Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Thank Goodness It's A Parasite

Blog goes silent = perplexing situation. The day after I flew back from a vacay in Colorado, I was suffering from bad nausea, especially when eating, smelling, or thinking about food. Having a mother that died from cancer when I was nineteen, combined with several close friends who also succumbed to the disease, my mind automatically assumes the worst and I get cancer of the mind (I need to work on this). Also, it was this same time last year that my friend Jeff was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, after he had been complaining of severe nausea, and a loss of appetite for any kind of food. Following my descent to dark places? The only time I felt good and close to normal, was when I was swimming, biking, or running. Thus, I thought maybe the nausea was due to stress? I've had a pretty stressful year job-wise, and I internalize a lot of my stress, and maybe it was coming forth in the form of nausea? All speculation. But after five days of nausea and speculation, my mind started going to bad places, and it was time to go see the doctor.

It took awhile to get the blood and stool (gross, be glad if you've never had to collect samples, yeah TMI) work results, but I'm happy to report that I have a parasite. Now that you know how my mind works, a parasite is much better than cancer. I most likely contracted the parasite from tainted food because the other way of getting it is swimming in a lake, which I have not done in over a month. I'm taking SIX PILLS a day for the next 10 days, and then back off to 3 pills a day for another 10 days. And even though food was making me nauseous, I was determined not to lose weight, so I forced myself to eat things like a vegan, raw chocolate mousse that I made from avocado, agave nectar, cocoa powder, vanilla and almond extract. Just those five ingredients made a damn tasty chocolate mousse!

6 comments:

Beth said...

You might be the only guy HAPPY to have a parasite! UGH! Hope you feel better soon but VERY glad to read it's a treatable situation. Thinking of you Kiet!

Matt said...

get healthy soon. parasites suck...haha literally. Hope those pills arent too hard on ya gut! Always good to be a situation that has a good quick fix.

Teresa said...

So glad it is a semi-quicker fix. And happy you listened to your body. Those tests are horrible...yuck!

Have a great week!

tn

mtanner said...

Yes, I am so happy it is only a parasite! I had one in 97' and it was gnarly! Three weeks of antibiotics and no appetite! Get better soon and come back to WWF :)

JC said...

Feel better Dude!

JC said...

feel better Dude - that doesn't sound very awesome! Take care of yourself!