Well, the bot larva removal isn't going quite as smoothly as planned.

I had an appointment at the hospital this week, where the good people in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine got a gander at my little resident. It's becoming something of a theme for this particular medical incident, but I got two medical students observing again. I don't really mind, but I do see quite enough of students in my work life, without them appearing in my personal life too. Still, they have to learn somehow.

The experts agreed that it was almost certainly a bot larva -- 'almost certainly' because it has obviously died, and is now a squishy mess that even the keenest entomologist wouldn't be able to identify. They suggested that they make an incision into the lump to see if they could extract it, which would save me from an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon.

There followed quite a few painful minutes (why are local anaesthetic injections so painful?) of scalpel action, which I was quite glad not to be able to see, but the bot wasn't budging easily. Rather than follow my example when I'm doing DIY -- half-do a job, then whack a load of filler in to cover the bodges -- they decided to leave it for an orthopaedic surgeon after all. Since the resulting cuts wouldn't stop bleeding they also had a put a couple of stitches in, which means that I've got to go to my GP to get them removed (if I don't sneakily whip them out myself with the kitchen scissors, and claim that they 'just fell out').

To sum up, I went in with an ugly looking but currently painless lump on my foot, and came out with stitches, pain and an upcoming appointment for day surgery. Sometimes you just wish you'd never started on something.