October 10, 2006

La Gringa is sick



I have been so sick. Abdominal pain, diarrhea, fever, chills, headaches, sore muscles. It has been steadily getting worse for almost a week now. Yesterday was the worst. I slept for about 22 hours, waking up drenched in sweat and shivering from cold. I barely had enough strength to walk to the bathroom.

In the two hours that I was awake, I did some research on the internet. I knew it wasn't dengue fever, because I've had that before and it was much worse. I figured it was some sort of intestinal parasite. The symptoms sounded like giardia, but since there are about 3,000 different internal parasites, I was just more confused than anything.


I tried to think back to what I had eaten and I remembered that El Jefe bought a rotisserie chicken the day before I started feeling bad. It was not thoroughly cooked and was still pink inside. I'm sure that is what caused it because I'm obsessive about washing my hands before cooking or after handling the animals and about food hygiene and temperatures and all that sort of stuff.

I had some in a sandwich and didn't really notice how pink it was until I started eating. Since I complain about the hygiene and quality of food so much, this time I decide to just shut up and eat. My mistake. El Jefe likes his chicken hot, so he reheated his in the microwave and has not gotten sick. Thank goodness, because someone has to take care of me and the animals.

Yesterday, he went to the farmacia (pharmacy). Based on my symptoms and the chicken story, the pharmacist thought it might be salmonella and recommended Gabbroral. It seems to help, I feel a little stronger today and the symptoms aren't quite so bad. We'll see.

The other thing I'm doing is a 3-day fresh pineapple fast. I read somewhere that this can eliminate certain types of parasites because the pineapple turns the intestinal tract so acidic that the parasites can't reproduce.

Sorry if this grosses out anyone, but if you are here to read about life in Honduras, this is a regular part of it.
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