I have just had a bath and was
drying myself in front of a mirror in the bedroom when I saw, through the
mirror, a big black spot on my thigh. I took a closer look at the black spot
and saw it squirming.
“Aaaaaaaaargh…….!”
As far as I can remember, that
was the loudest scream I have ever made in my entire life. I shouted for help
while jumping up and down in the room, obviously forgotten that I was only clad
in a towel.
Mom came in to rescue me. When I showed her the black, wriggling thing
on my thigh with my eyes tightly shut, to my surprise, she screamed too!
Because there was no one else in the house at that time except for my two
younger sisters and a baby brother (my father was at work), we did not know
what to do.
“Oh mom! I’m gonna die! I am
definitely going to die!”
I cried my heart out, still
jumping, while mom frantically tried to find a stick to remove the black spot. It
was a leech. A huge one!
After about half an hour or so, the
leech was finally detached from my skin. Not because mom kept poking it with a
skewer (Yeah, that’s right. OMG!) but because it had drained up all my blood
and now it felt a bit dizzy with this non-stop jumping activity of the host so
it decided to take a leap of faith from high above and landed a splat on the
floor. Looks like suicide to me.
That was my first encounter with
a leech. I was only ten then. Apparently, the incident left a remarkably scary
impression of a ferocious blood-sucking beast in my mind until… yesterday.
We had a family gathering
yesterday at my sister-in-law’s house. We ate, talked and laughed merrily. The whole night was all about food, politics,
movie, gadgets, and futsal too. After some while, my SIL brought
out a plastic container wrapped nicely in a black plastic bag. When asked what
was inside the container, she took it out and showed the content to everyone –
LEECHES. Very alive and aggressive too. The sight of the leeches gave me goose
bumps. It reminded me my horrible experience with a leech long time ago.
“Anybody wanna have this leeches
suck up your dirty blood and perhaps solve some of your health problem?” She
offered.
“Such as what?” I asked.
“Sinus, migraine, pimples, pus,
delicate backache, gout, in short, anything associated with dirty blood”
[photo courtesy of Encyclopaedia Brittanica]
I have heard about medicinal
leeches used in reconstructive surgery, or for treating abscessess, painful
joints, glaucoma, and in some cases, microvascular surgery (more information
here). But honestly, I am not sure if
this curing method using leeches to suck impure blood as suggested by my SIL would
work. Even if it really works, I have doubts that only doing it once will
instantly solve the health problem. I believe it needs to be done repetitiously
in order to see results. Just like we repetitiously take antibiotics to cure
influenza. As a matter of fact, the main application of medicinal leeches in
modern medicine is to help with blood circulation and to prevent blood clot
during major surgery. So how does sucking dirty blood from a person’s temple
help him/her get rid of his/her migraine problem? *scratch head*
Anyway, with a different
objective in mind, I decided to let these blood-sucking slimy squirmy little
creatures with powerful jaw sink their sharp, devilish teeth to do what they do
best: suck blood! (credits go to Hugh Laurie from House for giving me a lesson
or two on using magical sarcastic words!) Not to cure any illness in me, but to
overcome Bdellophobia: the fear of leeches.
So here are the pictures of the
medicinal leeches sticking at the back of my hubby (always the best model for a
photography session!) and sucking on the so called impure blood of his to cure
backache.
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Also here is the picture of my SIL’s husband who threw a ceremonial feast for the spineless creatures all night long to cure his sinus. LOL. .png)
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Just look at the fantastic
incision made by a medicinal leech. It has a strong tripartite jaw and hundreds
of tiny teeth that cut into the skin in a sawing motion and leave behind an
incision mark in the form of inverted Y within a circle. Neat!
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[photo courtesy of Carsten Morkel]
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At the end of the session, I
figured out that the word ‘fear’ is not so suitable for me because it’s not the
feeling of fear of leeches that I felt inside me. It’s more of the disgusting
feelings of ‘ewh’ and ‘yucky’ that overwhelm me when I encounter these
creepy-crawlies and that include maggots and caterpillars too.
And oh! By the way, the picture below is the bag of dirty blood from 7 people in the family sucked by about 20 leeches altogether. Can you see the mouth of the leech [enlarge the pic] within the plastic bag? Yucks!
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In conclusion, I am brave enough to say that I am not afraid of
leeches after all. But one thing I am totally sure, I am afraid of my creator,
Allah The Almighty.And oh! By the way, the picture below is the bag of dirty blood from 7 people in the family sucked by about 20 leeches altogether. Can you see the mouth of the leech [enlarge the pic] within the plastic bag? Yucks!
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