I wanted to write about this awhile back and instead it just sat in my archives  head waiting to be posted.  

Let me introduce you to our new pet “Bicho de Pe”  pronounced {bee shoe jee pay.}  The exact translation would be foot thang {is how I like to say it, but better known as thing}.   Bicho is one of those words in Portuguese that is hard to translate.  It is one of my favorite words.  I guess you could translate it as pet, animal, thing, creature .. all in one, it can be living or sometimes not.  It’s just one of those words that isn’t really translate-able (if that’s a word)  Anyhoo.. I digress.   A few weeks back after Max came home from the beach with Malu I noticed a little thing on her toe.  It looked like a callous with a big black center, but very swollen.  I told Max to take a look at it and upon examination he told me it was a bicho de pe.  Now I have heard about them before.  And known many friends who have gotten them, but me myself have never gotten one or saw one on a friend.  

SO what is a ‘foot thang’ anyhow?  It is basically a little female sand flea/bug/worm that lives in the shaded areas of the beach.  It boroughs into your skin {usually under your nails in the feet or hands, hence the name ‘foot thang’, but can enter in any part of your body}  And it lays it’s eggs, digging in further under you skin laying eggs the whole entire time.  It looks like a callous with a little black dot in the center.  I think the whole thing is disgusting.  But more disgusting in thought, than actual appearance.   

SO …here is my one year old daughter with a little flea under her skin laying eggs *gags*  I-just-couldn’t-get-the-thought-out-of-my-head.  I have been here 3 years and on the beach daily and never once run in with the dreaded ‘foot thang’ but my one year old daughter picks it up in the first year of life.  

The only treatment of the ‘foot thang’ is to remove it , usually done yourself…… {the locals then put Vicks vapor rub on the huge crater that is left behind.  They say it closes the hole quicker and suffocates the flea if you didn’t remove the whole thing. Kinda like a tick, you must be careful to remove the whole thing or she/he will grow back} 

….BUT I brought little Malu to the local hospital in hopes that they could rub a numbing cream over it before removal.  NO SUCH thing at the village hospital.   Upon which the very hesitant doctor then replied “por isso”  {for this, I don’t want to remove this from your young daughter.}  But after some gentle convincing, yeah I actually had to convince him a bit, he finally did it.  I was very nervous, because normally my daughter is very *intense* but on this day, she just stared while the doctor cut her toe open and didn’t cry a drop.  AMAZING!  And then which the doctor replied “ela e boazinha”  ”She is a good little one”.  And which I replied .. “yes she is”, with a big proud, mamae smile.  After it was all said and done she had a *HUGE* crater on this little, tiny, toe of hers.  It took about 2 weeks to heal.  And yes I did put the Vicks on it .. I didn’t want to take a chance with the “pet” returning.  

I took some pictures of the actual bicho de pe {see below} but forgot to take after photos of the crater left in her toe.  :-/

Bicho de pe

Psstt .. you wanna prevent yourself from getting a Bicho de Pe?   Then you should always wear your shoes whilst on the beach in Pipa, otherwise sooner or later you will have a little ‘pet’ pay you a visit!