Giardia or ?

[Guest guest]

Can this be something other than Giardia?:

My wife:

Intestinal upset

Mild/intermittent diarrhea

Fecal color changing from green to yellow to brown and back

again

Major belching and indigestion esp. after eating a meal, and

especially a meal high in fat or sugar

Waited about 10 days to see if her immune system would

resolve the problem; it didn't; lost 11 pounds; went to doctor.

Fecal test results not in yet, but WBCs are elevated

Little if no fever

My cat

Shortly after my wife's onset, my cat now burps and farts

Me

Now I have it.

So this is highly contagious, and not strictly a human pathogen.

Can this be anything other than Giardia?

My wife's doc prescribed her 1,500 mg flagyl/day plus 400 mg

moxifloxacin/day for seven days. He doesn't seem to rule out C.

diff, but the belching and bile stuff seems to me incompatible

with that. The flagyl would work against C. diff anyway, but why

would he prescribe a fluoroquinolone? The flagyl dose is

double the US regimen for giardia. After only one day her

peripheral nerves were " buzzing " . I've discussed with how a

FQ/nitroimidazole combo might be highly effective against

persistent bacteria, but I was afraid that this combo would be

especially prone to inducing peripheral neuropathy, and after

only one day on this combo she's got some. She halved the

dose (commensurate with US guidelines for giardia) and

dropped the moxi. The buzzing went away. I don't want to

antagonize her relatively helpful doctor, but I don't see the point

of moxi, and frying her neurons with high-dose flagyl plus moxi is

a concern.

Giardia is often " asymptomatic " and deliberately left untreated.

What's up with that? Do people get rid of it on their own after a

few months. Is waiting this out a sane option? I found a post on

the Web by a person who thinks her relapsing giardiasis gave

her chronic fatigue and such.

Several months ago, I developed serum sickness on a combo of

Tini, mino and Azith. I haven't yet had the skin test to find out

what I reacted to. I'd like to know if this might be something

other than giardia so I can think about deploying something

other than Flagyl (related to Tini). Otherwise I may do a scratch

test myself rather than waiting for a referral. There's some

evidence that Albenza works against giardia. I have some on

hand. Albenza plus Flagyl is reported to be a highly effective

combo, but multiple Filipino migrant workers in Taiwan

developed fatal s- syndrome on a similar combo

(Mebendazole instead of Albendazole, but the two are very

similar; the migrant workers take antiparasitics prophylactically

just prior to biannual mandatory tests that could get them kicked

out of Taiwan for a positive; so it may be that this reaction

occurred several times out of thousands of doses; the authors

didn't give an estimate of incidence; they just advised against the

combo). I would try the less effective, but highly safe Albenza but

if it doesn't work, how long would I have to wait before deploying

the more effective Flagyl without the enhanced risk of

s-?

I have a 5-day commitment I can't get out of and I don't know if I'll

have internet access during that time. I may not respond during

that time. But I'd really like ideas about what, other than giardia,

could fit this profile.

thanks,

Matt