An animated GIF of a tapeworm being pulled out of a human. Looks like it was in a male’s left upper arm, and it looks like it was removed by a female nurse in a clinical setting. It amuses me that, to this day, sometimes the most obvious solution (yank the sucker out) is apparently the best one.
Must have felt so satisfying to finally get that beastie out.
<prepares to regret clicking…>
Ok, it wasn’t sooo bad, but OMG was that thing actively wriggling when she was dangling it after pulling it out?
How would a tapeworm be in your arm? I thought they were almost always in the intestine.
I’ve seen enough tapeworm segments on the ass of my cat to last a lifetime, thanks. You can deworm them every freaking month and the little fuckers come back with the next flea that gets eaten…or a mouse that wasn’t fast enough. And I’m talking about an indoor cat that gets treated for fleas every month.
Living in the middle of corn country sucks. And now I’m going to have arm-tapeworm nightmares, as if scarecrows weren’t freakish enough to already keep me awake.
That looks like an abscess packing to me.
Agree, that was not a worm.
I’m glad you said that. When I was a teen I had surgery on my nose. (deviated septum) Actually spent the night or was it two? Anyway when that unpacked the bandages from my nose, that is what it looked like and I was starting to wonder if they were actually removing tape worms from my nose.
As they were pulling it out, it looked almost like a ribbon. Weird.
That is definitely not a worm, I think it is abscess packing.
Also, while tapeworms live in your intestines, the guinea worm can live in your extremities. Fortunately, it is on the cusp of being the second human disease to be eradicated.
love
yams!!
Concur. That had the look of fabric, and guinea worms don’t come out that easily - they have to be coaxed out a little at a time - often wrapped around a stick.
Yeah, possibly a guinea worm.
Wikipedia article: Dracunculus medinensis - Wikipedia
Pulling them out like that is said to be horribly painful. (According to an article I saw somewhere, which included a still pic.) NOT pulling them out is probably horribly painful too. You need brain bleach after reading about stuff like that.
It looks like abscess packing to me, as well. I am way, way too familiar with that stuff.
FWIW, it didn’t hurt when it came out, when I had to have some wounds packed. It just sort of tickled.
Now I can sleep a bit easier, thank you.
Yep. Definitely not a tapeworm. Not only do tapeworms live only in the intestinal tract, but they don’t have muscles - they can’t squirm or wriggle.
Now the guinea worm - that’s a nasty piece of work. You do have to pull them out of your limbs, but you can’t pull too far or too fast, or they’ll break and you’ll have a bad case of blood poisoning. So what you do is wait for it to stick its end out of your skin one day and grab it. You slowly twist it around a small stick, pulling it out maybe a centimeter or two. Then you tape it down. The next day, you give it another few turns, then tape it back down. Repeat daily until it’s finally all the way out.
One of the more vivid lectures from the “worms” unit of my medical microbiology class.
I can give you an earworm which will keep you from sleeping easily, if you like. <evil cackle> Earworms are not easily dislodged. Even guinea worms are easier. Let’s see, I’ve already used “Julie Do You Love Me”, what should I use next?
Success! Time for brandy!
I seem to recall on House a case when a tapeworm offspring had migrated to the brain. When they removed the one in the intestines, it stopped producing whatever anti-inflammatory chemical was preventing the body from attacking it. The body then attacked the one in the brain, and medical chaos ensued.
Have I got that right?
Here it is, it was the Pilot in fact: House (season 1) - Wikipedia
Anyone remember that blogger who would talk about how accurate the medical science was on House ? I want to read about the episode TruCelt mentions. It’s not easy to search for, with the name of the show being such a generic word.
So you’re saying it wasn’t Lupus?
