Confession #1: I have an irrational fear of walking barefoot on wet bathroom floors.
Before Tiffany and Patrick left, Tiffany and I had a small, but exaggerated, celebration about my freedom from that fear. Asia had changed me because everywhere you went you had to take off your shoes and since showers didn’t have curtains there, the floors were always wet. I was free.
Confession #1a: I am no longer walking in freedom in regards to moist bathroom floors. My irrational fear of walking on wet bathroom floors has been intensified by a souvenir I picked up in Asia that my whole squad affectionately refers to as the fuzzy wart.
Confession #2: Since Asia, I have had some sort of growth on my big toe.
We tried to address this particular nuisance in a variety of ways. We prayed for healing, tried medication, Jared tried to use his pocket knife to saw it off, and at one point cast the demons out of it. I was at a loss of what to do, so I pretended it wasn’t there…until it grew too big to avoid. Sick I know. I’m sorry to be divulging such personal and grotesque information on my blog, but I have committed to giving you a glimpse into my life on the World Race and I wouldn’t do my portrayal of my time here justice without a full blog dedicated to countless hours of personal strife and anguish caused by the late fuzzy wart. It seriously was the vain of my existence.
Turns out, I just had to go to the doctor. Erin got Malaria, so I took advantage of the opportunity to weasel out a free examination (we are scavengers on the race…comparable, but worse than college student scavengism). Erin was able document our experience. Disclaimer: these photos are not for the faint of heart or weak stomachs.
This is the fuzzy wart.
This is our pastors’ faces when they saw fuzzy wart. Please note the doctor’s head cocked to the side in disgust.
So the doctor put me on 1,000 mg of Augmentin, which is some ridiculously strong antibiotic and told me to come back. I came back a couple of days later and they said it had to “ripen” more. Two days ago, I went back and it was finally the day. Here is Erin’s account of the experience (she worked at a hospital): I was laying on my stomach so I was blind to the actions behind me. I was told that I would feel a small prick, which is apparently Hindi for a 3 inch gauge needle being thrust into my toe at least 7 times. Then they proceeded pull out a sanitized box cutter and a flashlight and start to “gingerly hack” the growth, leaving a quarter sized crater in my toe. Erin has described it to me as a) a canyon, b)a crevice, and c)a crater. They doused it in iodine, wrapped it up and sent me on my way. We had hail a bike taxi and walk half a mile, but we eventually reached home with high spirits and high hopes.
It gives me utmost joy to announce to you that when I went back today, the fuzzy is gone and my toe looks fabulous. I think God actually did do some supernatural healing because I felt no pain and after only two days after being cut up with a box cutter, there’s hardly even a scar. Praise the Lord.
So, it’s not 100%, but it looks better. The yellow is the amazing amounts of iodine poured on.
Insert world race cheer.
Albin- después de leer esto, espero que todavía quieras ser mi novio. Te pido perdón por la vergüenza de tener una novia con un fuzzy wart.
