Sick since Mexico

[Scorpion]

I am at my wits end here.

May of 2005 I got very sick - which I attribute to a trip to Mexico we took in April. So sick that I almost ended up in the hospital.

The doctor stuck me on Levaquin for 10 days and I am still having side effects, but that is a different thread entirely.

Since then, I have had the recurring problem of constipation and mucus in my stool. Not every day but more often than not. Understand that in the past 35 years before the Mexico trip I have been constipated maybe 10 times TOTAL.

As time has gone on, those symptoms have lessened but not gone away completely.

Now, just to keep me from being bored, I have started having random nights where I am awakened to severe gas pain and cramping followed by diahrea (sp). The pain is so severe that it makes me nauseus (sp again).
Within 30 to 45 minutes it is over and I feel fine (a little hungry though) and I will be fine for weeks. Typically the day after I will have a slight pinching pain in my left side, just below my belt line.

I have tried linking it to food with no luck and so I am stuck.

I do take 2 Metamucil tablets (one with each meal) each day to help with IBS that I have been dealing with for 20+ years which caused cramping and diahrea right after dinner. That has not happened much at all since the "fiber therapy" started.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Unregistered]

I had almost the exact same symptoms in 1999, my DR never did diagnos correctly. I met another woman with the same issues, her DR said it was a micro-organism she had picked up in Mexico, I don't remember the name, but it is like E-Coli. When I had been sick we had been on vacation and swam at a beach that was later closed that summer for E-Coli contamination. It took at least a year for all my symptoms to leave. I hope this helped, or at least gave you another avenue to explore.

Please pardon the spelling.

[Unregistered]

Thanks for the reply.

Some form of E.Coli is my current best guess as well. I read on the WebMD site that E.Coli can lodge in a persons intestinal tract and cause recurring symptoms for up to 5 years - not an overall happy thought.

The one thing I have noticed though is that I am not losing weight.

In the 18 months since this started I have actually gained 5 pounds.

Since there is never any blood - the worst it gets is pain and gas - my stool is never black and it doesnt seem to be getting worse (or better), I havent bothered going back to the Dr. for more expensive and useless tests.

Thanks again for the reply.

[mexico]

Hi. Did u eat street food in Mexico? the food that is sold in mexican streets (tacos and all those things in a tortilla) can be very dangerous. i have a mexican friend and not even he has the courage to eat the food found on mexican streets.

[Unregistered]

just a suggestion for future trips to mexico... don't drink the water, or mixed drinks w/ice in them. drink your meals with beer. i have lived on the border and in the interior of mexico, and never gotten sick.

[Unregistered]

Sounds like a parasite to me. I went through much of the same thing. The others are right about not eating food or drinking water or mixed drinks in a foreign country. Locals may be immune to it, but you may not be. I immediately felt better after downing 2 oz. of castor oil. (Stay near a bathroom.) It will get a lot of the loose parasites out (that mucous you are seeing may contain them). Then go down to a health food store and get a parasite cleanse and some fiber tablets. Fiber bonds to the junk in your system and will get it out quicker. The cleanse program will restore the balance and help kill of the rest with cycled use - just follow the directions. You can repeat it every few months if you need to. You should at least feel some improvement.