Re: A question for the Danielson tifosi

Steven L. Sheffield wrote:
On 09/04/2007 10:28 AM, in article
eJfDi.23900$eY.9062@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Bob Schwartz"
<bob.schwartz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Steven L. Sheffield wrote:
I used to think like you ... But after reading about his giardia problems,
which have plagued him for the past 2-3 years, I'm inclined to cut him a
little slack.

If he's managed two top-10 finishes at the Vuelta, while harboring this bug,
imagine what he might have been able to do had he been 100% ... this year's
Vuelta would likely have been that chance to show what he can really do when
he's healthy; unfortunately, now we'll have to wait and see what Slipstream
has in mind.
The giardia was this past spring. And he has my sympathy for that.
The cure has been described as every bit as nasty as the illness.

He's apparently also had some Asian bug since 2003, whose impact
was subtle enough that he didn't know it was there.


http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/aug07/aug03news2

"I was scared. I was scared for my health. I was scared for my career," he
said in an interview with Colorado's Durango Herald. "I didn't know what was
going on."

Danielson had been having stomach problems since 2004, and even repeated
visits to various emergency rooms were unable to pinpoint the problem. "It
was really frustrating, to be sick and not be able to train. I mean, I got
so sick that I thought I was going to die or something. The symptoms for
what I had ranged from a parasite or something like this all the way to
cancer."

[snip]

The ultimate diagnosis was Giardia, an intestinal illness caused by a
microscopic parasite. According to the US Food and Drug Administration,

*** "Normally illness lasts for one to two weeks, but THERE ARE CASES OF
CHRONIC INFECTIONS LASTING MONTHS TO YEARS." ***

The latter seems to apply to Danielson. He apparently picked the bug up when
he won the Tour of Langkawi in Malaysia in 2003. "From when I did Malaysia
back in '03, from then on we've kind of had this documented history of these
weird symptoms," he said.

That differs markedly from
http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/13186.0.html

"Doctors in Colorado deciphered that Danielson was whacked by
a parasitic double whammy and was actually suffering from two
intestinal bugs at once.

The first was a relatively easy-to-detect case of Giardia, a
microscopic protozoan parasite which infected his gastrointestinal
system that Danielson suspects he picked up riding on manure-
laden roads this spring in Spain's Catalunya.

The other was a still-unknown parasite that doctors guess entered
Danielson's system while he won the Tour of Malaysia back in 2003.

Were it not for the severe diarrhea that plagued him this spring,
however, doctors might not have ever found the Asian parasite."

Bob Schwartz
.