I feel like I aged six years in the last six days and I think I look it, too. I was afflicted with amoebiasis, and I’m not going to describe in detail here how bad it was. Let’s just say that I didn’t sleep well for six days because I had to get up so often, be it at night or during the day. I couldn’t even bring myself to eat well, no matter how hungry I felt. And I was scared out of my wits, too, only I tried to hide it. I think I was successful with the ‘scared’ part; but with the ‘out of my wits’ part… I don’t think so.

What scared me were the things that I thought I knew about this illness, which turned out to be mere myths, according to the doctors. And believe me, I felt a lot better instantly when I learned about these. So just in case there’s someone you know who gets amoebiasis too, please stop scaring him/her, because the physical discomfort is bad enough. Here are some of the new things I’ve learned which could be of help:

1.      Amoebiasis does not stay with you forever, until death do you part. Although there are cases when they do, and they do so only because they have not been detected. The drug, Metronidazole, gets absorbed by the blood and kills the amoeba easily. Just make sure that, just like with any antibiotic, you follow the prescription given you.

2.      There is no such thing as a “carrier”. “It’s either you have it or you don’t. If you had it but got treated, then you don’t have it anymore.”

3.      You do not become more prone to amoebiasis in the future. You’ll be just as good a target as anybody else as long as there’s contaminated water or careless food servers (or anyone who handles food). So just make sure that you eat clean food and drink clean water/juice/etc.

4.      There’s no need to be paranoid about all the foods/drinks in front of you. Amoeba dies under boiling temperature. As for the drinks, just make sure you’ll buy from trustworthy sellers, or bring/boil your own. As a rule, when in doubt, don’t buy.

5.      Amoeba does go to the liver, enter the bloodstream and create more complications, BUT these are extreme cases which take years to happen, and these happen only when you don’t get proper treatment.

6.      Bananas do not stop constipation. We should eat this fruit for the potassium which we lose easily when we have diarrhea.

7.      If you don’t like the taste of oral rehydration salts, you may drink those “power drinks” charged with electrolytes.

8.      Sharing toilets would not transfer the illness to somebody else as long as you flush and wash your hands. It does not go from, as the doctor said, “pwet to pwet”.

9.      AquaPure is a trusted drinking water provider. But upon reaching home, I was told that ours is AqualiPure. Ngek! But I’ve been using it for more than a year already, so I guess that’s not the culprit.

10.  Corn (the prime suspect) may be a safe food because it gets boiled. But then, again, I was reminded that it has to be peeled off and handled by somebody we do not know.

11.  No, I need not follow the 4 bananas a day prescription, since I’m back to normal now. So no need to hate the banana.

These were the only concerns/questions I could think of (some of which, honestly, had already been answered by a different doctor during my first visit. But what does this doctor know? Hehe), which is too bad because the doctor (during my follow-up check up) was very accommodating and veeery charming.