The Blister Beetle

The Blister Beetle......... What the hell it is??? Do you feel like asking any such question??? Am sure that you wont ask after seeing the photos given in this blog. The result of a suspected BLISTER BEE attack. I want to share my experience

Its the time i was in Bangalore. Year 2008. Its October. And 2008 October was well rich with holidays... So normally alternate weekends i slip off to my native in Kerala 8 hours from there. The way to my native is Mysore-Gundalpet-Wayanad-Calicut. We should go through the dense Bandhipur-Masanagudi-Muthanga Forest range.

Around middle of October, after two days holidays, a saturday and sunday with my family. Was going back. This time i didnt get a good bus of PK(which i normally go) or Kallada. I was forced to book for KSRTC(its Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation or Karnataka Rastra Road Sarige Nigam). Got a window seat. But the worst part was that the window was not getting fully closed, had a small opening and its hell cold going through the forest. The bus was at 9PM from Calicut. After trying for a long time i slipped to sleep and it was a good sleep. The bus reached Bangalore early morning. I went straight to my room there. Its so early in the morning and i decided to take a small nap. Threw away all the stuff in the hall, went to bed room and jumped on to bed.

Its late... 7.45AM. Got up from bed. I should reach office at 9. Should take bath. I have a burning sensation in my neck with some pain. Ahhhhhhhhh!!!! Something has happened to my left hand. There is a long straight line burn near my wrist. And a blister near my elbow. I tried to get a look of my neck in the mirror. Horror!!!! The whole part of my back neck looks like it has suffered some acid burn

Already my neck was so sticky with some type of fluid or something getting secreated from inside the wound.Immediately i called my colleague and rushed to St.Johns Medical college. Saw a dermatologist. But they couldnt identify what the hell it is. My father suggested to come back to native. So i came back and consulted in Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences.

Dr.Pavithran of dermatology department. He asked same questions as the doctors in St.Johns. Did some acid fell on me??? My answer was same... I would have known if some concentrated acid has fell on my skin. I narrated the whole story to him. Now he had the doubt about the hero of the story - THE BLISTER BEETLE. He told there is a chance of these insects inside forests. So it would have got into my collar while travelling in bus. He admitted me there and suggested Saline compression and antibiotics. But day by day my condition got worse. My wound was not at all healing and it was getting rotten. So my case was handed over to Plastic Surgery Dept.

Dr.Hafiz Muhammed was the plastic surgeon. He explained me what they are actually gonna do. They were gonna clean my whole wound and graft skin to neck taking from thighs. And this was something i had only heard in films... My date of operation was fixed. And the operation was so costly. 15000 for operation alone... But it did good to me. Finally when the bandages were removed it looked better and through gradual medication it was getting healed.

I got discharged after some days. After long days of medication and care, my neck came to state that i can touch that part without pain. But the sad part was that there were some irregularities developing there and moreover it is difficult for hair to grow again in that part of head above the neck. To deal with the irregularities developing there, doctor suggested to use some gel and a belt to put on. The follow ups are still going on to make my neck look good.

This stupid BLISTER BEETLE has given me lots of pain. Got hospitalised for 12 days. Lost over 1 month of work. And caused an hospital expense of over 40000/-.