Part Genetics Part Giardia

It was 70 degrees, so Sidney sprinted outside barefooted and climbed on her big wheel. After two years, her feet still don’t reach the peddles. I keep telling people around me, she’s not incredibly small considering the part of the world she’s from. Her small size is part genetics, part giardia. 

In fact, this has been much more challenging than her special needs. It’s been a source of stress, especially during her first flu season home not wanting her to lose too much weight. She didn’t have any to lose. I still encourage her to eat. I can’t remember the first time she told me she was physically hungry, but it was music to my ears. More recently, she’s started saying, my stomach hurts. In Sidney speak this typically means she’s hungry. She’s not learned to differentiate between the two. 

On Wednesday, I shared we went into the doctors office for what turned out to be ear wax. I’m so glad we went, because the information he provided on giardia was another piece of missing information in her recovery. He shared some personal experiences which sounded strikingly similar to Sidney. As he talked about the inability to get an appetite for at least four years after contracting the illness, I knew my instincts about her lack of appetite were dead on. Before our appointment, I concluded, having a serious case of giardia certainly makes immediate recovery almost impossible. But, I could never figure out the reason.

A person takes medicine, and after a couple of months their system recovers, right? Not so much. He explained that the parasite actually tears away at the stomach lining, and it takes years for the stomach lining to heal completely. So, this explains what we are experiencing right now. Physical recovery from the parasite. It felt good to have answers, and it also provided many clues about her favorite foods.

Many of her favorite foods are carbohydrates. I assumed this was a result of her mostly starch diet in the orphanage. A majority of the food she consumed was the equivalent of rice porridge with little if any meat and vegetables. As I write this it almost makes the tears well up in my eyes to think of the kids still living there, subsisting on little to nothing on a daily basis. Not only wasn’t  she receiving the correct nutrients, the parasite was taking the few calories she consumed. It’s really a miracle she was in as good of condition as she was during travel. When we came home, my mom commented that she was so “lean.” And this was the perfect description. There was no chunk. She had a belly, but it was bloated and distended. I later learned this was gas from the parasite.

So, we are attempting to figure out how to help her continue to recover. I am voraciously reading anything I can get my hands on.  And there isn’t much out there which discusses severe cases outside of information on cats and dogs. Obviously this is irrelevant. So, I’m reaching out to my blog audience. If you know anything else or have located information, please let me know where to find it in the comments. Maybe, I’m already doing all I can to help her overcome this and giving the right foods in recovery, but I don’t leave many stones unturned, so help me out if you can. I appreciate it!