Pepto dismal

How could I forget to write about my 8+ days of bowel agony!

The cause? The fish in El Salvador, I thought. It began the day after. But it wouldn’t go away. Dehydration? I drank lots of water. Then I switched to the bread, banana, and dairy diet (Yes! Ice cream!). Still a growling painful stomach ache with frequent trips to the toilet. Being that the walls were paper thin, I’m sure everyone else was also counting the days until I got better.

Now onto country 3, back in Costa Rica, and still on a banana / bread diet. I did get some pills from the pharmacy but those didn’t seem to do the trick either. So, I picked up some pepto bismo. I tripled my dose and STILL! ;You’ve got to be kidding me,’ I thought. What was I doing wrong? I didn’t have the Swine flu, did I?

A Spanish friend reminded me to be careful with the water. ‘But I stopped drinking the water a while ago,’ I said, ‘before I switched to my daily banana batidos (shakes)’ …. then it hit me. I had been drinking bananas with water and/or ice on a daily basis. Immediately I stopped, tripled my pepto bismo dosage, ate nothing but bread and bottled water and within hours I started feeling better.

Whew! No more frequent trips to the bathroom for me. I was filling up too many waste baskets (read below)!