Help, I've got a tapeworm and it's messing with my head

[Invasionofthegutsnatchers]

I've had stomach ache for a few weeks. Phoned GP, submitted stool sample. Results not back yet. Gripey pain, back pain, feel tired. GP said probably gastritis or h.pylori infection.

This morning I passed a worm 🪱 about 5cm long 😱😱😱 it was dead. Looked a bit like tagliatelle but thinner.

I'm so disgusted, I wash my hands really regularly. Horrified, vaguely amused, stomach feels like it's being eaten from the inside out and now I know why! Dear Lord.

I will phone GP again on Monday to request prescription for tablets to kill it. Until then I KNOW IT IS THERE and it's so disturbing 🤯

@MotherofPearl

Obviously as soon as a pp said not to Google Guinea worm I immediately went ahead and Googled.

Can't imagine I'm ever going to recover. 🤮

My mum was an army nurse. I grew up listening to her tales of winding Guinea worms out on a pencil. Her fear was not so much the worm as the wrath of Sister if she managed to break the worm in the process.

Parasite conversations are the norm in some households!

I saw a TV program about intestinal diseases once where they claimed that tapeworms were very good treatment for Crohn's disease. Apparently they release some chemical which reduces bowel spasms to reduce the risk of the bowel action detaching their heads.

they claimed that tapeworms were very good treatment for Crohn's disease

I don't have Crohn's but I do have intestinal ulceration. (x2 cos I'm so lucky)
The thought of a theraputic tapeworm is almost worth considering , sometimes I want to cleave out my own intestine with a rusty blade .

This was not the thread I needed in my life, going to go now, hide the thread, and drink until I forget 🪱

Bless him. It's his final night on death row tonight before the OP has him poisoned? Did he request a special final meal today OP? Full roast dinner with apple pie and cream?

@BritishSummertime

Loads of cod that that the UK serves up every day has dead tapeworm in it. Gross

That's out me right off having fish and chips next week on holiday not envy!

And this is why I have haddock!

@Hugoslavia

And don't worry about Sushi. It all has to be frozen for 24 hours by law in the UK before being served which kills off anything revolting. That's why sushi is fine for pregnant women to eat in the UK, but not in a lot of countries.

But that still means it's in there...just dead.

I mean, that's better but not much better?

@Invasionofthegutsnatchers

It was cream in colour?, thin and like tagliatelle I guess, with a weird horseshoe shape at one end. 5cm long. Not moving.

Bean sprouts. Horseshoe, anyone?

I was about to suggest paging Lweji but I see she has already arrived

I remembered from the previous worm thread a few years ago...can anyone remember how that ended?

I’m voting Beansprout

Victorian women drank tapeworms as a diet remedy. Stop panicking, one tablet will resolve this.

It wouldn’t be undercooked pork - that would give you TRICHINELLA - Trichinosis is VERY very nasty. Google it and count your blessings. If there’dbbeen a case in the UK - the meat would not be pork - more likely bear or other wild carnivore.

And here’s me thinking that an idle browse of mumsnet would help me drop off to sleep on a restless night...!

@DukeOfEarlGrey Yep, me too! Even on page one I kept thinking, "This thread is not going to go well!" Although I'm still giggling at the beansprout!

@gardeninggirl68

No worm would crawl out just wriggle.....crawling indicates they have feet!!

eeek

My body is just itching reading this thread

Think I'm just going to throw down an ovex

OP pls go get OVEX asap to start wirh

Yeah, it's still gross to think about.

Is it wrong that I’m quite jealous of all the people who got given the actual proper worming treatment when they were children? Us children were all wormed regularly (I.e. every time one of the many animals had an infestation) but it was a home made ‘country folk’ remedy and it was so unbearably vile!

@Blackcat333

Victorian women drank tapeworms as a diet remedy. Stop panicking, one tablet will resolve this.

WTAF? Really? Boak! 🤮

I need to stop reads this thread!!!

Their is a video of a poor bloke playing tennis, a worm appears out of his shorts, I kid you not.
Bot fly larvae, now that is vile!

Here's the raspberry-flavoured bastard. Boak 🤢

I'm a vet so can't give medical advice but I do know the following ;
You won't have got large intestinal worms from your pets ( microscopic migrating ones can occur though so keep working your cats and dogs )
It might be worth drawing the shape of the worm on a piece of paper including the length as if it has tapered ends and is round in cross section it's likely to be a roundworm and if the ends are square and it's flattish in cross section it could be multiple tapeworm segments , I'm assuming these will require different drugs .
In horses we can do a saliva or blood test to check for tapeworm .
Ladies used to take tapeworms as a 'tablet' 100 years ago to keep their weight in check so I'm assuming they aren't terribly pathogenic, a trip to the GP with your little picture and you'll be sorted ! Good luck and try not to worry x

@alwaysonadiet1 I too remember the raspberry medicine as being truly disgusting. My parents tried us on the orange version once....just as bad.

[quote Lweji]@Invasionofthegutsnatchers

Can you post the photo, or describe it?
Can you see the segments of the worm? Are they long or wider than long?

If you have eaten raw beef recently or fish, what you passed out could still be a larval form that didn't manage to get established in your gut. I'm saying this because you mention one end looking like a horseshoe shape at one end. This makes me think it is a fish worm. (look up Dibothriocephalus latus, or, the older name, Diphyllobothrium latum) The larvae tend to be longer, and the "head", or scolex, is flat with folds, rather than the round (but also small) scolex with suckers of Taenia saginata (the beef worm).

If it is a dead larva it is good news, as it's likely that you won't have any more inside you.

Note: I work with this stuff and you can PM me if you want.[/quote]
Yay, Lweji is here! It wouldn't be a proper worm thread without her!

This thread has put me off tagliatelle for life...