DIARRHEA

It’s inevitable.  If you live in Peru, you are almost guaranteed to suffer through diarrhea.  Almost every volunteer has had diarrhea severe enough to have pooped in their pants.  (I will refrain from sharing those personal details and let you ponder that statement).

 

A lot of people arrive here with the strategy of eating everything served to them, and then they suffer the consequences until their stomachs are accustomed to the bacteria and parasites flourishing in the food.  I (more or less) took that tactic when I arrived in my site, and after being ill for 5 weeks, I had enough.  Ever since, I have been preparing my own food and I’ve had very few tummy troubles, which, by the way, makes me a much nicer person.  J

  

It has been 4 months since I have been preparing my own food, and for the most part, I’ve had few issues….until today.  Something infected me during the past few days, and it is certainly having its way with me.  My host mom noticed that I hadn’t left the house today and she came to check on me.  She asked me if I had taken medicine, and I explained that it’s better to let the diarrhea run its course and let the bacteria work its way out of my system.  But if it doesn’t clear up in a couple of days, I will need to get antibiotics.

 

Curiously, she kept trying to confirm which symptoms I have, and I noticed that she repeatedly asked me if I had “pain in my belly.”  I responded several times that I had pain in my stomach and lower intestines.  It wasn’t until later that it dawned on me why she was asking about a “pain in my belly.”  Unfortunately, people here cannot afford to see specialists, so usually if a patient goes to the local health clinic and presents with something vague and potentially more complicated than a routine illness (like a nagging pain in the belly), the clinic has no way to diagnose it.  People here often don’t get it checked out further by a specialist and never find out what’s wrong.  There is a long history of residents of my pueblo ending up deceased with no further explanation beyond “he complained of pain in his belly before he died.”  The pain was never diagnosed, so nobody knows exactly what killed him.  Naturally, they associate the pain his belly with whatever killed him.

 

So, back to my stomach cramps.  Nothing unusual about them; I am highly confident they will subside soon.  (And if not, I have a team of doctors to provide assistance).  But now my host mom is on high alert because she fears that I might suddenly drop dead from the pain in my belly.  I’m sure that at this point she has notified half of the pueblo who will start rushing over here to ask me questions (or pay their final respects).

 

Hoping to feel better tomorrow....