‘You will suffer a lot from diarrhea’, our post doctor told us when we first took Vlad to see him with a case of Dhakarrhea.
And he was right. Still, our bowels have tolerated the onslaught of exposures to new pathogens much better than we have been told when we arrived in Dhaka. The only thing it helps between bed and bathroom is drinking Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) whenever the stomach permits it. You can still drink ORS and still feel dehydrated by the end of the day.
To take antibiotics or not; the eternal question. On one hand, the antibiotics would help if problems were of bacterial origin. However, antibiotics have their own set of consequences. They wipe out populations of the normal gut flora, and sometimes even select for dangerous pathogens like Clostridium dificile to flourish. Weighing the desire to feel better with the risk of developing toxic megacolon, which requires surgical resection of one’s colon, is always difficult.
And he was right. Still, our bowels have tolerated the onslaught of exposures to new pathogens much better than we have been told when we arrived in Dhaka. The only thing it helps between bed and bathroom is drinking Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) whenever the stomach permits it. You can still drink ORS and still feel dehydrated by the end of the day.
To take antibiotics or not; the eternal question. On one hand, the antibiotics would help if problems were of bacterial origin. However, antibiotics have their own set of consequences. They wipe out populations of the normal gut flora, and sometimes even select for dangerous pathogens like Clostridium dificile to flourish. Weighing the desire to feel better with the risk of developing toxic megacolon, which requires surgical resection of one’s colon, is always difficult.
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