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MORE
BOTFLY STORIES THAT HAVE BEEN EMAILED TO ME FROM 2007 TO PRESENT |
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December 29, 2005
Hi Brenda!
I couldn't sleep and came across
your site. I am going to pass on the information to my husband's
coworker whose daughter is in terrible botfly trouble in Las
Vegas.
She came back from Belize and
had a huge sore on her neck. The doctors diagnosed it as an
infection and prescribed antibiotics. When the lump got bigger,
they got very aggressive with the antibiotics and she got very
sick from the meds. They insisted the lump in her neck was an
infection, and her MOM found some information about bot flies on
the internet and made them look into the lump. They did not do
an MRI, or open it or try to drain it at all up until that
point. They removed a humongous larvae from her neck. She got
very sick from the extreme antibiotic action they took, which
caused kidney damage and her kidneys are shutting down. Even
worse, yesterday they found out she was pregnant, which she did
not know, and the baby has been severely damaged from all of the
antibiotics and meds. They want her to abort the baby. They said
the baby will probably not make it to term and if it does, will
be very badly retarded at best. The family is very upset and
wants more information, as this is going to be a big case.
The hard part of all of this is
that she told the doctors that she had just come back from
Belize. I saw in one of your stories that 1 in 500 people at one
tourist site were infected with a bot warble! I cannot believe
this has not become a huge issue in the medical community. I
think that bot larvae should be the first suspected thought that
a doctor should have if they hear that someone has come from
central or south America with a wound as you have described!
This does need to have national attention- especially to all of
the medical community. A lot of the stories you mentioned
describe how the bot really doesn't do permanent damage, but the
uninformed treatments do! The family is devastated and all of
this could have been resolved with superglue or Vaseline!
I am giving my husband your site
info to pass on to his coworker. I cannot believe the medical
negligence and ignorance that is still out there. Chris Martin
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| My
response January 3, 2006
Hi,
Sorry it took so
long to respond. I have been gone since before Christmas, so
just now reading your email.
What a horrible
story! I believe this is the worst case of botfly misdiagnosed I
have heard of. What a shame that a simple procedure could
have kept someone from so much harm. This is one of the reason's
we decided to do the website. We wanted to be able to get the
word out, to save others from such an ordeal. I know our medical
hospital is now teaching the interns about botfly's. When Mark
went to the dermatologist for his annual skin cancer check, he
told the intern about this botfly story. The guy was very
impressed to meet Mark as he had heard about the case & said it
had helped him get an answer right on one of his exams.
We tried to get on
some television shows, but I guess because of the area that Mark
was infected (his scrotum) with the larva no one wanted to
interview us. I even wrote articles to the papers, with no luck.
I sure hope things
work out in the end for this girl, it sure is a shame about the
baby. If you have time please keep me updated.
Do you mind if I
post this story on our website?
Thanks for writing
me,
Brenda Johnstone
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| March 16, 2006
Dear Mrs. Johnstone, |
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April 17, 2006
Dear Brenda; I see you have not had any further stories added since Nov. 2005. Thought I'd help add to the list of sufferers. I went on a cruise vacation package with my 70 year old mother because my father would not go. Smart man!
We in fact, stopped in Belize where
I took a bus ride to a dolphin encounter tour. I enjoyed the
dolphins to the extreme. I have no idea however, when or where
I'd been given the extreme gift to take home.
To make my story very short and to
the point, I've given birth to an almost 8 week old botfly larva
on Easter Day 2006. My "bite site" was on the backside of my
backside where I could just twist enough to see an oozing hole
in my skin and a huge lump above and below the fat layer. My
husband has been away for a few weeks and has just returned. I
showed him the wound yesterday and he was amazed at it, but had
no idea of what should be done. I put my band aide back on
because its been leaking, what I assume is black blood each
morning when I get up and start moving around. I now know that
this must be the digested remains of my butt being crapped out
of a hole in MY BUTT. It actually makes me angry.
After a particularly painful horse
back ride earlier in the day, due to the location of the wound-
I'd soaked in a very hot tub of Epsom Salts. I was reapplying
my band aide when I decided to "milk" my wound again - when I
noticed something my husband should help me with. When he did,
we started pulling out what I thought was a severe case of
plugged up pores, like a whitehead only "holly cow!!!" its
huge. It was painful to pull free. Then I began to wonder if we
were excavating a cyst or something. The last thing I expected
to realize was that there was a huge fly like larva bored into
my derriere.
As I sit here writing to you, I
wonder if there may be a twin or triplet awaiting their turn and
feel like I should go see my husband for another inspection.
I was home from Belize on Feb 4,
2006
Daphne Eline
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May
4, 2006
I fell victim to a botfly 30 years ago in Costa Rica. I had been camping out in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. Hitching through Honduras I got a ride from a dentist from Kansas that was driving to Peru to practice in the Andeas.
I
complained to him about a painful boil on my ankle that wouldn't
go away. He offered to lance it and install a drain to get the
pus out. It only got worse despite the little surgery.
A
few weeks later the pain was becoming extreme and I checked
myself into a clinic in Golfito, Costa Rica. The attending
physician knew immediately what it was. As I recall, he soaked
the area in alcohol (it may have been peroxide) saying that it
would knock the little bugger unconscious. In a few minutes,
using tweezers, he grabbed the larva that was protruding through
the air hole. He gave a tug and out popped the larva. It was as
large as the tip of my index finger to the first joint.
To
this day that small area on my ankle is numb to the touch. I
presume the larvae ate up the nerves in there.
I
did not have nearly as bad as a young German woman I met in
Golfito. She had been camping out with her boyfriend on the Osa
Peninsula and they apparently were part-time nudists. She had
several bot fly larvae on her vulva! We were both staying at
Captain Tom's shipwreck place at Playa de Cacao near Golfito.
Also staying there was a British nurse who did the honors of
extracting the larvae. I still remember that poor woman's
screams.
I'm
staying the hell away from anyplace that has botflies!
Larry |
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May 4, 2006
Hi Brenda, |
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| My response to her:
Christy, |
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| Her reply back to me:
Brenda, |
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May 15, 2006 Hey Brenda,
I just wanted
to let you know that I ended up going back to see my doctor. I
am ridiculously prone to staff infection and I was afraid I
would smother the little thing and then not be able to get all
of it out and end up with a nasty infection. After I heard from
you I decided I would wait until Friday to see if the
antibiotics did anything in case it was just an infected bite of
some sort. Wednesday night I thought I would die it hurt so bad
and bled so much. I went to work, on Thursday, and half way
through the day it started hurting really bad again and pouring
blood everywhere. I went back to my office and washed it off and
saw this tiny straw type thing sticking out of my leg. I kept
my composure pretty well up until that point. Once I saw that it
was all over. I returned to my doctor and told them I needed to
have this thing cut out. They told me he could squeeze me in the
following Friday. I then explained to them that a parasite was
eating its way out of my leg and that they would need to remove
it right then. |
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| My
response to her:
Wow, I had
no idea those things could live that long with out air. Glad
you went to have them removed. So you had two of them? OUCH. |
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I got the bite
on the 15th of April and had them removed on the 11th
of May. They really weren’t that big. I have them in a jar with
saline solution now. |
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May 4, 2006
Hello Brenda,
I came across your web site and
it has really been interesting reading every ones experience and
I am so glad everyone came out of it OK. My story is my poor
kitten, Razel's story. We are not to sure of the full details of
it , Razel refuses to talk about it...lol. April 29th 2006 I
let Razel out for the night like always. When I got up to make
coffee at 5:30 am I went to let him back into the house, but he
was not sitting on the steps begging to come in. Later that day
I tried calling him with no response. This is very unlike Razel
not to come or be playing with the dog in the front yard. Night
came and went with no sign of the cat. I was becoming very
worried. Razel is only 5 months old and never stayed away this
long before. I was telling my husband that I hadn't seen the cat
in 2 days. He tried to tell me not to worry that there might be
a female cat in season and that he was just tom-catting. I went
back outside to water the plants and there was Razel just laying
on the ground very weak. I called out to Mark that something was
wrong with Razel. We took the cat into the house and checked him
out and could not find anything wrong with him. Later that day a
neighbor came over and was telling us that a couple of the
neighborhood cats was found dead in the pasture net door. I
started to think that someone had done something to our cat. I
gave him some crushed up aspirin and benadrill (sorry for the
spelling). The net day he was feeling better and more so the day
after that. Well 4 days passed when I noticed that he had lost
some hair. I got to looking at it and seen a puncture mark on
his neck. Really did not think anything of it, because will be
cats and cats like fighting. So I doctored it up with peroxide,
and before I had a chance to put anything else on, the cat went
nuts scratching it, so I let it be. I treated it a couple more
tome with a Q-tip, peroxide, and neoprene. Well this morning I
went to let the cat in and he was not there, feels like I am
repeating myself. He finally came to the door wanting to eat ,
or so I thought. He took about 7 steps into the door and just
fell over. His neck looked like he had a tennis ball in it. I
cleaned it up and drained it as best as I could. When I went to
put more neo on it, I thought I just seen what I thought was a
puss pocket move. Being grossed out already, but doing what I
needed to do, became grossed out more than I could ever imagine.
Thinking that my eyes was not seeing it correctly, I check
again. This time it looked like a really tiny black cave boring
down it to this kittens neck. Now I am really confused, and
wondering about my sanity...I watched for a few more seconds,
there was the puss pocket again. I opened the curtains so I
could get more light on it still not sure if what I was seeing
was right or me working overtime on imagination. The week before
we had seen a show on TLC called 101 Things Removed From The
Human Body. Well guess what made the #1 spot...yep The Bot fly.
This woman had one in her head. I seen it move out then right
back in. I went to my in-laws thinking they would know if
it was a bot fly raising cattle all their lives. Dad kept
calling it a Wolf Worm, but not to sure and that I should take
the cat to the vet. Now really worrying I'm thinking bot fly now
it might be a wolf worm????? I go to the vet and left Razel in
the truck. I went in and started asking questions, and boy did I
have some to ask. After a few minutes he tells me to bring him
in. He put Razel in a mesh walled folding contraption and locked
it he went out of the room and came back with a really big
needle. Gave the cat a shot and he was asleep in less than 5
minutes. His wife came in and started helping him work on Razel.
About 1/2 hr later they was done. The vet removed a really small
broken tooth with 5 yes 5 bot fly larva. I could not be live
what I was seeing. The vet said it was a first for him, removing
them from a cat and having that many in one pocket. He said that
every now and then cows and cattle dogs get them. But he had not
seen the bot fly around our area in over 25 years. We live just
north of Huntsville, TX. The best thing about this whole thing,
besides getting rid of the gross little things is that the vet
did not charge us for the visit or service. Got to love those
ol timer vets. Right now Razel is doing really good he is up and
trying to walk still really groggy from the shot and probably
hurting pretty bad, the larva was still alive and had a hard
time removing them. But now the healing begins. He is most
definitely pissed off, dose not want to be touched, but who
could blame him. I just hope he will not be scared of humans
because of this, only time will tell.
Yvonne |
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May 31, 2006
I came across this video on a website. Since I've watched it, I did some searching around to see if I could find any more pics/videos and I came across your site. Thought your visitors might like to see.
Ryan
Here is the link to the video http://www.yourdailymedia.com/media/1148380520/Maggot_Finds_A_Home_In_Womans_Head |
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| August 7, 2007
Dear Mrs. Johnstone, |
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| September 3, 2006
I returned from a most memorable
trip in Belize a few weeks ago, and apparently I brought along
with me an uninvited guest (or guests??).
My account has some similarities to
others: At first I thought it was a mosquito bite or possibly a
snake bite (there are two distinct holes on my left and right
leg that look exactly like fang puncture wounds). After
returning home and noticing the pain was becoming more severe,
and that the holes in my body were not healing, I went to a
doctor who looked at both of my lower legs and advised that a
small snake or possibly even a tarantula bit me (but on both
legs, I wondered??) Of course, just like all other doctors who
have no idea what something is he prescribed an antibiotic.
After taking the whole bottle of medication my symptoms only got
worse: more itching and bleeding and some extreme jolts of pain
in both legs, especially my left one. I called the doctor again
last week and he simply called in a refill of my prescription.
Well , this morning while drinking
my coffee and watching the news I got the shock of my life. As I
sat on my sofa and stared at my mysterious wound on my leg I
noticed something moving in one of the openings. Assuming that
it was just puss, I squeezed full force around it and some
little slimy thing peaked its head (or tail?) out, then went
back in. Seized by panic at this I immediately got up to get
dressed, because I was going to drive myself to the emergency
room! I realized that I was losing my composure and had to sit
down and think about this- because I had heard some stories of
worm and mosquito parasites that got into humans. I was
determined to get this unsightly thing out of my leg: I sat
back down on my sofa, squeezed again and was able to grab the
end of it and pull it completely out of my leg. When I pulled it
out a lot of blood came out along with it. I now have this larva
in a Ziploc bag and it's still moving around. ( I'll think of a
name for it soon!) I don't know if there's more in my left leg
or not, but my right leg has the same symptoms so I'm sure that
one is in there too. Thank goodness for websites like yours. I
was able to positively identify the botfly from pictures and
stories from other victims of this often misdiagnosed condition.
I believe I got this botfly about four weeks ago. I am not
squeamish and am tempted just to let the other larva alone and
let them live out their life cycle until they come to the
surface and fall out, assuming more are in there and as long as
the pain does not become more severe. I would much rather do
this and wait it out rather than performing a half-ass
self-surgery and risk infection if the entire larva is not
removed.
Most discouraging are all the
accounts from those who have wasted thousands of dollars on
unnecessary doctor visits and medication prescribed by doctors
who are just clueless. I won't let this happen to me. I will
keep you posted on whether I was able to remove other larva, or
if I decided to be a generous host and give birth to a botfly!
I have not told my family about this
because I think they would freak out. They still think it's just
a non-poisonous snake bite that happened to get infected. Come
to think of it, I think I'd prefer a snake bite to this!
Eric |
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October 13, 2006
Brenda,
Thought I might add to your Bot Fly library.
My wife and I took a cruise for our 25th anniversary to
Mexico and Belize. In both places we had day trips into the
Jungle.
In Mexico it was a quiet hike to see the Mayan ruins, and in
Belize we climbed through the hills, and rode Zip lines across
the tree-tops in the rain forest.
A couple weeks after returning, I noticed a bite of some
kind on my ankle. After 8 weeks and 4 doctors, I still had two
painful holes in my ankle that continuously oozed.
Late one night I was changing my bandages before bed, and
noticed something in the hole. Grabbed some tweezers and pulled
out about a half inch long end of a larva. YIKES!!
A quick trip to the emergency room, and amidst the commotion
usually reserved for rock stars, they pulled out an inch and a
half larva, and after further digging, got a smaller, slightly
less formed second one! I had twins!
It has been about a week now, and besides dealing with a
deep gash across my ankle that must be left open to heal, I am
feeling fine.
Told my wife, that I expect a mother's day card next year !!
Bill Wilson
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November 11, 2006
Hi, Brenda, (This is a story fro 1973)
I just happened on your site while
cruising the internet for curious and gross things, and decided
to check out the human botfly links.
I was in the Peace Corps in Belize
from 1971-1975 as a cave explorer for the government's
Archaeology Department. And in 1970, I had spent the summer in
Belize with another caver friend (Dave A.) doing reconnaissance.
We walked down the Caves Branch (a branch of the Sibun River) to
the entrance of Caves Branch Cave, a big tubing tourist
attraction these days, but at that time, a mostly unexplored
cave in a remote area covered with rainforest (I later met the
Belizean cave pioneer Charlie "Tigerman" Anthony who as far as I
know was the first to ever enter part of this cave system in the
mid-60s). Dave and I were wisely unwilling to swim very far into
the long stretch of deep water receding from daylight, and we
had no tubes with us. So sadly, we retreated.
I mention this early history of
Caves Branch because the cave appears in one or more of the
personal accounts on your website as a locus for botfly
infection. I thought your readers might want to hear from one of
the handful of people (me) who first completely traversed Caves
Branch (1971-1972) over several expeditions and found a lot of
undisturbed Maya remains. The area was much more remote then
than it is now, and access required a five-mile hike down the
riverbed from the Hummingbird Highway.
Okay, onward. My caver friend
Logan M. came to visit me in Belize in the early spring of
1973--in fact we met there for the first time, and he stayed for
several months helping me map the Caves Branch system and
investigate the Maya sites in it for my boss, the Archaeological
Commissioner. During that period, he suddenly developed some odd
inflammations on his scalp. Closer inspection showed a dozen
reddened lumps, and they were beginning to twinge. We went to
the hospital in Belmopan, where I lived. The Indian doc there
said they were inflamed hair roots...didn't seem likely but we
had no better suggestions...until I spotted a worm sticking its
head out.
Eureka. We had heard of the
things--called 'beefworms' in Belizean Creole--but had no idea
what they looked like. Now it dawned on us that Logan had a
dozen of them in his head! Locals quickly filled us in on the
anecdotal cures--the chunk of meat and the tar from a cigarette.
But, being scientific types, we realized that suffocation was
the answer. We tried a series of, um, suffocates, and some of
this is documented with photos--there's one with me sitting on
the couch holding a jar of peanut butter and grinning while
Logan looks forlorn (or disgusted) on the floor in front of me.
Maybe Logan can find this pic and we can put it up for its
historical value. But after trying a succession of gooey stuff
like Vaseline, peanut butter, toothpaste, all of which failed,
we decided to try duct tape. It was a combo of Elmer's glue and
duct tape, actually. I carefully shaved a quarter-sized area
around each worm's abode, dabbed on some glue, then laid down a
circle of duct tape and pressed it tight. The next
morning--voila--I pulled off the tape and there was the
suffocated worm, half out of the hole. With care and tweezers I
extracted every one...and that's when we got a good look at the
spines for the first time. The scalp is a tricky area, because
the skin is so tight. But we got them, and as I recall pickled a
few, though, sad to say, I no longer have these souvenirs.
As it turns out, we had missed one.
Logan and I soon traveled back to the US together to attend the
annual convention of the National Speleological Society in
Indiana, and reroute we discovered the remaining worm--in his
leg. So we plastered on the duct tape and then set up a special
session at the convention for the extraction, billed as a
"Medical Extravaganza". Hundreds of cavers gathered round
gawking, laughing and groaning while I peeled off the tape and
tweezed out the larva. Many photos were taken, including one
with Gill E. pretending to eat the bugger.
I myself have had some thirty of
these over the years I spent in Central America--some were
acquired in Belize and some in Guatemala. In every case, duct
tape with glue left on overnight proved the simplest solution. I
only failed once--with "Fifi" in 1974. Carmen and Fifi were two
hurricanes that barreled toward Belize in the 1974 season, and I
had two worms in my forehead (which swelled up nicely) at that
time, so named them Carmen and Fifi. I got Carmen out, but Fifi
remained...just couldn't get her though she was dead.. I had a
lump there for more than a year that was finally absorbed--I
guess those spines take a while to dissolve.
So there is some early history of
gringos and botfly larvae in Belize.
Barb MacLeod
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| December 15, 2006
I spent some time in the jungle in
Brazil and Argentina, and didn't even know I had any bug bites until
a couple weeks after I got back into the U.S. and had what I thought
was an infected mosquito bite on my arm. I had no idea it was a
botfly. Topical antibacterial medicines and standard bug-bite
remedies weren't working, and when I saw movement in the wound I
went to the urgent care center. The doctor barely looked at it, and
said if there was something in my arm I would have to see a surgeon
to get it out. She prescribed antibiotics, but really showed no
interest in my situation. A few days later I started experiencing
intense, sharp, stabbing pains in my wound, so I went to a different
doctor hoping for better results, especially since now I could
definitely make out something living in the wound. That doctor also
barely looked at my wound and told me to keep taking the
antibiotics. She told me the movement in the wound was just puss
trying to get out. A couple weeks later, no improvement.
Antibiotics were doing nothing, Epsom salts weren't doing enough,
and the wound was still there. After a few phone calls, I decided
the best place to get any kind of real treatment would be the ER, so
I went and was seen by a doctor who at least took a good look at the
wound enough to see that there was indeed something living inside.
He said it was beyond his expertise and said I needed to see an
infectious disease (ID) specialist. By this time I've had this
thing for about six weeks. After finally finding a doctor that
would take on new patients, I visit an ID specialist and tell him I
have some kind of tropical larvae growing in my arm. He tells me I
need to see a parapsychologist. To see a parapsychologist I need a
referral from a dermatologist. |
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| I asked permission to post his story and photos his photographs...here are the photos. | ||
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Well, had seen this video and was
grossed out but interested at the same time so wanted to learn
more about this gross bug I Googled Botfly and found a site that
had lots of stories about them, and I couldn't find any way to
post a link for this video but I did find your e-mail address.
So if your not too grossed out here's a video of some people
taken some botflys out of a guys back after applying duct tape,
anyways I thought you could send it to some sites you were in
contact with or whatever : )
Trigg Here is the link to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23eimVLAQ2c |
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| March 27, 2007
Hi Brenda,
Here is a good picture of a botfly
maggot that I had living in my head after taking a trip to
Belize. This is really a great website.
Thanks!
JR Dalton
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| June 26, 2007
Hi Brenda,
I was reading your website at
vexman.com/stories and decided I should share. After spending a
month in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest with a study abroad
program, I began feeling sharp pains at the back of my head and
on the back of my right ear. I went to my knowledgeable
professors about the, after two weeks, oozing wounds, and they
told me the one on my head was indeed the botfly we had learned
about. However, they were very sure that the one on my ear was
only an infection. I was confused about their diagnosis because
the pain in both locations was the same; therefore it made sense
to me that both would be due to the same irritant. I decided I'd
let the one in my head live through its life cycle and I'd keep
it once it fell out, as my professor had said his previous
students had done. However, the pain became so great and random
bleeding bouts began to irritate me more than before, that I
decided I'd load on VapoRub. After a few days, I gave up because
it stopped bothering me. I began to think that it had come out
during the last bleeding session. Five days before leaving
Ecuador to come back to the US, I started getting pains worse
than ever and decided to go see a doctor at the university I was
attending. Of course, none of them knew what a botfly was. The
course of action pursued by ignorant doctors is to cut you open
and search around for something. My doctor found nothing in my
head, and I found that to mean it had fallen out way back when
and was healing. I once again asked my professors about the
issue with my ear, because, yes, it bothered me more than my
head. And they again disagreed with what I thought. After being
home in NY for a week, my mother noticed a green tube poking in
and out of the hole that had been present behind my right ear
for over a month. She immediately called my doctor and scheduled
an emergency appointment. As I expected, the doctor had never
heard of botflies and wanted to pull the spiracle poking out
with a pair of tweezers. I, unlike him, had researched this
parasite on the internet and knew that pulling it from the edge
of its spiracle would cause it to burst and leave half of its
body in my skin. I was relieved to hear that he would refer me
to an ear, nose, and throat specialist (as if someone
specializing in ears would know more about this parasite). That
night, my mom and I researched common remedies and, using duct
tape and Vaseline, removed the botfly easily with a pair of
tweezers. We triumphantly called the doctor the next morning.
Today, a few weeks after I'd created a grave for my botfly in an
alcohol-filled vial in my freezer, I was once again given the
news that there was something yellowish poking in and out of the
scab on my head. I am sitting here typing this with a mound of
Vaseline in my hair to urge this second parasite out. The
location makes it much more difficult to remove than the one in
my ear, but I'm just grateful that it hadn't burrowed into the
more tender areas I have read about. Hopefully this endeavor
will be as successful as the last. Thanks for creating this
website for botfly victims like myself. Word of advice for
future hosts: DO NOT SEE A DOCTOR, they will not have a clue
what to do.
Thanks,
Danielle Io
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| July 19, 2007 Article and photos from the San Diego newspaper.....http://www.nbcsandiego.com:80/news/13713158/detail.html |
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If we get any more emails in the
future I will post them. Thanks to everyone that has shared their botfly story with us. I
am happy our site has been able to help others & hope it continues to do so in the
future. Any questions or emails can be sent to brenda@gccs.net |
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