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.

It's hideous - I lost probably a stone in the 8 weeks or so it took to get a diagnosis (turns out it's also a right sneaky bastard to culture in the lab from stool samples, so you get loads of false negatives).

A course of metronidazole shifted it within days though. What AB have the hospital given you?

How do doctors distinguish between this and a bug?

Looking at stool samples down a microscope. It's a single celled organism, so will show up really well on an ordinary optical microscope.

The only problem is it only sheds into the faeces at certain points in its life cycle, so to be absolutely sure of picking it up, ideally you need 3 samples at 24 hour intervals, which doctors don't generally bother with unless you've just been to the tropic (though a significant number of infections are actually "home grown" here in the UK - mine was).

I've lost a stone in 12 days. I'm currently on a course of metronidazole. 😭

Silver lining - I remember the fun of eating my way back to my weight when I eventually could. Over 30 years ago & I still remember the pure joy of that. But you have my sympathy as giardiasis is truly vile.

I am sure I will enjoy that when I eventually get my appetite back. The thought of food just now is

Thinking of you today OP - feeling a bit ropey myself, the weird "sludgy" heavy gut feeling and queasiness is very reminiscent of it and the memories came flooding through! I think I'm just having one of those days...moving away from the blessed laptop and endless questions and reports has helped.

Thought I'd pop back and see how you were, any improvements? Have you managed to eat anything?

Oh no, I hope you are ok!

I have finally turned a corner! That was truly the worst 12 days of my life. It turns out it was Cryptospodridium. I took an allergic reaction to the antibiotics and ended up back in hospital on Sunday for a few hours.
It has been an absolute nightmare but I am so so glad to be coming out the other end of it now. I'm never visiting another farm again!

I'm alright, just an off day I think!

Oh I'm so glad you're feeling better - cryptosporidium, yuck. Great news, hope you're well on the mend now.

you have my sympathies OP, giardia is grim. I got it travelling in S. America but (thankfully) I only started getting really ill as I was leaving and heading for New Zealand. I slept for the entire flight from Argentina to NZ, which is a very long flight!! Literally got on the plane, sat down, went to sleep, had to be woken up for landing

Felt utterly horrible in NZ, eggy burps and stinky poo in a shared hostel bathroom. Tried to carry on and visit places, ended up fainting in a museum. Went to the Dr who told me I was so dehydrated I probably needed a drip. Got given metranidozole too, dreadful stuff but very effective.