The worm has turned...

There are days at this clinic when I am convinced that the whole of London is harbouring unwanted guests. Bot fly larvae, surprise mycobacteria caught 20 years earlier that pop up out of the blue and suddenly paralyse you, hook worm larvae that mistook your foot for a dog's, burrowed under your skin and consigned themselves to travelling under your skin for the rest of their lives to find a way out, and then then are the worms.

Do you remember the song you used to sing as a child?

"Nobody loves me, everybody hates me I'm going to go and eat worms...long thin slimy ones, short fat chewy worms. etc etc"

Well the worm has turned (TV reference there...go on guess....) and the worms are invading us like an episode of Star Trek only its very much on their own terms. I could even be convinced that invasion of the brain in cystercosis was a attempt to mind control us....(Oh God I watch too much House)

Trudy and I have had our eyes truly opened to the apparent world domination of these creatures. They have been coughed up in front of us (Ascaris - round worms), pulled out of bottoms and presented to us (Taenia - tapeworm), shown on radiological scans (Strongyloides - that one's for you Rob), swum across eyes to wave to us (Loa Loa) - (bleugh....sorry need to concentrate again), grown in the spinal canal of one poor British chap and destroyed the spinal cord and column making him paraplegic (hydatid disease) and traced the words 'help us... we're lost' on the back of a rather attractive gap year student (Cutaneous Larva Migrans - OK not strictly a worm at that stage but it grows into one usually!)
How do you escape an enemy that can invade with your food, be carried and inoculated by insects (day and night...damn! looks like the burqua is here to stay), contaminate the water and food if someone has not washed their hands, and attack you whilst you're cooling off in some fresh water in the middle of a blisteringly hot country? OK you don't - you hit them where it hurts and kill them with DRUGS.....if you know they are there.......which you often don't.

Till you cough one up. (Retch)




PS. It was the Two Ronnies !