Tapeworm??

[blahme]

After going to the toilet for a number 2, I took a shower. While cleaning my bottom, I felt something so I thought it was toilet paper...Something came out a bit as I pulled and I had a tiny piece of what looked like cabbage.
I pulled some more and something maybe 12 inches long came out...It was stringy and looked twisted. Yellow-whitish in colour.
Could it be a worm??

Please help me!


This discussion is related to Abdominal Pain in the Front and Back Upper Left Area.

[ggreg]

Dear Blahme,
Hmmmm.  I agree with Jensal.  DO NOT WAIT to see a doc.  If you're concerned about visiting a doc in a foreign country, there's American bases all over the place, so you can go to one of those clinics.  Every place in the world has people who get worms and so every doc in every modern country will have the medicines to get rid of them.  I remember when one of our older dogs, who we adopted when he was already old, he had worms that would not go away.  Talk about being careful, while he had them, I went around our fenced-in yard with the plastic bags and picked up every bit of his waste and threw it in the outdoor trash cans, so it would not spread to us or our other dogs.  Finally he came up clear, and I could quit doing the yard, but those things are STUBBORN and they can make you mighty sick, as Jensal described so well.  Just go to the local hospital in the larger town you're near, they will give you first-rate care.
GG

[blahme]

Oh my...I am in charge of an animal rescue group here....So yes, deal with hundreds of cats and dogs every week.

[jensal1964]

sorry didn't read you were in south korea you definatley have a paracite, would not wait til I got home.  In peru they got under my skin and left nice scars.

[jensal1964]

Are you by chance around dogs or animals?  Seems like a stupid question but here is the story.  My son is an canine behaviorist around dogs and animals all day.  Training 10 police dogs right now, they live in my home.  Now I pooper scoop 4 times daily wash floors decks kennels everything with bleach, I am extremely clean!!!!!!! Still got round worms.  Round worms resemble long pasta, discusting!!!!! You need to go to the doctor and be tested for paracites.  No big deal test just poop in a cup and drop it off at a lab. Then take the prescribed meds.  Tape worms will lay eggs, round worms will not only lay eggs but make their way up to your lungs and then you will cough then up, not pretty. May be nothing but make an appt with your Dr. if it happens again bring the sample in a jar with you, may save you a test.

[blahme]

Thank you for your reply ggreg.
Though I'm disgusted by the thought, since I've traveled a lot in the past 3 years, it wouldn't surprise me.

I'm in South Korea at the moment, so might wait when back home....

[ggreg]

Dear Blahme,
I think you do indeed have worms!  This is because I read an article one time about a man who had some kind of worms, and when he was on the toilet, this longish string thing came out of his bottom, and he decided to pull it, and got it out, it was quite long, and he was shaking all over from the experience.  Turns out he had worms indeed!  So, you will need to see a doctor as soon as you can, they will give you a dewormer medicine, and it will kill both the worms in there and the eggs.  If you don't have a regular doctor, you can go to the county health department clinic as a walk-in, be seen the same day by a physician, and they'll give you the medicine and instructions that you need.  Sorry this has happened to you!  The very idea is pretty scary to me.  So, go to a doc and get rid of them.
GG

[blahme]

I should add that it didn't resemble anything I've eaten lately. I also have diarrhea on and off a lot without apparent reasons (the only theory is stress).

As I took the thing is toilet paper and tried to pull on it to break it off, it felt like rubber and wouldn't break off. It simply stretched...