Department of African Maladies and Injuries

I have been nursing a seriously ugly wound the last 6 weeks, but it didn't ever seem that serious and I always figured it would just go away if I would just stop opening it with my knife to see if there were worms in it. Alas, this did not happen and with great persistence I began to take care of it. Besides the fact that thumbs are very useful and have a great deal of contact with anything and everything that I encounter, I did my best to keep from letting the injury explode. Basically what happened was six weeks ago I noticed a little blood blister smaller than a pencil eraser. I immediately went to inspect the area by opening it with my knife. When nothing happened I just left it alone. However, it started to get bigger and every time I would do my laundry or barely knock it, it would open up and bleed profusely. I was told to keep it covered but in covering it I was keeping it moist which not only prevented it from healing but also caused the infection to be exacerbated.
It started to get larger and harder to care for so the PCMO looked up the injury in her book of weird tropical diseases and it turns out that the kind of blood blister I had may or may not go away on it's own after 6 months of diligent care. Unfortunately, I live in a mud hut in the middle of Africa with no chance of maintaining cleanliness for any long period of time, so we had planned for me to come in from site a month after I was installed (installation means I was left in my site with all of my things to fend for myself with little or no language skills). Unfortunately the blister grew by about two sizes over the course of my travels to my site, so I called the PCMO and we decided that it was necessary to take care of the injury ASAP. I came into Bamako on Friday only to wait until this morning to be attacked by a scalpal. The procedure requires that they remove the blister and then apply electricity to cauterize the area that will not stop bleeding. Awesome. The worst part was the local anesthetic, which was absolutely agonizing and I did actually cry. In addition to the pain and suffering I had to go through, I had to have the procedure this is creepy room at this weird dermotological facility that was named something in french that ended with "Maladies." There was also a long line of patients waiting to be seen outside with all kinds of strange dermotological conditions that literally made me want to jump on a plane and go home.
All in all, I'm fine now, and I have some pretty wicked pictures to put up, but I left my cord at site so those will have to wait for a month. The picture I put up of the injury was from a month ago. When they removed it, the blister was about the size of a nickel and protruding from my thumb.
I have to go back to the doctor on Thursday and then hopefully I'll be able to go home. Who knows!?