Friday, May 13, 2011

If it's not one thing, it's another

We are glad that the majority of the mold work end is near and we've stocked up on more camel milk to last us for at least the next couple of weeks, but it never fails, as we sheer the heights of one hurdle, we find ourselves facing yet another, with barely enough time to take a breath between jumps. 

After having such a wonderful day yesterday, Gavin took a turn for the worse today.  He woke up in great spirits, but was craving tv horribly so I let him watch a few short shows.  He had an accident in his pants which looked like watery diarrhea that he couldn't control.  He finished on the little potty, because it was closest.  When I emptied it, I noticed that there were black thread-like things stuck to the sides and bottom of the bowl.  I've never seen anything like this in his stool before so I took a closer look.  They looked like worms, with tapered ends.  They were slightly thicker than a piece of hair and although they were so fragile looking, they were pretty hearty when I picked them up with a wooden skewer.  There were probably 5 or so of them in the bottom of the bowl after dumping the majority of what was in it, so I don't know how many were actually in the entire BM, and they ranged from 1-2 inches in length.

In my research, the only thing I could come up with that remotely resembled what I found in his stool was blood flukes (other than banana fibers, but he hasn't had them in almost a week)!  They terrify me, because they can travel throughout the body and prefer to reside in organs like the liver, intestines, lungs and brain where they do their damage.  They can cause seizures among other scary things, if untreated.  With Grayson's lengthy coughing problem, I worry about them in the lungs!  Parasites are so contagious that it would be silly to assume that Grayson isn't also infected with whatever this is. I sent a picture to their doctor to see what he thinks.  I am sure he is going to recommend a stool test, which most likely won't find anything unless we pay for a special lab that has the technology to test for these specialized parasites....and frankly, with all the work being done on our house (and no idea of what it is going to cost), the cost of the camel milk, having two birthday boys' parties around the corner, two trips to Connecticut back to back....there just isn't anything left!

What baffles me is, if these are parasites, why are they coming out dead?  Could it be that the camel milk is killing something or is it that the camel milk has caused them and everything else we use is killing them?  I would think they couldn't grow and show up quite so fast though, we only started the camel milk about a week and a half ago, plus the came owner just had testing of his camels the week before we bought our stash.  I have read that fluke infestations often go undetected for years before the adults become visible.  I have such a hard time thinking any parasites could live so long in my kids considering all the things they get daily including coconut milk and oil, pumpkin seeds pancakes twice a week and all of the potent anti-microbials we give them three times a day.  They are all supposed to be anti-parasitic.  This just goes to show you how persistent these nasty critters are.  I have read that the camel milk has been known to address persistent parasite problems in people who had been fighting them unsuccessfully for years, so perhaps this is a flushing of some sort.

As soon as he passed them, he became particularly needy, whiny and demanding.  It was like someone turned on a switch!  He had to go down for his nap earlier than usual, because he just wasn't himself. I gave him a dose of the W-W by Pure Herbs and a small portion of a Goldenseal capsule with his afternoon anti-microbials so I am sure he's going to wake in a nasty mood, if we are killing something.  I will have to use this with Grayson as well and even took some myself. 

So as usual, onward....research, research, research.

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