An Unexpected Plot-Twist

Sunday, April 5th — I called the Wound Care Center first thing on Thursday morning and left a message for Stacy, telling her about the Great Escape and asking her please to fit me in for an appointment as soon as she could. It wasn’t ten minutes before the receptionist called back and told me to come in at 11:00. Stacy, unfortunately, was off on Thursday and Friday; but Emily could take care of me. (She would have been the one to take the maggots off after 48 hours on Friday, anyway.)

They’ve Got to Go

Emily asked Ryan and Ashley to stand by on this one, and it’s a good thing. More than two hands were needed, and mine did not qualify. After removing the very soggy outer dressings and getting down to the Containment Hut, Emily noted that there were Escapees all over the place. It was easier to identify the exit now, since the lip of the Hut had raised up even more. “We’ll have to remove them,” said she. “There’s no way we can stick this down properly, and they’ll just get loose all over again.”

I was dismayed, because I felt somehow that I  had failed. But Emily explained what had happened. The maggots had simply produced so much more drainage than was usual that the Containment Field had, in effect, been pulled right off its moorings by the liquid building up inside. She and Ryan agreed  they had never seen so much drainage produced in only 24 hours.

Lining Up to Get Out!

“And hey, guys, come here and look at this! You won’t believe this: they’re lining up to get to the exit hole!” Ryan and Ashley pressed closer to get a better look, while I yelped, “Wait! Wait! I need to get my glasses! Somebody hand me my bag!” It was true. Most of the remaining maggots were clustered in a far corner of the Hut, but there was an actual line of them moving toward the opening in the opposite corner. Now, I won’t say they were moving in single file, nor were they marching or goose-stepping; but they were definitely heading for that hole.

“How can this be? ” I wondered. “I didn’t even know they had brains!”

Emily answered, “A maggot lives for only two things: one, to eat; and two, to Get Out.” So they hadn’t concocted a devious plot, they were just following the Natural Imperative of the species. At the same time, they were bringing themselves to the Final Incineration 24 hours earlier than anticipated. If they’d just stayed cool, they could’ve kept gorging themselves at the Best Buffet in Town for another whole day.

Water or Tweezers: I’ll Take Water Every Time!

Then ensued a rather soothing sluicing of the wound with sterile water, to remove as many as possible of the remaining maggots. My leg was placed over a red plastic BioWaste bag, and the water was poured over me and into the bag until nobody else was coming out. The bag was then tied up firmly and given to an assistant for delivery to Incineration.  But we weren’t done yet!

For the next fifteen minutes or so, both Ryan and Emily carefully picked out the more determined hangers-on with tweezers.  This was not pleasant. Not even a little bit. When I get nervous, or when I’m trying not to act like a wuss in a difficult situation, I tend to talk a lot, and rather faster than usual. It keeps my mind off what’s actually going on. Ryan was really good at keeping a fast conversation going while picking slowly and precisely at leftover maggots.

Once they were all gone, Emily examined the wound more closely. “They’ve actually done a really good job,” she said. “You can see that most of the yellowish tissue is gone, and there’s even some healthy-looking red stuff showing.” After further discussion with Ryan, and while she was binding me up again in lots and lots of gauze and another compression bandage, she said I was to come back on Saturday morning for a dressing change. They could decide then whether I’d benefit from another 48-hour course of maggots, or if there might be another way of achieving the same goal. “Boy, Stacy’s really gonna wish she hadn’t missed seeing this!” she said. And then — “Oh, jeez, I forgot to take a picture! She’ll kill me!” But she didn’t want to unwind all that compression bandage and start over, which was probably just as well.

End of Another Chapter…

So it was back to taking a shower with my leg in a plastic bag for me, till Saturday. And then there would be still more discussion, depending on how the wound looked then. My guess is that a final decision on the next step won’t be made until Stacy is back on Monday, since she is the Head Maggot Lady and all.

Who knew this was going to be such a complicated adventure? Silly me — I thought it would be, put the maggots on, wear them home, live my life painlessly for two days, get them taken off, and bingo! All would be well. Guess not… Thanks for reading — Betsy