Stomach issues after my trip to Egypt

Greetings, everyone—I recently returned from a trip to Egypt, only to be plagued by digestive issues that simply refuse to subside. It all kicked off while I was in Miami; suddenly, on day five, I was dealing with constant diarrhea and significant stomach discomfort. Although our travel agency warned us about frequent gastrointestinal problems due to the local water not being suitable for everyone, most people seemed to bounce back after a few days—not me. Currently, I’m in the middle of running stool samples for various bacteria to pinpoint the culprit. Has anyone else dealt with something similar? Also, if you know anyone currently vacationing in Egypt or heading there shortly, please reach out via DM immediately.

Check out the PDF below—under the Tourism section, there’s a ton of chatter about trips to North African countries. People usually pack activated charcoal just in case, or maybe even some Seldiar (though you'll need a prescription for that one)... how long has this been bugging you?

Donna Johnson16 said:If you check out the Tourism section in the PDF, there’s a whole thread of comments about traveling through North Africa. Most people suggest packing activated charcoal just to be safe, and maybe even some Seldiar (though you’ll need a prescription for that one). How long has this been bothering you?

You can actually pick up Lopedium over the counter now without needing a script.😉

I took some Lopedium preventatively once the diarrhea first kicked in—it managed to halt things for about two days, but then everything came rushing back. The issue is that this medication doesn't actually address the root cause; it just acts as a temporary stopper. In my case, it’s clearly some sort of enterobacteria, and this whole ordeal has been dragging on for two weeks now. Currently just waiting on my stool test results...

swiftbear86 said:Alright, we can get started now. Honestly, you can just grab it without a prescription. No big deal. So, I was thinking about picking up some stuff under the Lopedium name, but man, there’s always that little hesitation, isn't there? You know how it goes—you see something you want, you check the details, and then you just sit there weighing all the pros and cons like it's some high-stakes decision. It's one of those things where you want to make sure everything is legit before you pull the trigger. Anyway, just mulling it over.😉

A little off-topic here, I know, but honestly? This isn’t exactly the brightest move from the regulators deciding what we can and can't grab off the shelf without a prescription—if we're talking specifically about Lopedium.
They really played it smart with how they worded that, didn't they? They’ve basically built in this clever little loophole where they can claim you're only supposed to take it for two days, unless your primary care physician in New York explicitly tells you otherwise. It's a pretty slick way to hedge their bets.

Spot on. Exactly what the author was getting at.
Whenever you find yourself traveling through those spots like Egypt or Tunis, you’ll notice the local guides always have their own little stash of remedies. They usually swear by these homegrown concoctions that they've been using forever, claiming they’re way more effective than anything you could actually pick up at a pharmacy back home.

If you can swing it, you really ought to go talk to an infectious disease specialist. They’re usually pretty seasoned when it comes to handling this kind of stuff—like if you were heading over to the Mayo Clinic or something, they deal with these specific scenarios all the time.
Look, I’m telling you right now—under no circumstances should you even think about touching Lopedium if you're dealing with what we talked about earlier. Seriously, just stay far away from it.I mean, who’s actually giving you a guarantee here? Like, how can anyone promise that this "beast" isn't just going to sit there if you don't "flush it out" through diarrhea? I can't help but wonder if it'll just stay trapped inside the intestinal lumen and eventually cause something serious like sepsis, or worse, end up nesting itself in your organs or something equally terrifying.

I’m currently dealing with Fran Mihaljević regarding this—though, frankly, I'm skeptical they'll actually find anything. The first biopsy came back negative for all the usual suspects, so now they're repeating the process just to get a broader range of samples. That's why I reached out to anyone vacationing in Miami right now, or anyone who knows someone down there; I'm trying to source two local medications through them that are proven to work.

I knew a whole group from my college who came back from Egypt with everyone suffering from dysentery—because they were "smart" enough to drink nothing but Coke with ice 😉 . They actually got turned away at the border when trying to head back into Canada, so they had to detour through Canada just to get home. Throughout the whole mess, they were all sucking on basic Prolife probiotics that someone had wisely packed, which was the only thing that kept them stable until they could get to the hospital and start antibiotics.
I’m surprised they didn't keep you in the hospital. It’s possible you cleared out the worst of the bugs, but your gut flora is definitely trashed. You need to go hard on the probiotics regardless.

They actually found amoebas in my second stool sample, so they
put me on Medazol for seven days. I just took my third dose this morning, though I haven't noticed any significant progress yet—likely too early to tell.
We'll see. They didn't hospitalize me since my general condition is fine, though I'm dealing with occasional mild pains, stomach discomfort, soft stools, increased bowel activity, and a lack of appetite... I'm loading up on probiotics, obviously.

To sounds like a textbook case of traveler's diarrhea.
Having traveled through those southern regions myself, I can certainly empathize with what you're going through.
The tricky part is that everyone’s immune system reacts differently to these foreign bacteria. For some, there's zero disruption; for others, it's a mild nuisance; and for a few unlucky souls, it's quite severe. That is precisely why medical experts suggest starting probiotics even before you depart, and continuing them throughout your stay in those countries.
As for being cautious about food and drink—honestly, I think it's nearly impossible to be perfectly vigilant. If you followed every rule to the letter, you wouldn't even be able to eat a salad because it was washed with local water, nor could you touch a juice with ice. In a hotel setting, that's just not realistic.
In my opinion, your best bet is to take probiotics at the maximum recommended dosage (for instance, Linex 3 times a day) and wait for your gut flora to fully stabilize. I should mention, however, that there is a possibility of developing Irritable Bowel Syndrome following such an episode, which does happen in certain cases. Still, it isn't something that makes life unmanageable.

copperheron18 said:To sounds like a textbook case of traveler's diarrhea.
Having traveled through those southern regions myself, I can certainly empathize with what you're going through.
The issue—as I see it—is that everyone reacts differently to these foreign bacteria; some feel nothing at all, some have mild symptoms, and for others, unfortunately, it's quite severe. That’s why the standard advice is to take probiotics both before you leave and while you're actually visiting those countries.
And don't even get me started on how cautious one needs to be with food and drinks—honestly, it seems almost impossible to stay safe if you strictly follow every rule, since you wouldn't even be able to eat salads washed in local water or drink juices with ice. That's basically impossible when you're staying at a hotel.
In my opinion, your best bet is to take probiotics at the maximum recommended dose (for example, Linex three times a day) and just wait for your gut flora to fully recover. Though, I suppose it's possible to develop IBS following an episode like this—which does happen in certain cases—but even that isn't something one couldn't live with.

It felt that way to me initially, too—but now it's been dragging on for two weeks, and it turns out I've tested positive for the E. histolytica amoeba. Apparently, it has to be treated with antibiotics because it causes amoebic dysentery; from what I've gathered, any actual improvement only becomes noticeable during the later stages of the antibiotic course.

First off—Girardia... total pain in the neck...

Anyway, just some green lettuce and other fresh veggies... they use some pretty specific fertilizing methods for the crops 😬

Alexander Thompson said:First off—Girardia... a total nightmare...

Mainly just green lettuce and other fresh produce... they use some pretty specific fertilization methods 😬

Yeah, I've eaten my fair share of green lettuce...

Even if it turns out to be Giardia—the medication they prescribed me (metronidazole) is actually the first line of defense anyway—so I suppose I'm covered. Just waiting on the test results now.