Amar Kelkar, MD, MPH, FACP Profile picture
BMT/Hematology👨🏾‍⚕️➡️@DanaFarber + @BrighamWomens + @harvardmed | #CareDelivery🔬| @HPJournalClub | @HarvardChanSPH MPH ‘23 | @Cornell ‘10 |❤️Heme & Policy🤓

Apr 12, 2021, 7 tweets

Apparently, I was a much keener observer when I was a student ... or at least took more meticulous notes. From those notes comes a #parasitology story told by a professor during my medical school days. His inflection is lost, but the story remains LEGENDARY! #MedStudentTwitter 1/

As a PhD student, I was on a very small stipend and my supervisor said to me, 'I'll give you $400 if you could be a definitive host for some saginata for me.'

I thought, 'Yeah, no problem.'

2/

I mean the actual tapeworm itself causes no pathology whatsoever. There might be a little bit of abdominal discomfort. Minor diarrhea. But essentially they're fine.

So I thought, 'Yeah, I'll do this.'

*laughs uncomfortably*

3/

Anyway, I went for lunch with my supervisor, and his wife said to me, 'Mike says that you're going to act as a host for some of his tapeworms.'

And I said, 'Yeah.'

She said, 'I wouldn't let him do it.'

I said, 'Why not.'

4/

She said, 'Ohh! The segments come out of your bottom at night and crawl around in the bed.'

And I wasn't having any of that. And I thought, 'Mmmh.'

5/

Now at that particular stage of my life, I had what could only be described as an exceedingly active social life.

*pauses for laughter*

6/

And I felt that as soon as the word got out that I was acting as a host for tapeworms, it could all just drop-stop dead. So I declined. So, sex can overcome money, I tell you.

Anyway. The point is. The point is, that you know if you're infected with this thing.

7/fin

Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.

A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.

Keep scrolling