Hi Everyone.
22 year old girl here. It is January of 2013, a New Year, and I am trying to pick up the pieces from past months of agony. I know this sounds dramatic, but bear with me. In September of 2012, my older brother got a dog from a local pet store. Only a week later, we discovered a huge, live roundworm after he vomited. Sure enough, I was experiencing symptoms of roundworms soon, and went to several doctors. The first few misdiagnosed me with pinworms and gave me incorrect dosage of Vermox, even though I specifically told them the Veterinarian said they were roundworms. When that didn't work, I saw another doctor, and I was told to purchase Pyrantel Pamoate from my local drug store. After this, I was not on any medicine for a while. I saw a few worms come out when I passed stool.

I know many of the moderators of this forum are going to argue that I should have gone with natural remedies, but allow me to elaborate on my situation. 1. I had never heard or understood anything about the treatment of ANY worms, let alone roundworms. 2. I am PETRIFIED and FRIGHTENED at what I had coming out of me. I have a deep phobia of all bugs, especially worms, and it has psychologically affected me so greatly. I have felt literally insane for months from it. I now refuse to look when I pass stool. 3. I lost my job from being so sick during this period. I went to every local natural remedy store, and none of the products that cure the roundworms naturally were at any of these stores! I cannot get them online because I am unable to get a credit card with no job now. This is why the medicine from the doctor was my only route during this period. Please understand this without judgement. I realize I have probably been internally damaged, so please don't reinforce this fear in me more so.

After I took a break from the first doctors (seeing as they had as little knowledge on roundworms as I did, and would actually leave the room to Google what exactly they are), I was forced to visit yet another doctor because it only took a brief while doing nothing to see very large roundworms in my stool. Not to mention the incredible lack of energy, itchy anus, diarrhea, constant stomach growling/itching, nausea, lack of appetite and weight loss I experienced in less than 2-4 weeks. I knew what was happening to me, and I felt defeated. I needed to do something about them.

In mid-October, I found a doctor that actually listened to me at a walk-in clinic. When I explained that I had them, and I saw them and knew, he prescribed me the correct dosage of Vermox to treat roundworms. Of course, he also asked me to do a stool sample. This is an interesting thing about my story--I have done 3 stool samples for this doctor and one for a specialist since, and all have come back negative. I actually scooped in what looked like hundreds of whole worms in each sample, and my God, they all still came back negative! :(

Even still, this one particular doctor was good to me. He listened each time I returned. I told him I still seen so many. He, even though the stool test was negative, believed me. This was when he put me on a periodic treatment over a months time of Vermox. I took a higher dosage, and then two weeks later in the roundworms' life cycle, my next dosage. This is apparently similar to how they treat dogs.

My treatment was finally done on November 20, 2012. I actually felt good for about 2 weeks after, die-off and all...I still felt better. What confused me was seeing little baby roundworms a week after this. Then a few days after that seeing roundworms that were about 2-3 inches. Then a week later seeing 5+ inch large ones again. It was around this time that I was feeling hopeless. I would lay in my bed and just want to die. I felt like I was in my own personal Hell, being so desperately afraid of worms. Shaking at the sight of them each day in my stool, my eyes tearing up every time I had a symptom.

This was around when I decided I would try doing to the ER one night. After having serious diarrhea several times, and seeing little floating pieces of worms, I was going insane. At the ER, it was a three hour wait until I was finally examined. When I told the female doctor on duty that I had roundworms, she responded with a sarcastic, "Oh, really? And who told you that?" As if to say, me looking young and being only a laymen, how would I know what a huge worm looks like coming out in my stool everyday? Anyway, I did a urine sample. They also took my blood...very roughly, I might add. She asked me to do a stool sample for her on the spot. Embarrassed, I admitted I was unable to do so...and probably wouldn't be able to pass stool until the next morning. After sitting in the waiting room for longer than I care to admit, I eventually gave up and went home, realizing they wouldn't do anything more for me, and I was defeated once again.

I visited the helpful doctor at the walk-in clinic once again to explain I was still seeing worms. I prayed he was going to look at me, smile, and tell me, "It's just die-off! No worries, get on with your life, young lady!"
However, he looked at me, said, "Hmm...seems like a failure. Okay, well...I am going to arrange for you to see a specialist, specifically a Microbiologist at *local hospital*. I really hope this is cleared up for you for Christmas. I am so sorry."

A few weeks later, I visited this "specialist", who was 15 minutes late for my appointment. I brought her a stool sample, and explained my long, exhausting journey. How can I explain this visit? I will just say exactly what happened.
1. She takes out my sample, which is in a contained bottle, and asks me to try to "point" to what I "think" are worms.
2. She takes 2 phone calls from her Cell Phone while I am trying to explain myself.
3. She sends my sample to the lab and says if it has worms, they would call me that night to come right back in. Well, they never called me.
4. She told me that she was not going to be putting me on any natural remedies or medicine, and that she wanted me to come back in FOUR WEEKS...aka a MONTH later for a "check up".
5. She wanted to examine my body, so she briefly left the room for me to change into a gown. I will note here that this woman has a PhD and has the title of Microbiologist and gets paid as such. She came back in the room, only to tell me that she "went to look up some more stuff on worms to get a better idea of what I am dealing with."

SO...I left her office, walked down the hall and began to cry. I left empty handed, with no new advice or treatment for what I was experiencing and terrified of. I felt the specialist was THE last step, and since she did nothing and sent me away for a month, only for the worms to fester and multiply...I was deflated.

After this visit to the hospital, I contracted the stomach flu, and was very ill for 3-4 days, vomiting and all. I never once had any worms come up in my vomit, thank God (sorry for the disgusting graphic nature of this ugh.)

On New Years, I went out. A few days later, I came down with the "regular" flu. Again, threw up and saw nothing.
One time after this, around mid-January, I felt very ill and became shaky and nauseated. Nothing came from it, and it passed.

I have not looked at my stool since December 20, 2012...over a month ago. I can tell you that I have had relief of the major symptoms. I seem to have regular bowel movements. I haven't had cramping or growling of my intestines much (unless I just ate or am very hungry, haha...which is normal for me.) I also eat healthy and organic, so I feel okay most of the time due to this fact.

However, I have been trying to pick-up the pieces, be brave, and check to be sure I am actually rid of them. A problem that seems to be occurring is an itchy nose lately. I have used a nasal spray for infections (Nasonex), and I have used Q-tips with hydrogen peroxide. As of today, it has been 5 or so months since I first started seeing roundworms, and when I peer up my nose very diligently and bravely awaiting a sure fire sign, I don't see anything unusual. My mucous, or snot haha...from my nose is always clear or a bit cloudy grey. I was concerned the greyish-white were worms as it can appear stringy, but I do not believe this is roundworms. It appears it's just snot :\

I have read that I would be noticing some more signs if the itchiness in my nose were actually caused by roundworms. I know the obvious thing to say is, "Well, you had roundworms...it's likely that you still do...your nose is itching because you have worms in it." I just think that after almost half a year, I would see SOMETHING unusual up there. And let me tell you, I stare up there for 5-10 minutes, anticipating seeing anything out of the ordinary, but it has not happened. This is something, for me, which is good. If there were worms I could see coming out of my nostrils, I would probably kill myself.

This brings me to my whole point. I have been so afraid of worms, this whole time I have felt like I am in a waking nightmare. I need to heal and I need to be parasite-free, for good. I am extremely clean and cautious ever since contracting them and reading ALL about them. I have been sick so often lately, as you read. Would I have seen roundworms, in all the times I vomited, if I still had them in me? The dog was 7-8 weeks and was vomiting them. I was 5 months into having them, and never had them come up. Yes, the nose itching is scaring me, and I am unsure if perhaps my pH levels being effected by the medicine could be causing the itching? I pray that is what it is.

Honestly I just wanted to let it out and get it off my chest. I feel like here, other people have gone through what I have. If anyone could answer any of those questions for me, it would be lovely and much respected.

Thank you in advance. Sorry for the novel I just wrote :P