Sunday, May 25, 2008

Lea Ann is in Horrible Danger

Yesterday we went hiking at Khao Yai National Park, when suddenly I heard a scream coming from behind me. I turned back and saw Lea Ann covered in blood! She was flailing around screaming to "Get them off me...get them off me!" like a total wuss. Ok...so I'm exaggerating a little. She wasn't really covered in blood but there were at least 5 specks of blood on her socks. Seriously!

The realization suddenly hit me. We were standing in a leech field. No...not a septic system...that's a leach field. We were standing in a bunch of leeches.

Those little bastards were crawling all over our shoes, and a few had already latched onto our ankles (through our socks!). Lea Ann got it the worst because she was wearing pants that hung near the ground...a perfect target for a nearby leech to grab onto! If we were wise, we would have bought some anti-leech gators from the gift shop before heading out. But we didn't realize that the leeches here are like ninjas that can leap off of the ground as you are walking by. I thought they only lived in water...wrong. After we realized what was happening, we ran through the jungle to try to find a sunny dry spot that had no leeches. We found a bridge and we (ok...I) picked them off one-by-one.
I think I pulled them off too quickly or something...because later on Lea Ann noticed a bunch of blood on her pants! She had a really bad leech bite that wouldn't stop bleeding! Look at this picture...gross! We got back to the car and Lea Ann got a band-aid...and is now in stable condition.

2 comments:

zoe'smom said...

OMGosh! I hope you are ok from the attack of the killer leeches! Chris, you nearly gave me a heart attack when I started reading this!

Anonymous said...

Hi Chris & LeeAnn,
It was my fault I didn't follow your new blogs. Somehow I managed to put you in my favorites but only the Febuary blogs. I fixed that!
Thought you might be interest to know that the leeches have a anti coagulant in their saliva which keeps the blood flowing for their
indulgence without clotting.
Look forward to more blogs.
Dorothy & Lillian