A Worm in the Toilet – A Travel Dilemma
All kids of crazy thing can (and might) happen when you travel as a family. Finding a worm in the toilet was not on my things to be especially concerned about list.
I usually feel I’m pretty tough but this was a 8/10 yuckiness level. Like right up there with fecal transplants and maggots to treat wounds. All of these things make great dinnertime conversations for a table full of medical people. However, in reality when it comes time to actually deal with a worm in the toilet personally you’re reciting “I think I can I think I can I think I can” …. and you quickly scream and flush it down the toilet prior to fully examining the thing. Epic fail.
The incident happened about 6 weeks after visiting Morocco in our first day in our AirBnB in Ireland. None of the kids would fess up but I had my suspicions. Because of my panic induced quick flush I can not tell you the type but it was not small and definitely not an earth worm. It could have worked it’s way up the pipes from a previous guest but I was taking no chances.
Now I guess the big question is – Would I eat all the same Moroccan food again, knowing about the possible future worm? The answer is an absolute yes! — except for that meal the first day … it was the best.
In the US the most frequently used worm medication (vermox) is exorbitantly expensive ($1000 or so) and requires a doctors visit – thanks capitalism ie: lets buy cheap meds that were $4 and now charge $400 per pill. In Irelend (lucky for us), you can get them via a mail order pharmacy by completing information online. We had one follow up phone call from the pharmacist confirming the dose – “pin worms just need 2 doses, oh – that big, you were in Morocco? OK we’ll send you more” We treated our entire family for $15 per person and no more issues … and we won’t talk about that again, deal?
On an aside I did have a traveler come in to my clinic that I was concerned also picked up a parasite in Africa a short time after we returned. We ran the numbers and decided it was cheaper to pay for a full vacation in Ireland and buy the meds there vs getting them in the states. I have since seen other worm medication alternatives that are available in the US but it’s still a crazy situation.
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