This weekend I’ve had a funny tummy – again! So that’s the most obvious part of life to write about. For the first 3 months I had no sickness or diarrhoea. People here were surprised and told me I would get ill sometime. In month 4 I had giardia but knew the weird signs and took the medicine before it got as far as diarrhoea. Giardia is a parasite transmitted from contaminated water or food. Up to 20% of people in majority/ developing world countries can have ongoing infection from it. After that I was almost alright for a month or so. Then for most of August I’ve been not quite right, trying to avoid dairy (a complication from giardia) and had two lots of bad diarrhea a few weeks apart. Before I’d never have told you, but as it’s become so familiar for me now I don’t mind – sorry if you’re on a lunch break!
The fact that certain medicines are so cheap and readily available shows how common the problem is. For less than 10p you can get rehydration salts – at least 3 varieties; I know my favourite now! Also for around 10p is the giardia medicine. And you can easily visit a small hospital or clinic to get a stool test for less than £1 – I had just learnt the Nepali for it in my textbook before I needed to try it out! My tests showed nothing – kind of encouraging but doesn’t give you any answers. I eventually took some more giardia medicine again (sometimes it doesn’t fully disappear with one dose) and then saw a doctor who gave me probiotics. Still not improved, this week I took the worms medicine (also 10p) which we have to take every 6 months anyway. I feel quite a lot better today although I think it could be a long time before I can eat a feast. Meanwhile I am grateful for a Nepali invention called chiura – beaten rice (see photo with medicines). You can eat it dry or I like to add warm water. Very welcome when you’re birami like me – a sick person! Be glad you have clean tap water and good hygiene and sanitation in the UK!
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