In which a tick mistakes me for its dinner and reaches a sad end.

So yesterday we went on a hike in Kizilcahamam, a region not far from Ankara with lots of hills and forests and things. The hike was led not by our diminutive middle-aged language instructor, Neşe, but by a totally jacked 40-year-old male phys ed teacher who assured us that the "medium-level" hike we chose would be nice and easy (since the "easy" hike was for children). We were accompanied by Nilay, the young (and also pretty buff) beginning Turkish instructor who we all love.

Well, fifteen kilometers later I think most of us (except maybe Nilay) agreed that the hike, while fun, was by no means easy. I'll have pictures of it later, because the scenery was great and as we climbed the mountain we kept passing through different biomes - Alpine-esque meadows, dry pine forest, wet pine forest, desert. It smelled amazing, too, as we kept walking through patches of thyme and lavender.

So at the end of the hike we stopped for a bathroom break and I found a tick halfway up my thigh. Unfortunately, while I'm pretty average as far as being grossed out by bugs is concerned, I do startle easily, and I sort of screamed in the bathroom when I found it. I mean, you would too. There was a bug with its HEAD buried in my LEG, WAVING ITS LITTLE LEGS IN GLEE AS IT SUCKED MY BLOOD. Eww.

Amusingly, as soon as we found the tick, everyone started trying to reassure me that it was exceedingly unlikely that I was going to get Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and that even if I did the death rate in Turkey was only 5%, not 30% like in Africa. I think I was the only one who was not the least bit concerned about tick-borne illnesses. I mean, really. There have been zero recorded cases of hemorrhagic fever in the Kizilcahamam area. How unlucky would I have to be to not only be the first person to get it there, but to get it from a tick that had probably been in my leg for less than an hour? I do appreciate their reassurances, though, because if I had been worried about hemorrhagic fever I would have been REALLY scared. (Do yourself a favor - don't google it. It's gross.)

Anyway, Nilay was 100% against pulling the tick out ourselves, and she convinced me we should go to the village hospital to get it removed. I thought this was a little excessive but also understood that resistance was futile. So we went, and the hospital staff was exceedingly nice about it. As I waited for paperwork to be done (total wait time: five minutes, tops - yay!), an old woman with no front teeth sitting in the waiting room asked me worriedly where the tick had bitten me. "In the mountains," I said, but maybe she was asking about my body and not my surroundings? Who knows. Turkish is confusing.

So they pull the tick out and put it in a little vial and rub my leg with iodine. Then they explain that both the tick and I need to go to Ankara and get tested for hemorrhagic fever. A lot of discussion in Turkish ensues and the doctors, Nilay and I decide together that if I have to get tested in any case, testing the tick is probably unnecessary. The tick is summarily drowned in a bleach bath. (Moment of silence for the tick.)

Between then and getting back to Ankara, another guy in my program also finds a tick, but he pulls it off without thinking. But then he gets worried, too, and so in Ankara we both go (accompanied by Nilay and the jacked phys ed instructor) to the hospital, a huge pink building whose waiting room and front lawn are one and the same. They ask us difficult questions like our phone numbers (I am tired and cannot remember how to say "eight") and our parents' names (the secretary gives up when I say something as bizarre as "Kathy" and just enters "R" for my mom and "P" for my dad). Then they take our blood. The woman didn't wipe my arm down with alcohol before she stuck the needle in, and I subsequently had a nightmare about blood poisoning. I know, it's really dumb that I'm not scared of hemorrhagic fever but I am worried about that.

Anyway. Then they scold for not bringing the ticks (apparently only one of like eight species of ticks carries hemorrhagic fever, and they could have told by looking at them), make us wait for an hour (on the lawn/waiting room) and tell us our blood is clean. And that we should come back on Tuesday to make sure it's still clean then. Also we get printouts of our lab analyses, on which I learned (among other things) that my hematocrit is normal. Hooray?

All in all, it was pretty interesting to see how Turkish hospitals work (twice!) and have my first-ever tick bite, but I'm not looking forward to returning to the hospital, and the next time I venture into the wilderness here - assuming I'm not dead by Tuesday - I'm definitely putting on bug spray.