The Kiss

I was afraid this was going to happen.

You remember the dream you had last night?

Don't you?

Or you thought it was a dream.

A hazy figure,

lightly touching your cheek.

So soft,
but also pointy.

You imagined it could have been,
sharpened fingernails caressing your skin,

of a petite manicured women.

The movement was sometimes circular,

sometimes tapping straight across,

from one cheek to the other.

Then the taps slow down,

inching closer,

ever closer to your lips.

You feel it as sensual,

enjoyable.

The tapping stops.

That's when you realize there are six set of fingernail tips contacting  your chin

and lower lip.

You know inside your dream something is wrong.

Will this feeling go away

or is there nothing to be suspicious of?

You quickly sit up in bed

and slap away at your lower lip!

It wasn't the voluptuous kiss you were expecting in your dream.

Whatever was crawling on your face bit your lower lip.

Oh no!

It was a bite from the Triatominae!

THE KISSING BUG!

They carry the

American Trypanosomiasis.

A tropical parasitic disease caused by the

Protozoan Trypanosoma Cruzi.

Better known as the

Chagas Disease.

Your symptoms will change over the course of the infection.

In the early stage,

your symptoms are typically either asymptomatic,

(not present)

or mild,

so be warned.

Still,

it may include a fever,

swollen lymph nodes,

headaches,

or local swelling at the site of the bite.

After 8 to 12 weeks,

if you don't seek treatment,

you'll enter the chronic phase of disease,

in which your heart rhythm may have abnormalities that will cause your sudden death.

If you survive the early phases of the disease,

when you believe your health has gotten better,

you'll develop further symptoms 10 to 30 years after the initial infection!

Including enlargement of the ventricles of the heart,

leading to heart failure.

A dilated heart that doesn’t pump blood well.

Or an enlarged esophagus

or an enlarged colon,

leading to difficulties with eating

or passing stool.

Why didn't you wake up in time?

Why?

Wait,

what?

You don't believe this can possibly happen to you?

OK,

try not to think about it tonight before you go to bed.

I dare you.

If you think it's just a case of a little bed bug biting you,

fine.

See what I care.

It may not have happen last night,

but remember,
that one night?

This is,

Hoping I Planted The Seed Of Doubt Inside Your Mind Hypochondriacs,

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“The physician should not treat the disease but the patient who is suffering from it” - Maimonides -

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

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