can you say OUCH!

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Brain Worm!

Woman Has Parasite Removed From Skull

April 10 — Three years ago, Dawn Becerra ate a pork taco while vacationing in Mexico.

It was a pork taco she would not soon forget. Becerra said the treat not only made her ill for three weeks, it left something behind — something in her brain. She began suffering seizures. "I was tired and sick so it made it more difficult," she said. "I knew that this wasn't the way I wanted to live the rest of my life, with seizures."

A Worm Inside Her Brain

Doctors at the Mayo Clinic discovered that Becerra had a worm inside her head. Last November, she was told that if she wanted to live a normal, seizure-free life, she would need brain surgery.

"The thought of a worm being in your brain is very strange, very difficult to deal with," she said. But the thought of brain surgery wasn't easy to deal with, either.

"All of a sudden, I realized they were going to cut open my brain, and take a worm out of my brain" she said. "I don't even know if I had cried before this. I guess I have a couple times, but... that realization was devastating."

Six Hours to Find the Parasite

She underwent the amazing six-hour procedure last week — awake the entire time, and using only acupuncture and a mild anesthesia to deal with the pain.

Doctors say they needed her awake because the procedure would take them into an extremely sensitive area of the brain — and would have to talk to her during the operation to help keep track of what they were doing. They spoke to the bilingual Becerra in both Spanish and English during the operation.

Once her head was open, surgeons stimulated the brain tissue electrically before they cut into it, to better understand where in the brain they were working.

Finally, they found the worm. It was dead, and as it decayed it damaged some of Becerra's brain tissue.

Doctors removed the dead worm and the damaged tissue — without doing any long-term damage to their patient.

Dawn Becerra is doing incredibly well — so well, in fact, that she won't need a check up for six months.

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001

Answers

Gawd, first thing I see! Luckily, I wouldn't eat any meat when I was there or I'd wonder. . . Does this worm get in fish or cheese, do you know? Never mind, I think I'd rather live in blissful ignorance.

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001

And all this time we thought it was the water!

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001

All I can think about is that worm from Dune. It's the spice I tell ya!

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001