Water Buffalo Tails

On the second day in Cao San, the Red Dao village we stayed in for three nights, Judy had a huge bruise on her elbow. We marked it with a pen to make sure it didn't get bigger, but it did recede -- until we were home a week, and it came back more black and blue and bigger than ever. She went to her primary care physician who thought it was a parasite. My best guess was a spider bite. She was referred to an infectious disease doc, who diagnosed it as a bruise but felt it should be drained and biopsied. He referred her to a hand surgeon to drain it, who concluded it would reabsorb on its own -- so just leave well enough alone. Judy realized that what had happened was she was hit by a water buffalo tail in the streets of Cao San. At the time she didn't think much about it, as it wasn't particularly painful. It was like being hit by an enthusiastic dog's tail. Such a different life: to commonly be in the proximity of water buffaloes!