Saturday 15 May 2010

Shudder

Also in the paper today, it is reported that Charlie Lynn, a New South Wales MP who has walked the Kokoda Track 59 times, has come back from his most recent trip without his eyesight, after bathing in dirty water. Don't read further, unless you enjoy grimacing and squirming:

'His doctors are still unable positively to identify the organism that has invaded his corneas, but it appears to be a "spiny amoeba" ..."They've been scraping the eye and examining it with a giant microscope and they still can't identify it," Mr Lynn said, "They told me it was like a microscopic parasite that had a shell, and when you put the drops in it could close its shell and protect itself."'

'They've been scraping the eye' is a horrible enough phrase, but the idea of a spiny amoeba with a shell it can close living inside your cornea is just simply disgusting. Who needs Ridley Scott when we have this stuff as reality?

6 comments:

  1. That's gross. Just makes me squirm. And not want to wash ever again.

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  2. Madame - you could try washing in goggles
    Worm - did I tell you about my friend who went to Nigeria and his shirt was hung out to dry under a mango tree and - actually I can't face the rest. Maybe when I'm feeling stronger. Suffice to say there were elements of Alien in what followed

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  3. oh that poor man

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  4. 'That certainly looks like a lot of fun', as this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwTy6tO994U - lady would say.

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