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[quote=Anonymous]OP here with a follow-up. I managed to get into an urgent care center this afternoon (not easy to do - I had to try a number of places). The doctor wanted to check my white blood cell count and gave me four containers for stool samples to test for different parasites (I think), which would take another 72 hours after I dropped off the samples (which would not be possible until tomorrow since they were about to close). I tried to explain that my online reading had indicated that starting treatment within the first several days would be best.

Not surprisingly, I guess, he was quite indignant at the thought of prescribing me something based on my report of finding two small worms in my sauce, along with several days of diarrhea, and my Internet research. "What would you want me to prescribe??" he was semi-shouting at me. I said that the CDC article I had read had mentioned two possible anti-parasitic drugs.

He sent a technician in to collect my blood and give me the stool sample containers. And then as I was checking out, he said that he had sent a prescription over to my pharmacy, but he wanted me to check with my primary care physician first before picking it up or taking it, since it is a medication he has no familiarity with and he doesn't know how it might interact with other prescriptions I might be taking. He said he had read the CDC information while I was getting my blood drawn. He wanted me to go to my PCP ASAP (tomorrow morning).

So it was kind of interesting that the article impressed upon him the need for acting quickly.

However, I have since done more research and have found out that the worms I saw were probably not trichinella, because they are much tinier. There are a bunch of other possible parasites that are larger like the worms I saw, including the cysticercosis worms that were mentioned on page 1 by a doctor. The anti-parasitic medication prescribed to me should work on most of the possibilities.

It turns out to be insanely expensive at my usual pharmacy (over $1,000 for a minimal 8-day course) even with my prescription drug coverage which barely made a dent, or a GoodRX coupon at that pharmacy (but it seems I might be able to get it for the mid-$300s at a different pharmacy). I will talk to my PCP tomorrow (I hope) and if I get the thumbs up, I will probably go ahead and take the medication and hope that the minimum course is sufficient.

I really appreciate hearing from a couple of doctors who urged me to seek treatment.

In answer to those who scolded me for cooking not-fully-thawed meat, I had thought by poking it that it was fully thawed, but the bottom side of it still felt a bit frosty as I placed it in the pan for browning. (That side had been on the foam container.) But after browning it on both sides, I cut it into smaller pieces and browned it some more, and it truly was thawed. I think the bigger problem was that I should have used a meat thermometer to make sure the meat had gotten cooked to a safe temperature, given that I had been slow-cooking it on low heat.

Lesson learned.

And for those of you saying that the higher risk of parasites in pork is why you don't eat it... believe me, I think I have completely lost my interest in future pork consumption!!

I did return to the international market where I had purchased the meat. The label on the packages is from a U.S. company, and a worker in the meat department told me it was from the U.S.

I still keep coming back to the image of those two worms though, and no - they weren't congealed fat, though there was some easily identifiable congealed fat along the edge of the container, which was quite different. And no, they weren't some other pork substance that might have come up from the cooked meat.

But in my reading, I did find out that worms in pork don't like acidic things, and can emerge from the meat to avoid something acidic; my sauce was tomato-based, which might explain why the worms were on top of the sauce when I removed the lid several days after cooking.

I have learned more than I wanted to know about some very gross parasites. I am glad that I eat a mostly plant-based diet, which is going to be even more plant-based going forward!
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