larvae in my leg email

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deeeeeear mother,

know what's awesome?

and by that i mean, not awesome?

i have a fly larvae in my leg.... like cows get and like our kittens get. like when we have to use peroxide and tweezers to pull out the thing? oh yeah, have one in my left leg right above the knee. and it's gross.

but apparently these things happen to people down here. because as people ask me about the bandages over my knee and i tell them what it is, everyone is like, oh yeah, i had one of those or my kid had one or whatver.

of course i didn't know what it was until yesterday. i thought it was a flea bite that i scratched that got infected. so yesterday morning i sat on my porch with a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a bunch of toilet paper and decided to get the infection out. after pushing at in and all of the pus and blood left, there was a definite hole. and i knew exactly what that hole meant.

at which point i started crying. i went to mamita's as i had been told to put lemon and salt in the wound, but i couldn't do that myself. she went and cut a branch of somekind, dripped the sap in the hole, and we covered it up. i was still crying. so i called lenin, who was working on the community water project and told him he had to take me to the health center.

the health center scares the shit out of me. think 3rd world underfunded dirty doctor's office. that is the health center. i´ve only been there to visit my host mom, luisa, when her blood pressure shoots up, and i hate the place. but then again, i have a larvae in my leg and i didn't want to go to managua.

so lenin came, all kinds of dirty from digging in the mud, and immediately took me down the mountain. we stopped by juanita's as she used to work for the health center, and she called to tell them that the gringa was coming and to take care of me immediately.

so we went. and the doctor tried to squeeze out the thing, just like i had been doing. then he said he was going to inject anesthesia ....... which effing hurt like hell! he put the needle in right next to the hole, the most tender part, i screamed and almost broke lenin's hand i was squeezing so hard, and as the injection went in, it was also coming out the hole. i was like, what the eff is going on here? then, while i was crying and i had a death grip on lenin's hand and the dirty table, he pressed again, nothing. then he used a scalpal and cut a tiny insision. pressed and presssed and nothing. except a lot of blood. then he went in with scissors. nothing. pressed more and finally we could see the damn thing, but then he let go to get the pinchers and it sunk back down.

at this point i was like eff it, it has got to be dead. but we could not get it out. so the plan is to take antibiotics and ibuprofen ... free at the clinic ..... and put tape over it and not let it breathe and it will die. so that has been last night and today and it still hurts but goddamn what a story.

annnnnyway, lenin is my saving grace in all of this, buying me juice helping me clean the wound taking me to the doctor and doing all the running to pharmacies for meds and bringing me foood and being a good husband.

i have a ton of photos. of the huge water project and everyone in the community digging and of my leg and of the soccer finals and of the kitchen floor. but i won't blog or put photos up until i go to somoto on monday with my computer .... and pick up our wedding rings!

so this has been my adventure. awesome, huh?

looooooooooove,
daughter in the peace corps who has a fly larvae still living in her leg

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Comments

[cassi]

Good Story
I just puked a little in my mouth.

[rachel]

Too weird!
Too weird! eewwww oh my gosh, yuck. I hope you get it out yesterday!