Berne

So the last 10 days hás been a true test of motherhood VS my sheer horror of all things creepy-crawly.

10 days ago I found a boil (furúnculo) on the back of my 1 year old’s head. I didn’t think much of it, maybe the heat (she gets allergies) with an ingrown hair. 2 days later there were two of them and they were really hard and red, and caused her lots of pain to touch.  The next day they burst with pus and it was gross!

So I decided to take her to a my new paediatrician the next day, if anything to get some cream to stave off any infection. I have all my doctor visits in portuguese, it forces me to learn new vocabulary and of course practice. I had to do a double take as I'm sure she said "mosca" / fly - a fly has laid an egg on my baby's head. The language and cultural barrier does help you tone down a reaction, or at least take a pause before you do react.  She said that there was no certainty so she would prescribe some antibiotic cream for the next couple of days, and wait and see. 

So wait and see I did, waiting for that little squiggly to poke it's head out. ugh. In the meantime I sought reassurance from all the Brazilians that this was common. If you live in the interior, on fazendas, surrounded by animals, "mosca da berne" is very common (do not google it if you are squeamish). They all just told me to take it out myself (no thanks) and they had lots of old tricks, like putting a chilli leaf over it to draw it out. 

On Day 10 there was still a lump even though it was generally getting better, and no sign of anything squiggly. I decided to take her to emergency just to double check. The first doctor thought it was most likely berne, but then the surgeon came in and said he couldn't see anything moving, and to only come back when there was actually a little larva moving around. It's not deadly and I personally prefer to wait and see rather than put my little baby girl under general, and have surgery.

Day 14 - it's definitely a furunculo thank god. After 10 days I was told the egg would've hatched and we would have seen her little friend by then.  So I'm writing this blog so if you have the unfortunate experience of thinking you might have berne, have a strong caipirinha and wait it out.