Nick's Eating for Two... or maybe a couple million!

As some of you may have noticed by our pictures, Nick has lost a bit of weight since he left the good ole U.S. of A over a year ago now.  To get an idea of what we are talking about, let's take a look back.


Here is a picture of Nick just 10 days after arriving in Taiwan

Yes... I have to admit, both of us were a bit on the chunky side when we arrived in Taiwan. However, throughout our stay in Taiwan, we both got back in shape, Nick more so than I. He was spending lots of time at the gym (and playing badminton) and just generally living and eating healthier. By the time we flew out of Taiwan he was looking fantastic. (despite the fact that he was a little pale!) 

We both expected to lose some weight on our backpacking trip, but after a couple of weeks Nick seemed to be losing it at an especially alarming rate. We decided that this was probably because he was struck with regular bouts of travelers diarrhea (about every 10 days or so) - nothing like the runs to take of a couple pounds, right??  But, since this type of thing is very common among backpackers here in Southeast Asia, we just deduced that he had a weaker stomach than I do and didn't think too much of it.

But after two months of 10-day cycles of consistent illness, with alternating stints of constipation and diarrhea, we were starting to think it was more than just typical food poisoning that Nick was dealing with. It wasn't until we saw this picture (from Nick's birthday 3 weeks ago) that it finally hit us with certainty... 

where did his shoulders go!??

Nick has a parasite.

(photo source here)

The day before our friends arrived here in  Cambodia, Nick finally wet to a travellers clinic in Phnom Penh. After describing his symptoms, the doctor promptly deduced that Nick had a parasite. He said he was 98% sure that it was an amoebic parasite and nothing to really worry about. So without any further tests he gave Nick some medicine, told him to stay away from alcohol while he was on the pills, and sent us on our way.

 We are almost 100% sure that he got it from some corn we bought from a street vendor in Indonesia, which means he'd been living with little visitors in his stomach for a full 2 months before it was diagnosed. 

Now, he's finally taking some medicine to get rid of the little suckers and in 5 days (and 45 pills) he should be parasite-free!