Lingering Sickness......

[KenElevenShadows]

My girlfriend and I went to India a few years ago. While there, she got horribly ill, with a fever, shivering, totally weak, etc. She was ver sick for 1-2 days, I don't remember exactly, before I called a doctor to visit her in the hotel (she was so weak that she had trouble getting up out of bed).

 

The doctor that came over gave her some obnoxiously strong medicine (that doesn't exist here, btw) that squashed the fever almost instantly, but then also seemed to make her feel nauseous, so she stopped taking it almost right away.

 

Ever since then, she says that whenever she gets even remotely sick, the same symptoms, albeit milder, seem to kick in. She is starting to suspect that she caught something that is still lingering in her system. She had a routine blood test before, but she didn't mention this, and of course, the blood test didn't find anything.

 

If she goes back for a blood test, should there be anything that she should tell them to look for, or simply to tell them this and have them look for ??? Just wondering.

[ryst]

oops...double post

[ryst]

Originally posted by Ken/Eleven Shadows:

My girlfriend and I went to India a few years ago. While there, she got horribly ill, with a fever, shivering, totally weak, etc. She was ver sick for 1-2 days, I don't remember exactly, before I called a doctor to visit her in the hotel (she was so weak that she had trouble getting up out of bed).

 

The doctor that came over gave her some obnoxiously strong medicine (that doesn't exist here, btw) that squashed the fever almost instantly, but then also seemed to make her feel nauseous, so she stopped taking it almost right away.

 

Ever since then, she says that whenever she gets even remotely sick, the same symptoms, albeit milder, seem to kick in. She is starting to suspect that she caught something that is still lingering in her system. She had a routine blood test before, but she didn't mention this, and of course, the blood test didn't find anything.

 

If she goes back for a blood test, should there be anything that she should tell them to look for, or simply to tell them this and have them look for ??? Just wondering.

Ken,

She needs to tell the them her complete history of her illness and hopefully they sould know what to look for, if anything. If she has something in her system that is lingering and seems to come back, maybe try fasting for a 7-10 days. A good internal cleanse could really help flush out her system.

[nursers]

Yep any doctor worth their salt will do a full investigation. They may even do a stool sample etc to determine if there's some fungal or worm-related disease...

 

It took me well over a year to recover from my trip to Egypt - what fun

[Dak Lander]

Have they checked for malaria?

[coyote]

Man, those initial symptoms sound for all the world like a bad spider bite. There are spiders there that we don't have here, or rather didn't. I just recently heard about a deadly spider that came here under the toilet seats of AirIndia planes.

 

However, I'm unaware of lingering effects from such things. A bacteria or parasite sounds more likely.

[Angelo Clematide]

"with a fever, shivering, totally weak, etc. She was ver sick for 1-2 days"

 

sounds like salmonella. Any of various rod-shaped bacteria of the genus Salmonella, many of which are pathogenic, causing food poisoning, typhoid, and paratyphoid fever in humans and other infectious diseases in domestic animals.

 

Had it once in the Sahara, never felt that bad before, but it was over within 3-4 days without medicin.

[phaeton]

It's probably better to have it checked out sooner than later, too. It's not always the case, but sometimes if you let bacteria linger on for an extended period of time they can cause considerable damage to various organs.

 

Good luck to the Ms.

[Lee Flier]

Yeah it's probably a bacterial thing. Some of them are hard to detect and can linger for months or years until you do something about it. It's pretty common if you go to India and don't have immunity to the local beasties there.

 

There are a couple of things she can do. One is to get on a course of strong antibiotics - the doc may recommend this anyway. It works for some people, but it doesn't work too well for me and my immune system tends to be weakened by antibiotics, so I avoid them if it's avoidable.

 

There are several natural antibacterials and antiparasite tonics though. This is gonna bug me now, because I can't remember the name of the tonic I used that really worked... it was a long time ago and they may not even have the same brand now. Look in your local health food store. Raw garlic is also a great antibacterial/anti-parasitic if she can stomach a lot of it.

 

The other thing she can do is go on the Body Ecology diet, which is for folks who have candida yeast but it works for other things too. Basically it involves not eating anything that promotes sugars that the yeast can eat - no sweets, alcohol, yeasted bread, wheat etc. Fermented foods that encourage the "good" bacteria are encouraged... yogurt with acidophilus, etc. Check out the book if you're interested, I know you guys are pretty adventurous food wise so you might be into it.

 

Good luck!

[KenElevenShadows]

Thank you so much, everyone! I've passed this on to her!!!

[Angelo Clematide]

i drink unrefined Atlantic Sea Salt soluted in a 1/2 Liter of water, shake it for a minute, and drink all at once!

 

Be near a water closet when you do that, after a half'n'hour all is over!!!

[Lee Knight]

I want to start a Death Metal band called...

 

"Lingering Sickness".

[KenElevenShadows]

The band name is yours. Just gimme backstage passes or something when you pass through town on your double-bill with Creeping Death!

[shniggens]

Sorry to be blunt, but . . .

 

Go to the Doctor now!!!! Why are you even wasting time here? Is anyone here a doctor?

 

Say it with me now - GO TO THE DOCTOR!!!!!

[Philip OKeefe]

Originally posted by coyote:

Man, those initial symptoms sound for all the world like a bad spider bite. There are spiders there that we don't have here, or rather didn't. I just recently heard about a deadly spider that came here under the toilet seats of AirIndia planes.

 

However, I'm unaware of lingering effects from such things. A bacteria or parasite sounds more likely.

Actually, that was a hoax.

 

Ken, malaria would be one possibility, as would other tropical diseases. I'm no expert on the subject of exotic diseases, but I would definitely discuss things with her doctor, including a complete description of the trip (ie where you guys went, and what happened while there, and the doctor in India's diagnosis, etc.). If you can get a copy of the medical records from India, that would be ideal.

 

Sorry to hear she's been under the weather.

[Funk Jazz]

sounds like an infection, i would get a blood test done quickly.

 

my son's leukemia started with the same symptoms, not bad by themselves but lingering for months. finally it was discovered that he wasn't recovering because he didn't have enough white blood cells to fight off the infection.

 

i hope that isn't the case here, but i would highly recommend another blood test to be sure.

 

good luck

[KenElevenShadows]

Originally posted by shniggens:

Sorry to be blunt, but . . .

 

Go to the Doctor now!!!! Why are you even wasting time here? Is anyone here a doctor?

 

Say it with me now - GO TO THE DOCTOR!!!!!

I don't know if you read my first post or not, but she's been to the doctor once already and the blood test didn't show anything, and so now I'm asking about what to ask the doctor to look for, etc.

[Angelo Clematide]

Was she vomiting, back then in India?

[alfonso]

Originally posted by Ken/Eleven Shadows:

Originally posted by shniggens:

Sorry to be blunt, but . . .

 

Go to the Doctor now!!!! Why are you even wasting time here? Is anyone here a doctor?

 

Say it with me now - GO TO THE DOCTOR!!!!!

I don't know if you read my first post or not, but she's been to the doctor once already and the blood test didn't show anything, and so now I'm asking about what to ask the doctor to look for, etc.

As it has been said the complete history of the disease and if possible also the medicine taken must be reported. Exotic diseases is a particular branch of medical science, not all the doctors know about it, so they can send you to a specialist.

Regarding analysis, you have to know what you are looking for, i guess. And leave alone self medication, go to the doctor and give him ALL the infos.

My 0.02eu

[KenElevenShadows]

Thanks. Hopefully she'll have more to report to the doctor.

[Lee Flier]

Originally posted by shniggens:

Sorry to be blunt, but . . .

 

Go to the Doctor now!!!! Why are you even wasting time here?

Errhh... she's already been. And I'm sure she'll go back. But frankly the docs don't always know much about that kind of stuff because it's so uncommon here. They might knock out the short term symptoms but the lingering stuff that hangs around... I and others I know have sometimes had better luck treating it with diet and such. Otherwise you can end up in an endless series of tests, medications and crap that doesn't seem to work.

 

I'm not saying don't go to the doctor, and would have said something if Ken hadn't said she had already been, but there are other ways to help your own recovery too.

 

Like alfonso said, it's a pretty specialized thing and unless you can find somebody who specifically knows about it, docs can be a crapshoot.

[Dak Lander]

Ken, Funkjazz brought up a real concern. Have her request her doctors to do a complete bllod wo-up, including a quantative panel. (I think that's what it's called.) That will look at every aspect of the blood. Most of the blood tests doctors order are simple tests not looking at anything in depth.

Certain proteins in the blood are an indicator of cancer in some form or another, depending on the protein.

[KenElevenShadows]

She found a doctor at UCLA who specializes in - I forgot what the phrase was exactly - essentially exotic and tropical infections and diseases. The person will obviously do a blood test, but of a more specific nature . Sounds like that's the person to go to, although I don't know if her insurance is going to cover it. Your concern and suggestions are of course greatly greatly appreciated!

[ryst]

Originally posted by Ken/Eleven Shadows:

She found a doctor at UCLA who specializes in - I forgot what the phrase was exactly - essentially exotic and tropical infections and diseases. The person will obviously do a blood test, but of a more specific nature . Sounds like that's the person to go to, although I don't know if her insurance is going to cover it. Your concern and suggestions are of course greatly greatly appreciated!

Good luck to you and your girlfriend, Ken! Let us know how it goes.