Has anyone had giardiasis parasite?

[Helpimill]

I've picked up this parasite from a farm despite sanitizing my hands. I am so ill. This is day 11 of not holding any food or water. I was discharged from hospital yesterday with antibiotics and sent on my way. I feel absolutely dreadful.

Please, has anyone else has this horrible parasite? How long did it take to get better? I've lost so much weight. I feel so sick and weak.

My story is almost identical to radness75 except we were in Switzerland so the flight wasn’t as long. I can’t tolerate Amitriptyline so have to put up with awful post-infective IBS - it’s been over 10 years now.

It says on one article online to take them a few hours apart (and to take a spectrum of probiotic types).

I caught this in Nepal stupidly ate some salad in a restaurant - I was so ill I basically sat naked in the shower for about 2days as there wasn’t any point leaving the bathroom. Never felt so ill in my life and the eggy burps!! I shudder just thinking about it. I must have lost about a stone in a week, it’s truly an awful bug.

No long term ailments though, we only stayed in the hostel for 2.5 weeks and I was well enough to continue my travels albeit weak and I couldn’t eat properly for about a month.

Hopefully you will escape without any complications too

Gilbertmarkham amatriptyline is correct. It was recommended by my doctor and it has changed my life. I take 25mg a day which is way below the dose for depression or pain relief. It truely worked. My dad has suffered for years too and he has now started amatriptyline and although he is still tweeking the dose, he is much better too. It is a relatively new therepy for IBS.

Now this is interesting re the eggy burps. The 9 weeks of nausea and rampant diarrhoea tentatively diagnosed as giardiasis happened to me in 2016 - but I had my first eggy burp experience, with the nausea and extraordinarily disgusting 48 hours of diarrhoea that followed, twice in about 2009 - the first time I had eaten a sandwich from the most disgusting fly-infested kitchen with cats and cat food over all the surfaces, at a property where they kept multitudes of wild animals and birds of prey, and was too polite to say no. I had a follow up - sudden eggy burps from nowhere, with terrible diarrhoea about 6-10 hours after they started - a few weeks or months later, and have had sporadic but milder episodes maybe 4 or 5 times since then. I had some luck with charcoal capsules, but they only eliminate the sulphuric burps - if the diarrhoea is coming, there is no stopping it.

In fact I have some degree of anxiety about burping (sorry, what a horrible subject), I have that much dread about it coming back, and I cannot bear the taste of egg in anything. But since the 9 week long incident 4 years ago...well, I won't jinx it, but I really hope I'm free of it now.

I wonder if I first picked it up in 2009? I know its hell to get rid of but none of my usual googling suggested long term parasitic infection being the cause of sulphuric burps.

Yes - son had it for years and passed it to his sister. It is better for all family to be treated at once. Some strains are resistant to the liquid drug meta something. Ideally ask for the tablets Tinidazole which you take 4 x 1 day but we ended up needing to take 4 x 1 day for 3 days. Tried so many ways to get tablets down kids - ended up sticking in some amount of icecream. They taste foul so crushing not an option.

Nasty op!!

Never heard of it!

By the way how do they know its this and not something like norivus!

I've had it too - I did loads of backpacking and it was quite common. In fact it was quite easy to tentatively 'diagnose' it in others due to the particular smell . Deep joy.

Deffo look at rebuilding your gut health, and yes I echo the point to avoid dairy for a bit.
Get well soon!

My partner and child had it. Partner lost lots of weight. Public health out too. Nasty , nasty illness. I hope you recover quickly.

Hello OP
Sorry you are suffering.

I had it five years ago and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Hadn’t been abroad, GP put it down to unwashed salad eaten somewhere!!
I haven’t eaten salad outside my home since!
Take the antibiotics, but also look at probiotics to rebuild your gut health. Strangely, I couldn’t tolerate eggs for a few years but slowly have rebuilt my tolerance.
My gut has never been the same, but it’s manageable. I take loperamide very couple of days to manage frequency.
Good luck. If you can, do consult a gut expert.

EsterOdesavitch The burps were so bad the whole room smelt of them! It was so disgusting. Someone told me once (haven’t actually googled it so don’t know how accurate) that if untreated (as mine was no antibiotics) the parasite can stay within you for years with re-occurring bouts of illness until you do finally get some treatment.

Re: norovirus I always took it the ‘eggy’ Part of the illness is a clear sign of giardia and what sets it apart. Not like a smelly burp related to something you’ve eaten, it smells like your insides have rotted, sulphur burps.

Sorry il stop been so gross now but it’s the one part of it I’ll never forget.

I got it when working at a clinic in Bolivia shortly after qualifying as a vet. It was god-awful for a couple of weeks, I was kept in hospital for 24 hours at the start and I've never been so sick in my life. I lost over a stone in about 10 days and I had occasional recurring episodes for about a year afterwards - minor compared to the initial horror show though - and had to have multiple courses of antibiotics, but it was about 14 years ago now and I've had no ongoing issues at all and I'm fine with dairy etc.

Yeah the burps were savage, like the most disgusting fart ever except it's coming out your mouth.

I fell ill with it on our first day after arriving in Amsterdam and had booked into a proper dump of a hotel thinking we'd only be sleeping there. It had shared toilets 😭

Had it in India in the days of my backpacking youth-diagnosed via stool-it lasted about 2 weeks and i had a double course of antibiotics.but yeah couldnt keep anything in and barely moved from bed either. Hope you feel better soon.

I've never heard of this, it sounds bloody horrendous!

Hope you're OK soon op 💐

Blimey, 11 years of the fear of those dreaded burps and I never connected the dots. I actually thought it was having my gallbladder out in 2017 that resolved it, as I've only had one episode since where I thought I was getting it again (I had the sulphur taste, but I suspect a combination of spices I'd used in a dish were repeating on me the following day and just tasted very similar - I didn't get any other symptoms that time).

Don't they give you metronidazole after surgery to prevent infection? I had no oral ab's and don't recall them administering it via the other method (which gave me rather a surprise after a gynae procedure once), but I wonder if there is a variety which forms part of the IV drugs during surgery. Maybe it sorted out my lingering giardia.

We need a surgeon or a gastroenterologist on the thread!

Googled. Yes, yes it is - it's a common prophylactic approach for abdominal surgery including cholecystectomy. So it seems likely that I would have received the antibiotic that kills giardia as a routine part of my op in 2017, and I haven't had the eggy burps since.

Thanks OP, your thread has been an epiphany for me. I'm so sorry you are feeling dreadful - but take your antibiotics!

Wow, I went to India when I was 20 (so 28 years ago), and I remember being ill when I came back and the dr saying it was giardias. I’m sure I took antibiotics, but I don’t remember being anything like as ill as any of you lot! But I did develop IBS which lasted for years after: I just never connected the two events. No internet back in my backpacking days!

Had this 30 years ago while backpacking around central & South America. Anything could set it off. Finally diagnosed when I arrived in Rio by airport doctor. Thankfully gave me antibiotics. I had lost so much weight & my stomach has never been the same since. Hope you start feeling better soon. It’s truly vile.

My son caught it (or sounds very similar) from a lamb at a local petting farm sort of place- along with tens of other kids at local schools and nurseries. He was very poorly for 4 weeks and the rest of us got it but in a much lighter way too. Public health came to visit, doctor needed stool samples and it was just awful.

Hope you're feeling better soon- do keep pestering the doctors if you feel you need to (and it sounds like you should!)

Ok so feeling well enough to read my discharge letter it seems my stool was positive for Cryptospodridium/ giardia. But it doesnt confirm which one. I dont have the eggy smell or burps which leads me to think its more likely to be Cryptospodridium. If anything my movements (sorry) smell more like wet dog. It would also tie in with the fact we were bottle feeding calves and its prevalent in calves ages 1 to 4 weeks. The internet also said that sanitizer does not kill the parasite. That is what we used. I'm never going near another cow in my life! I am still really ill. The hospital pretty much washed their hands of me when I left so I have taken some of you ladies advice and contacted some private specialists. Its expensive when I dont have private health care but to be honest I'd pay anything just now to feel better.

Odd for them to say cryptosporidium/giardia... I'm not a microbiologist but have learnt about both before and AFAIK they don't look the same, giardia is bigger... Maybe you could find out for definite by contacting the secretary of the consultant who looked after you?

A relative had giardia many years ago and describes a similar illness to you OP. She found she became lactose intolerant for a while afterwards. Now whenever she gets a stomach bug she often finds the lactose intolerance recurs - sorry that may not be what you want to hear OP! However in terms of getting the symptoms to improve she finds that cutting out dairy and also following a low FODMAP diet is helpful (sometimes used for IBS). She uses the Monash FODMAP website I think.

My son had both Cryptospodridium and giardia on separate occasions. He did not need meds for the cryptospodridium and it passed quicker than the giardia

I know, I don't understand why they couldnt say which parasite it was. Nothing is ever straightforward with the NHS though...
Because I dont have the eggy symptoms i was leaning more towards it being Cryptospodridium. That and it is common in calves aged 1 to 4 weeks. It seems like that is the lesser of the 2 evils so I am kind of hoping that's which one it is 😭

How do doctors distinguish between this and a bug?

Are sulphur burps only caused by this?. I've had them in the past but they went after one day...