"Well, I'm Jiggered!"

Now I understand the origin of this British slang phrase. Last Saturday I noticed a small swollen area on my small toe by my toenail. It itched and was tender, but I thought it was just a bite or blister or something. I figured it would just go away with time. This week off an on it would itch and hurt, but I didn't think about it too much. I'm always getting strange bumps from insect bites here. Well, today I was doing home visits and it began to itch a lot so I asked Evas, the Ugandan nurse I work with, to look at it. She looked at it and said, "Kari you have a jigger!" 

I had heard of 'jiggers' because my friend Christy in Kampala, Uganda had one a several months ago, but I think hers was on the bottom of her foot and I didn't really know what it was. I learned today that a 'jigger' is a parasite (like a tick, chigger, or a flea) actually it is a flea and what happens is the pregnant female flea burrows under the skin, sucks blood, swells, and releases eggs. They typically infest the foot area because they cannot 'jump' very far. I asked Evas what I need to do and she said it has to be removed along with the eggs! So we went to my house where I gave Evas a sterile needle and some alcohol pads and she proceeded to dig out my 'jigger'. Let me tell you....this was not a pleasant experience. As she opened the nodule, she saw the eggs, but getting the actual jigger out was not an easy process.

Finally after some time, blood, and pain she removed it and I saw the little pest! It just looked like this hard, small white thing covered in blood. My toe is wrapped up now with antibiotic ointment, but it still hurts some. I kept asking Evas if she was sure she got it all and all the eggs...she says she did. I sure hope so cause I don't want to go through that again! I asked Evas how I got this 'jigger' and she said she didn't know cause she had never even had one! It is usually common of dirty people that live in the village especially children who go barefoot! I know I am not DIRTY, and I wear sandals everyday...I don't go barefoot. So who knows. But I told Evas, "thanks...I guess I need to start paying better attention to my hygiene!"