I want to write about the four months before my diagnosis not because they were dramatic, but because the way I dismissed and normalised symptoms that had a straightforward treatable cause is a pattern I suspect is extremely common, and I want someone reading this to recognise it earlier than I did.
I am 35. The symptoms arrived so gradually that I cannot identify a precise starting point. Intermittent abdominal cramping that I attributed to eating too quickly at my desk during busy work periods. Bloating after meals that I attributed to a diet that had become less careful during a demanding project cycle. Fatigue that accumulated slowly enough that I adjusted my expectations of my own energy levels without noticing I was doing so. Disrupted sleep waking earlier than I wanted, lying awake with a vague abdominal discomfort that was never severe enough to fully wake me but persistent enough to reduce the quality of my rest night after night.
I lost approximately three kilograms over three months. I noticed this and did not investigate it. I had been meaning to eat more carefully and assumed the reduced appetite that accompanied the other symptoms was an accidental consequence of the stress I was blaming everything else on. This is the part of the story I find most instructive in retrospect a symptom that should have prompted investigation was instead reframed as an unintended benefit.
My concentration at work deteriorated subtly. I was making small errors that were unlike my usual standard. I was less sharp in meetings than I expected of myself. I attributed this to the fatigue. The fatigue to the disrupted sleep. The disrupted sleep to stress and the abdominal discomfort. A circular explanation that required no action and that I had constructed without realising it over four months.
It was a routine blood test requested by my GP for an entirely unrelated matter a renewal of a mild cholesterol medication that opened the door to the correct diagnosis. The results showed mild anaemia and slightly elevated eosinophils a type of white blood cell that increases in response to parasitic infection among other causes. My GP noted both findings and asked me to come in to discuss.
At that appointment he asked questions I had not been asked before in that combination recent travel, dietary habits, water sources, contact with soil or animals, complete symptom history. When I described the full picture together for the first time the accumulated symptoms formed a pattern he recognised immediately. He ordered a comprehensive stool examination.
Results confirmed Ascaris lumbricoides roundworm a parasitic infection transmitted through contaminated food or water. My GP identified the likely exposure as a trip I had taken five months earlier during which I had eaten at several street food venues without being particularly careful about food preparation standards. The timeline was consistent.
He prescribed Mebex 100mg (Mebendazole) twice daily for three consecutive days, taken with or without food. He explained the mechanism clearly. Mebendazole works by selectively binding to the parasite's tubulin a structural protein essential for the worm's cellular function and nutrient absorption. By disrupting tubulin polymerisation it prevents the parasite from absorbing glucose, effectively starving it until it can no longer survive. The three day course ensures therapeutic exposure across the full lifecycle stage present at time of treatment.
He advised a follow up stool test at four weeks to confirm clearance and recommended my wife be tested given shared meals over the preceding months. He also started me on iron supplementation to address the anaemia a consequence of the infection competing for iron absorption over four months.
I took the first dose that evening with dinner. The tablets are small, easy to swallow, no notable taste. No significant side effects across the three day course mild nausea on the second day for approximately two hours in the afternoon, entirely manageable and resolved without intervention.
Day five after completing the course the persistent bloating that had been present after most meals for four months had reduced noticeably. I registered the change carefully because I had been watching for it, the absence of the familiar post-meal discomfort that had become so normalised I had stopped consciously noting it. Day seven — abdominal cramping absent. Completely absent for the first time in months. Day nine sleeping through the night without the vague discomfort that had been waking me earlier than I wanted. Day eleven — I woke feeling genuinely rested for the first time in what I calculated was approximately four months.
The energy recovery was more gradual, it built over two to three weeks as the infection cleared, the intestinal inflammation subsided, and the iron supplementation began addressing the anaemia. By week three my concentration at work had returned to my normal standard. By week four I felt completely restored to a baseline I had forgotten existed.
My wife was tested the following week. Her results were clear, she had not been infected despite shared meals, which my GP explained was not unusual given the specific transmission route and the fact that not every exposure results in infection.
The four week stool test confirmed complete clearance. My GP reviewed the bloodwork eosinophils normalising, anaemia improving steadily with iron supplementation, inflammatory markers returning to normal range. He noted the outcome as entirely consistent with successful Mebendazole treatment.
The weight I had lost recovered over the following six weeks as my appetite normalised and my digestive system processed nutrients properly again. The three kilograms I had reframed as an accidental benefit of eating less carefully were restored, which is exactly what should happen when the cause of the loss is addressed rather than explained away.
Mebex 100mg was delivered to my door within 2 days from a licensed pharmacy prescription straightforward, discreet packaging, simple and uncomplicated process.
What I want to leave anyone reading this with is the clearest version I can offer of what I wish I had understood four months earlier. Gradual symptoms with individually plausible lifestyle explanations are not necessarily lifestyle problems. Abdominal cramping, bloating, fatigue, disrupted sleep, declining concentration, unexplained weight loss each of these is easy to attribute to stress and a busy life. Together, described honestly to a doctor, they form a picture that points toward something specific.
The blood test that found my answer was requested for something entirely unrelated. The stool test that confirmed it took one week to return results. The treatment was three days. The recovery was two weeks.
Four months of normalised symptoms. Three days of Mebex 100mg. Two weeks to feel completely restored.
The routine appointment I nearly rescheduled twice was the one that ended four months of unnecessary decline. Please do not reschedule yours.
