Leeches

If you're at all squeamish, you may not want to read this entry. The photo of the leech is taken from here. This story is about a leech that coulda, shoulda and did. The last two weekends I went bushwalking. On my walk to Figure 8 Pools I collected two leeches. One leech I found on my ankle. It must have only just latched on, because when I removed it I didn't bleed. The second fully engorged leech I knocked off my waist when I took my shirt off to go swimming. This leech must have put a good supply of anti-coagulant into me because I bled for about three hours. That wasn't the end of it though. The next day, the bites became really itchy. I did a bit of research and found out two things.
1. People can be allergic to leeches
2. If leeches are removed the wrong way, they regurgitate into you and cause infections.

So I'm itchy and nothing seems to be stopping the itch. I became inflamed across an area about 10cm (4 inches) wide, with the area around the wound becoming hard. After checking with a pharmacist, I treated the wound with antiseptic and took an antihistamine every day for the next week. Just one day of the antiseptic made a huge difference. You can understand then, that the following week when I went bushwalking I was quick to remove leeches as soon as they waved their way on to my shoes. I got rid of about four and my vigilance (some may call it paranoia) alerted everyone in my group to their presence. For those of you who need to know, the safest way to remove a leech is to push your fingernail under their head, detaching them slowly, then flicking them away. Of course, if you can bear it you can just leave them to have their fill and wait for them to fall off. As some have questioned my sources, I'm including a link to an Australian Museum factsheet and one to an American Health website :)