Worms?!?!

[Mama*Kim]

Update #2: Doc thinks its roundworm (as I assumed), but will send the... ahem... specimen in for testing to confirm. He said there are other rare worms that look similar that can be more serious. However, he said its very, very doubtful that its anything but roundworm as contracting the others usually means visiting a tropical, third world country. He didn't see any other signs indicating a severe infection, so he said not to be terribly concerned.

He wanted to prescribe the typical med for worms, but its recently been completely discontinued (that is not comforting!). He wrote a scrip for an OTC med to start while we wait for lab results to see if we'll need anything stronger. He wrote a scrip to see insurance would pay a portion of the cost. I went to Walmart to get it filled and give them new insurance cards. We got the boys' hair cut while waiting for the pharmacy. Go back and wait at the pharmacy again only to find out they hadn't filled it yet. My insurance card wasn't going through; they weren't denying the med (which I knew they might since it was an OTC med), they were saying my account wasn't valid. I said, "that's fine, I'll just pay cash for it. How much is it?" He said it was $22 for the pharmacy to fill it or it was available on the on the shelf. I told I'm I'd just grab it off the shelf then. I went and checked the shelves and couldn't find it. I asked two different employees to help. The second guy said, "oh, uh, I think we stopped carrying it." I went back to the pharmacy again and asked them to just go ahead and fill it. He said they couldn't because he'd already cancelled the scrip. For real? At that point, both kids were just done. It was lunch time, we'd been at Walmart over an hour and we just left. I called the doctor's office. She said the med is only recently available OTC, so there's probably no chance Walmart "just stopped carrying it", she said they probably never did have it OTC. Sigh. Now I have to call around to other pharmacies and see who has it.

Update: just got a call back from the nurse. She said its not an emergency as long as he's acting normally. She set up an appointment for as soon as the office opens in the morning. Its definitely not a pinworm. This thing was a big, fat, white worm. I pulled 6-8 inches out and I think a piece of it broke off inside him. Ugh. I feel like puking. She said if I really wanted to get it out of my house, we could go to urgent care, but they close in half an hour and they're half an hour away.

Original post:
I just pulled a 6-8 inch long worm out of DS2's anus while changing his diaper. I have a call into the nurse line and I'm waiting for a call back. Should we just go to the ER?

ETA: I'm totally a worrier, so I'm probably overreacting, but I'm freaking out.

[cristancanoe]

You are totally allowed to freak out! Yuck!

I don't think this warrents an ER visit, just save the worm in a jar or something so it can be identified and call the doctor's office in the morning.

[kushie tushie]

Ew!
Save it and try not to worry.
Did the head come out or did you rip the worm in half?

I'm mobile.... sorry for the typos!

[AbbieJack]

Probably pin worm. I would soooo take him in if he was mine. Not because it is dangerous just because it skeeves me out.

[whitneywalters]

I would go because it grosses me out and I would worry all night long.

[bumminbeachbabe]

It's probably pin worms. They tend to come out in the evenings. I got them as a kid fairly frequently because I was a nail biter. You dr can prescribe a med to kill them. I don't know of any natural remedies.

[Leah52]

Pinworms are tiny though, I can't think of any worm that size that would be in a baby.

[TinaDeanette]

Was it alive? Could it possibly just be a string he ate?

[whitneywalters]

It almost sounds like a tapeworm. I would go in.

[Leah52]

It could be part of a tapeworm. Still easily treated with one dose of medicine.