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 🤯

My nan told me that when she was a child, if anyone got tapeworm they were made to sit on a bucket with a lump of raw meat in the bottom of it and stay there until it crawled out, sometimes all day.
Not suggesting you do such a thing.
Hope it goes soon.

A few years ago I read something about human internal parasites, no reason to think I had any but I chose to take diatomaceous earth (I put in orange juice).
This is the company I bought it from www.naturalsupplies.co.uk/

info has changed somewhat since I bought, they make less of the ability to get rid of human worms.
I agree with other posters you need to get the right treatment from the pharmacist/GP but maybe afterwards wouldn’t hurt to try the D. earth, supposedly several health benefits.
Take the human version! I tried the human one on getting fleas from my dog, (brushed into his coat) didn’t work. I’ve used the pest one on ants nests – and that has worked in the sense the ants don’t like it (the ones that don’t die), they disappeared, presumably moved the nest.
I had no side effects from taking the human one. (but I didn’t pass anything that shouldn’t be there either!)

Funny that the title of your thread is ‘I’ve got a tapeworm and it’s messing with my head’ They can go to your brain.. see a doctor OP. Sorry 🙈 it is true though.

@MrsSkylerWhite

Try not to panic! I was wormed regularly as a child, most of my friends were. Horrible medicine, supposed to be raspberry but was foul.

I’m sure there are much better treatments now

Eurgh. I remember having the raspberry milkshake treatment for thread worms when I was little. It literally put me off raspberry flavoured food and drink for life!!!

Get go a pharmacy now. I thought tapeworms were meant to be really long. No way would I wait until Monday.

The NHS webpage says see a pharmacist for threadworms, and your GP for tapeworm (segmented and flat) or roundworm.
And there are photos.

www.nidirect.gov.uk/conditions/tapeworms

Oh man those pics 🤢

Anyone else's bum itching just reading this?

Like watching those headlice videos on TikTok, suddenly you have an overwhelming urge to scratch.

The one on the white background looks like a circular knitting needle.

😂

Is it definitely not beansprouts or noodles? I was once called into nursery to be told my child has worms…but that they were dead?! Turns out we’d had Chinese food the night before and had given him some 🙈

I had a tapeworm about 15 years ago.. I'd been travelling in northern Africa as a photographer ... Had exactly the same experience as you and also flushed .. Described it in detail to gp who gave me tablets that made me feel dreadful but had passed the rest within a couple of days.. Still have nightmares about it tbh. Its one of those things that stays with you and you cant ever really forget. I can remember the gp telling me it was more common than people thought and it usually came from undercooked pork.

Apparently sushi is to blame for a lot of the increase in worms. Why did I have to google this. The photos are horrific.

Go and get two bottles of Ovex from the pharmacy, have a spoon full every morning and night for three days and then 7 days later do the same for three days to kill any eggs that have hatched. Promise it will work.

@starsky82
This is exactly what happened to my DH few weeks ago.
As I already written above.

Also if it was a worm why was it dead? I think any that pass through would still be alive. I really don't think it's a worm!

🤮🤮🤮

Quietly wondering if there is a Facebook support group for tapeworms
(But too nervous to actually look!)

Sounds like a beansprout to me from your description

Sorry in advance for shouting but OP HAVE YOU EVER EATEN A BEANSPROUT?

@IndecentCakes

Another with Pripsen trauma. I have never forgotten it, it was beyond horrific.

One Christmas I accidentally ate a Raspberry creme and had a full on flashback to standing in the fridge door with Mum holding my nose and worming me I think anyone who had it can relate.

How can the doctor check ? Would an ultrasound 'see' them ?

[quote Thelnebriati]The NHS webpage says see a pharmacist for threadworms, and your GP for tapeworm (segmented and flat) or roundworm.
And there are photos.

www.nidirect.gov.uk/conditions/tapeworms[/quote]
I'm never eating pretzels again 🤢

Yours doesn’t sound at all the shape of a tapeworm OP.
Tapeworms are large and have segments, when they die you poo them out in pieces. You can poo out the eggs, but they do not look at all like your description.
I think yours is either some sort of roundworm, or not a worm at all.

We should set up a Pripsen Survivors thread.