[at-l] Fwd: Leech observation from digest land....

[sloetoe@yahoo.com (Sloetoe)]

### Thought you all might enjoy this.....
--- Sloetoe <sloetoe@yahoo.com> wrote:
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 08:30:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: Sloetoe <sloetoe@yahoo.com>
Subject: Leech observation from digest land....
To: Ultrarunning <ULTRA@LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU>

> Date:    Mon, 24 Sep 2001 13:56:25 -0400
> From:    "Erickson, Mike R" <EricksonMR@NAVAIR.NAVY.MIL>
> Subject: knee pain
> 
> It would seem to be the final word on treatment of knee pain:
> 
> Leeches Can Help Ease Knee Pain

> A new study finds the slimy critters can help ease the pain arthritis.
> Leeches may be the remedy for aching knees, according to a pilot study
> conducted in Germany.

### While finishing Vermont's Long Trail this summer, my boys and I came
upon lovely Lake Pleiad, nestled into the side of Middlebury Gap (I think)
at about 2800'. The boys had a great time dashing through the dark,
shallow water after salamanders while I putzed about with camp chores. All
was very relaxed until, while strolling out to get water from an
undisturbed depth of the lake, I spied a leech quietly undulating toward
me. It was maybe an inch long, black to darkly gray, and about as thick as
a pencil. And although I hadn't actually seen one live before, I knew it
to be a leech right off. Now, I'd just turned 41 years old, have been in
the woods a longgggg time, and am a pretty rough-tough/I-can-take-it kind
of guy anyway, but I've got to tell ya...
When that sucker got near me, and started to grow to two inches,
thicken, grow to *three* inches, *four* inches, FIVE INCHES AND KEPT
GROWING...well, that sight connected to something Stephen Kingish in the
back of my mind, and I found out, as I exited the lake by walking on TOP
of the water, that my knee(s) were doing just fine. That leech
*definitely* had an effect on me.

That is all.
Go on about your business.
Sloetoe
AT'79
LT'01 !


P.S., Yes, my seven year old boys *made* me go back into the water and
catch it in the cooking pot. I tell ya, it was *really* cool. Could
stretch clear across the pot. Even let him(?) latch on -- felt like a
cockleburr -- MAJOR willies! And the boys continued to swim -- even the
next morning -- maybe their knees were hurting too...?

=====
Spatior, Nitor, Nitor, In Nitor!

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