Bugged Again

Bugs - They have a special affinity to me. 

This has got to be my craziest adventure, If you cannot handle a gory story, stop now! and don't click the link to the picture further down in the story.

About three years back, I had to make a a two day business trip to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I would be getting onto an early morning flight. I was up at 4 AM. I took our boxer dog for a short walk and left for the airport an hour later after packing and getting ready.

It was summer and pretty hot and muggy. I was upgraded to first class on my outbound flight, so I was able to catch up on my sleep. As I settled into a nap, I was woken up by a slight itch at the back of my right leg, just behind my knee. I ignored it and went back to sleep. I had flown into Baltimore because of lower fares to that airport and rented a car to get to Harrisburg. The itch came and went, I ignored it. The trip was largely routine and uneventful. The next day, one of my meetings got canceled, so I finished my work early and was able to get onto an earlier flight back to Atlanta. I was home at 4 pm. the itch had come back a few times during my trip and I  had ignored it. Now, when I was back home, and was relaxing with a cup of tea, my mind went to the itch, I asked my wife to take a look. She put on her glasses and checked it out. She was behind me, so I could not see her expression, but there was an eerie silence from her. “There is a weird bump and it has a strange pattern on it”. I heard a hint of alarm in her voice. Let me take a picture with my phone she said, the alarm still there in her voice. As she focused on the bump and started to take the picture, she “freaked out “ - it’s a bug and it has latched on to your skin. I asked her to just yank it off. I can’t!, it has burrowed into your skin, it’s half in and half out. Now it was my turn to be alarmed but I must confess, I was amused as well, mostly with dis-belief. She showed me the picture, and my alarm level climbed a couple of notches. 

We didn't waste any time heading to our friendly family doctor who accepted walk-in patients without an appointment. It was already closing time, Dr. Singh was on vacation that day. His standby Dr. Kumar was also heading out of the door but agreed to see me after my wife explained the situation and showed her the picture. The doctor was intrigued and I think excited in a sick way, she had never seen anything like that. She agreed with my wife that it was a bug, probably a maggot that was drilling into me. I was directed to the inspection table , belly down so she could look at it. Since it was past closing time, the rest of the staff had left and there was only a front-desk admin assistant besides Dr. Kumar. My wife was quickly enlisted as a nurse assistant by the doctor. Her job was to shine some light on the intruder with her phone flashlight. The scalpels came out and Dr. Kumar went to work. After a few pokes and  prods, she triumphantly said , "it is what we thought it was and it is alive!" Fifteen minutes later, the ad-hoc surgery was completed, I was cleaned, bandaged, injected with antibiotics and was handed the prized remains of the now murdered bug by Dr. Kumar. 

The bug had led a privileged life the last couple of days. It had a personal escort on its flight to Harrisburg, had a comfortable car ride and slept at a decent hotel and a flight back to Atlanta. It even flew un-ticketed, including first class on one segment. It was well fed on my flesh. But now the bugs two day sojourn had come to a bloody end. My wife asked Dr. Kumar - did you get all of it out? I hope so, she said. Keep an eye on the area for a few days , it you see anything unusual or if your husband develops a fever, get back in touch with us.

On the way back home, my wife finally asked me the most important question- how did it get there in the first place? I had no clue! After a couple of hours of speculation we settled on what seemed to be a logical explanation - when I took our dog for a walk in the dark that morning, I was wearing shorts and when Rocky went into the bushes for his business, the bug took a leap of faith onto the human leg nearby and latched on.

This episode left me scarred and with a question in my mind, I am still searching for an answer - Should one pay attention to minor irritants in life?

This is my second bug story - please read my first "bug" blog post titled  Doctor, Chef Or Archaeologist? Bug Off here.