CDC describes hookworm (ONE of the MANY possible parasites I MIGHT have):

 

 

These barely visible larvae penetrate the skin (often through bare feet), are carried to the lungs, go through the respiratory tract to the mouth, are swallowed, and eventually reach the small intestine. This journey takes about a week. In the small intestine, the larvae develop into half-inch-long worms, attach themselves to the intestinal wall, and suck blood. The adult worms produce thousands of eggs. These eggs are passed in the feces (stool). If the eggs contaminate soil and conditions are right, they will hatch, molt, and develop into infective larvae again after 5 to 10 days.

 

Fantastic. But one must also consider that the doctor "never sees these things in Afghanistan" and might be wrong about the diagnosis.

 

If I spend only two weeks in the Horn and come back with worms what will happen when I live there for two years?

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:D

 

For future reference and with the caveat that this is probably too Heloise-y and probably isn't strong enough: I hear downing a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar a day (I think?) keeps some of the baddies away (I might be remembering that it keeps fleas away... but heck, you can get all kinds of microscopic badness from fleas!).

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