Yesterday was the International Day of Intestinal Infections (IDII). There’s a special day designation you can’t blame on Hallmark. Our family decided to acknowledge this important international day with our full, undivided, albeit involuntary, participation.
We started a week before IDII with one of the girls throwing up and having the runs on a Friday. She seemed much better on Saturday so we never took a stool sample to test for parasites. On Sunday she was back to square one,, but the labs weren’t open. Finally sometime on Monday we managed to get a stool sample. I woke up early to get it to the lab on Monday morning, and stopped by the grocery store to get an iced cap. I have my priorities straight. You can’t take bags into the store so there are lockers, and a couple of guards with guns as helpful visual reminders not to shoplift. I put her sample in the locker and got my coffee. When I went back to open the locker the key bent like a soft stick of gum. Nooooo! It took forever to get that sample. Maybe someone nearby had a machete and could hack it open for me before the security guards with guns could figure out what was going on. I carefully bent the key back and managed to coax the door open. Yay, sample saved. Test results showed parasites and lots of eggs. After a few days she was feeling better but didn’t want to go back to school until her meds were finished and “they were all dead.” I told her the other kids don’t have xray vision and would never know, but I couldn’t convince her.
When she did go back to school she had no problem telling them that she HAD parasites, she just didn’t want to tell them she HAS parasites. On returning to school and telling her friends what she had, they all guessed where she got them. The conclusion was that it was a chip bag. When you go to the store and get a bag of chips, they may be on the outside. So you are supposed to open the bag and pour them in a bowl, then wash your hands before you eat them. Complicated.
A few days after her intestines were happy again, the older girls were having their school over to our house for a party. It was a great party, but after a plate of nachos, a bowl of spaghetti, and sushi swirl number six, I wasn’t feeling so well. I have a stomach of steel so I figured it was more parasites. I was up all night projectiling from multiple places, sleeping by the toilet because the bed was too far away, you know the drill. The next day I take my own sample to the clinic for testing. At the clinic you write your name down in your little book, along with your age, your email, symptoms. You can thumb through the book and see everyone’s information–a highly confidential system. I was tempted to take on an alias like Flo Bothends. The lab person said she’d have the results by 11am. I was tired, told Kier to pick up my results at 11, then went home and fell asleep. I woke up at 1pm and called Kier about the results. She said she would go to pick them up now. The lab’s hours were until 3pm, but when she got there, they were closed. I wasn’t happy because they didn’t open until Monday morning, and I could have been exterminating my parasites instead of giving them two more days of partying in my guts. Wasn’t happy. When Monday rolled around I was feeling better, my results came back that I had nothing, no parasites, no bacteria. I was glad I didn’t take a shot of antibiotics, which for me often needs to be followed by a yeast infection chaser.
A few days later, Kier’s tummy was a unsettled. That night I got four messages in rapid succession to my blackberry saying, “Mom, I’m sick.” I had to laugh that the current I.T. generation texts their parents from their bedroom that they aren’t feeling well rather than giving a holler. But Kier’s symptoms where different. She had the runs, barfs, sore stomach, headaches, but added a fever. Her tests came back negative for parasites. I’ve learned that the fever part often means it bacterial or is that viral. Clearly I’ve learned nothing.
Today Kier had arranged for all the kids in her Kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2 class to get treated for tapeworms. It was pretty cool. She met this doctor who works in town and got into a conversation about kids having worms. The doc works for Mayan Families, an NGO that does many good things in this community with the indigenous families. She convinced them to donate deworming medicine for all her students. Kier hadn’t been out of bed in two days, but she wasn’t going to miss getting her kids this treatment, and she was the connecting person for the doctor and school. We got her dressed, and we walked very slowly to the school, which luckily is around the corner. All of the little kids lined up eagerly for the treatment, like we were getting free candy. They were pushing, couldn’t get the medicine fast enough, some of the boys tried to lie and get double doses, everyone was all smiles. Unexpected.
The doctor also took a look at Kier, which was nice, and gave her a prescription. Walking home he said it was unusual for someone of her age to take the initiative to help so many kids, kudos to her. I’m not sure she heard what he said because she was feeling so rotten she was concentrating on walking. I thought I might have to go home for the wheelbarrow to get her home. But she made it home and back onto the couch.
So by the time the International Day of Intestinal Infections rolled around, I read the long article in the paper talking about the various kinds, the down side of overuse and improper use of antibiotics. Then I realized within the last week, our family were perfection illustrations of parasites, bacteria, and bad sushi (that went under the misc. category). Madi says she is determined not to follow in any of our footsteps. I hope she’s right. I’m feeling bugweary, whether in Cali’s hair, on the dog, on the wall, or in our guts. But living in the tropics is not for the bug intolerant.
Now onto other non-bug related topics. Kier has five more days of school until she graduates. Cali is learning Kaqchikel, a Mayan dialect at school. She is excited. Today the power went out at 7:30 am. I immediately tried to remember when we last paid our electrical bill, but we were on time. Here you have to be behind at least three months for them to turn it off. Last year our electricity went off and I thought it was a blackout, but it turned out that the guy we shared the building with wasn’t paying the bill, even though we were giving him our share. Turns out not only do fences make good neighbors, but so do separate electricity meters. Turns out today all of Pana had a blackout for the day. Some people knew about it, but somehow we aren’t in the blackout information loop. How does one get in there? Turns out the school didn’t know either. Cali’s school stayed open all day. They let the kids play outside during computer time. The American school closed early.
Kier wasn’t feeling well and since we didn’t have electricity we had only one flush per toilet. Good thing we have four toilets. After Cali got home from school we got the guys in to fix the water heater. It’s a tiny box on the wall and it heats water for the whole house, washing machine, it’s crazy. It’s also not working. Cali had to translate everything. The men kept talking to Cali and we went back and forth that way. Tomorrow she will be in school when they are here, maybe I’ll have to keep Kier home.