Should I got to the Emergency room for a suspected Tapeworm?
I’ve just had probably the worst experience during a bathroom trip and I strongly believe I have a tapeworm infection. I have had mild symptoms for at least 3 weeks but did not look that far into it until now and I’m spiraling and feeling very icky. I just googled what to do and the first suggestion is primary care but I’m concerned I will not be able to get in with a primary as soon as I want-which is immediately. It’s now Sunday at midnight where I am and all of the Urgent cares are closed which was my first choice. The only place open is the emergency room at the hospital, I’d probably be there all day waiting since this doesn’t seem like a medical emergency… just an emergency for me. I just figured they’d be able to test me at the hospital but I don’t know what to do.
I am not having any extreme symptoms that are affecting me physically. I’m in no pain but this realization is just disturbing me.
I’m going to explain my symptoms and my suspected point of consumption so this is going to get a bit graphic, I just figured there might be someone who can be the judge of how serious or unserious I should be about this.
Graphics: I went to the bathroom, expecting normal bowel movement, I sat up and wiped, there was a full string of gunk, it looked like a chewed and stretched out gum wrapped around normal bowel movement. I did not panic at first, but I was genuinely shocked and tried to think of anything bizarre I had eaten( one time I ate a lot of celery that didn’t digest and looked really stringy lol). Nothing came to mind and I track lots of my meals. I kept wiping pieces of mucous and it was a mess. I felt disgusting and quick researched symptoms I might have had but didn’t realize. I have had an itchy bum at night, like really itchy sometimes, but I do have a small hemorrhoid that flares up sometimes so I just figured it was irritated. Weird mucous during wipes that I have never noticed before in my life for the past month or so, I thought I was just really hitting my fiber goals😭. I’ve also had some weird sort of UTI symptoms, going to the bathroom became irritating but I did not have any other symptoms of a UTI that I would be used to, not severe enough for me to go to a doctor. I knowingly ate raw ground pork and beef in a meatloaf my friend made. It was a big meatloaf and I got a middle piece that was gummy but ate it cause I didn’t want to be rude:’). I thought it would have been fine and tried to put my food safety brain away, which I might never ever do again cause wtf. Nail in the coffin for my investigation; got up before making this post cause my bum was itchy like it’s been, sat for a minute and wiped, found 1 rice grains sized yellowish blob, tried to see if it was a moving segment but got even more disgusted and just tossed it, and then I wiped another thread looking piece. What do I do? I really want to take care of this like yesterday but the Emergency room would be the only option.
Any advice or prior experiences would be greatly appreciated!
Also I have had experiences with tapeworms as my cat had them when I adopted a few years ago and I feel really familiar with the way the segments tend to look.