Right, having dealt with the unpleasant events of fact number 9 let’s move on to the rather lighter events of fact number 10.
You’ve probably gathered by now that I was a skinny child although Mum always tried to persuade me that ‘slim’ was a much more attractive word.
When I was 11, during my last term at primary school, I began to lose weight quite visibly. My elastic belt had to be constantly adjusted to keep my shorts up and during a swimming lesson one of the boys commented that my ribs were even more countable than usual.
To emphasise my diminishing size my trunks fell down when I was getting out of the pool which all the kids thought was hysterically funny although I didn’t.
The most worrying part of this was that my appetite hadn’t suffered at all. I still demolished a cooked breakfast every morning and at lunchtime was almost always the first in the queue for seconds if they were on offer. As soon as I got home from school I wanted something to eat and always had a proper supper.
Naturally Mum was concerned about this weight loss so another unwelcome day off school was arranged and I was taken into Petworth to see the doctor.
Things started out predictably enough, me with no clothes on and the doctor with his finger up my bottom but nothing obvious was found via that route.
Then he moved up and started feeling around my tummy and I, being horrible ticklish, started to squirm around which got me a telling off, this was serious!
Finally he made me open my mouth, using a wooden spatula to depress my tongue, and shone a light down my throat.
With a “Ah ha!” of triumph he clearly found what he was looking for and told me to get dressed again.
For the first time ever he actually spoke to me rather than talking to Mum as if I wasn’t even in the room and delivered the verdict that I’d got a tape worm. I had no idea what that was and being an inquisitive little chap demanded a full explanation.
I wished I hadn’t when he not only explained what a tape worm was and how it worked but showed me a horribly graphic drawing of one with a diagram showing just how much of my innards this monster was inhabiting.
He also explained how we were going to get rid of this thing. Every morning I’d have to take some medicine which was “a bit nasty” but would hopefully make the worm release its hold and eventually nature would take its course, the worm would end up leaving by the only available route.
The idea of of expelling something as long as that absolutely fascinated me although the doctor did explain that as it lost its grip it would shrink quite a bit. Nonetheless it seemed a suitable fate for such a beastly thing.
The following morning, after breakfast I had my first experience of the medicine that was “a bit nasty”, it was absolutely disgusting! I’d never tasted anything so bitter and vile in my life and was very nearly sick on the spot. There were floods of tears and a great deal of persuasion was needed to convince me that this was for my own good.
The second morning, knowing what was coming, I put up a terrible fight and pretty well threw a full scale tantrum. I lost the battle of course and still had to take the medicine, it just meant that I went to school with a sore bottom as well as a vile taste in my mouth.
With morbid fascination I checked the toilet every time I went and at long last, over a week later, was thrilled and terrified to see a worm shaped thing and a lot of blood.
I was delighted to have got rid of the invader but the blood scared me into another fit of tears and Mum had to invest about a quarter of an hour reassuring me that not only was I not dying but I was actually better.
Just to be absolutely certain that everything was clear I had to keep taking that awful medicine for another week but there was no further evidence of worms and I even regained a tiny bit of weight.
Love
Oh, dear!I’ve heard about those nasty buggers and I surely eat like i have one up my intestines but, hmmm, maybe i’m a perv but it’s a pretty fascinating odd fact, hehe. I’m sorry for the nastiness of the medicine though.
Hugs
L.(aka nerstes)
Oh, I don’t think it’s a perv thing, I was absolutely fascinated by the whole event. What I really wanted was for it to come out full sized, that would have been something to boast about!
Love
Malcolm