There’s a Worm in My Nose!! (Andrew)

So for those of you reading the blog who don’t know, our adventures with parasites continued last week, but this time it was my turn! On Sunday when I woke up to catch our early flight to Lima and then Quito, I had so much swelling above my right eye that I could only open my eye halfway (Imagine Quasimodo). In Quito we met another Fulbright scholar, named Michael, who took me to his lab at the public medical university where they confirmed that I did not have Chagas disease (a strong possibility because of the places we work), for which I was very grateful. However, over the next few days, the swelling moved from place to place on my head, providing a combination of amusement and nervousness. We didn’t have time to get it looked at any further in Quito or Lima, but the consensus seems to be that it could be a parasite that results from water or eating badly cooked fish. This was almost enough to make me a vegetarian again, but there are some delicious dishes here and the non-meat options are severely limited. So for now, I’m just taking my anti-parasite drugs and avoiding ceviche, which shouldn’t be too hard.