I have been in San Jose for the last couple of days now, getting treated for a crab bite. More accurately, I either stepped on or kicked one, I'm not sure which,while I was swimming and he grabbed onto my foot and held on tight! It really hurt, so I tried to kick him off, but he had a vice grip on my foot and I had to jump around, violently shaking my leg, in order to dislodge him. My foot was bleeding and swelled up pretty good, to the point that I can only wear my flip/flops and no other shoes. I was sent to San Jose along with Marta, a Norwegian girl, on medical passes. I have to have antibiotics and be monitored again as my foot is healing to make sure it doesn't get infected. Poor Marta, though, has it worse. She brought with her some kind of bug spray from Norway that just did not work at ALL against the critters down here, and she got bitten by everything. Actually, we have all been bitten, despite repellant and mosquito nets, but she is just covered with bites, and then they turned this really weird red color and look sort of like bruises, and she says her skin burns all over. So, she has to see a different doctor to make sure she does not have leishmaniasis. She really freaked out, because it can be fatal if not treated, although in the vast majority of cases it is not, but it is not uncommon to have scarring from it. She was even talking about flying home for treatment, but an American biologist at the site told her she got leishmaniasis years ago in a remote rainforest area of Panama, and she went home to Boston and visited the top medical centers, but they had to keep consulting other doctors and calling infectious disease specialists because no one knew quite what to do about a patient with leishmaniasis. She said at one point, twenty doctors and medical students all came into her room at the clinic to look at her bites and take notes, because it was probably the only time in their entire medical career that they would get to see a case of leishmaniasis.
I thought it was kind of interesting because they told her she should slather up with baby oil, which apparently sand fleas hate the smell, taste, and texture of. Sand fleas are the tiny little pests that carry the disease. Also, they told us we should buy vitamin B1 supplements because mosquitos detest the taste of it, and they can even detect the smell on your skin and won't bite you. Not sure if these really work are just old wives tales, but I thought it was kind of interesting. I have already been bitten twice on my face as I cannot put DEET on my face, it makes it burn and sting, and most mosquitos seem to be repelled by my face cream but not here. I'm actually grateful that I'm here with something that is easily treated and not leishmaniasis. I really feel for poor Marta, and hope she is going to be okay. I'll write with an update later, hope everyone is doing well. Laura
