Colonoscopy video (with worm)

Hey look, everybody! It's Ascaris lumbricoides! How you doin'?

Sorry. I'm so sorry. It's fascinating. But I'll find something quick to take the edge off.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

Maggie goes places and talks to people. Find out where she'll be speaking next.

MORE: animals • Delightful Creatures • gross • health • hypochondria • medical science • OMFGwe'reallgonnadierunhide • Science

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tightlines

Oh, vomit.
Guest

Oooooooh, MAGGIE! Did it have to be a video? A photo would have been sufficient. I just had breakfast!

*giggle* Yeah, okay, it’s fascinating. I’ve had a couple of colonoscopies and was awake to watch the monitor. Glad the doctor didn’t find ’The Kraken’ in there.
muteboy

Yeeha! Lasso that steer!
Rich Keller

With that claw in the shot, it’s almost like playing an FPS.

I read the wikipedia article, and apparently roundworms can transmit hypochondria over the interwebs. My throat tickles now. *cough*
- muteboy
  
  Reminds me of the old ZX Spectrum game Micronaut One, where you had to fly through tunnels getting rid of an infestation.
  http://www.crashonline.org.uk/43/mnaut.htm
jmccance

Awesome! My father is a gastroenterologist, and would occasionally bring home pictures of his “fishing trips” quite a bit like this, but never any video. I always loved the ones with recognizable objects, like a quarter or a piece of a straw. This is even better!
- Rich Keller
  
  Speaking of fishing trips, does your dad know if these make good bait? I’m thinking of all the time I could save by not having to stop off at Gander Mountain on the way to the lake.
  - http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch
    
    It makes the ultimate reusable bait. Think about it. Then try not to think about it.
http://profiles.google.com/maurice.reeves Maurice Reeves

That was *AWESOME!* Seriously. Coolest thing I’ve seen in a while. Don’t listen to the haters, parasites are absolutely fascinating.
Tunacorn

It was deeply satisfying seeing the worm removed, it looked like it struggled
http://profiles.google.com/maurice.reeves Maurice Reeves

And while we’re talking about parasites, if you want to see something really gross and cool at the same time, go on YouTube and look up the videos of people trying to get botfly larvae out.
yoshiboshi

Gross but fascinating. I’m pretty sure those two cancel each other out….
ultranaut

When I was in the 2nd grade there was this kid who used to pick up food off the ground and eat it all the time. Everyone thought he was gross and he clearly had other serious behavioral problems. His mom was a nurse, one day she brought in the worm that had been extracted from him and told us we might all have one of these inside us. It was fucking horrifying and bizarre.
Ambiguity

I used to like you, at least!
ill lich

Eh, doesn’t bother me, what’s the big deal? After “tub-girl” and goatse and 2-girls-1-cup this is tame.

*sigh*. . . so jaded by the internet.

Actually the “big deal” would be having one squirming around in your colon. I’m curious: can you feel those f%$kers in there when they are moving?
- knoxblox
  
  You can sure feel pinworms, which are a type of roundworm. Nastiest itching/tickling sensation ever around the anus.
  Two things that led to my incident as a child were having an indoor/outdoor pet combined with thumbsucking.
  
  If I ever felt like playing CIA, I’d torture my victims by giving them pinworms and shackling their hands against the wall. I can’t think of anything more excruciating. It even beats having my big toenail torn out.
Allen Knutson

For a few months, Chrome + Google Reader has been doing something weird with embedded Youtube videos, showing me the still frame from the previous video instead of the intended embedded one.

Still, I was rather surprised to go to James Fallows after this, where he says “On the other hand, here is a great video! It’s been around for months, but even if you’ve seen it before it’s worth re-noticing. And if it’s new to you, all the better” followed by Colonoscopy Demonstrating a Moving Worm.
wizardru

Seriously, Maggie…couldn’t this have gone under a cut? I mean, GAH.
Soliloquy

You got me. I’m a little queasy now.
Erin W

Jesus Christ. Unicorn chaser, please!
- andrew baker
  
  Sadly, this was a colonoscopy *of* a unicorn.
millie fink

Excellent! Fascinating too. I could watch a lot more of that.

Doesn’t gross me out at all, I guess because I’ve seen videos of even more invasive parasites?The colon itself looks pretty healthy, far as I can tell.
Thomas Zaraat

There’s always this: http://boingboing.net/2004/05/07/tapeworm-follies.html

Get your tapeworm goodness without all the disgusting video
Brandon F

This is life for 15% of the human population so there’s nothing to get up in arms about. We evolved along with many of these parasites.
http://celesteagnes.blogspot.com/ Sekino

Haha. I’ve seen a similar video before, so this time I knew not to click Play before getting some breakfast into me ;P

It is indeed fascinating to see that the human body is just another ecosystem…
- invictus
  
  That’s right. It’s important to get some food into your system regularly, or the roundworms start complaining.
mcarlson

I think we can all be grateful that the patient did the colon cleansing necessary before the colonoscopy.
irksome

Just had my 1st colonoscopy last week; ah, the joys of turning 53!

No worms, but he did find a set of car keys…

My father worked on developing the 1st heart pacemakers; we used to watch film cartridges of installation surgery at the dinner table and later, I worked as a medical photographer. This shit is fascinating and not disgusting in the least. This is what we look like, people. Say ”cheese”!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001873071925 Bruce Diamond

Well, I won’t be visiting for the rest of the day now. Gotta give this stomach-churning post time to migrate downwards to “Older Posts.” Gaaahhh.
virtual human

Eh. Roundworm larval migration is a lot nastier than the adult stages.
seyo

UNICORN/LEMUR/PUPPIES/SLOW LORIS, STAT!!!
OldBrownSquirrel

I was hungry before I started watching this. I’m still hungry. I think I took way too many biology classes in college; after all that, I’m effectively immune to visual gross-out.
betatron

My inner Calvin thinks this is just great! eeewww! gross! got any more?!
Stonewalker

What, no sound?
Chevan

Gotta say, I don’t see what’s so gross about this. I think it’s fascinating from a couple different perspectives. I had no idea the interior of the colon was so well ordered and ridge – it’s really quite fascinating visually. And the concept of a parasitic worm is itself fascinating, as an exercise in thinking about how much adaptation and specialization is embodied there. It also makes me wonder what happened for it to get there, and about whether it’s a routine thing to have to go in and drag those suckers out.

Very thought-provoking.
- virtual human
  
  You don’t have to go in there and drag them out. That’s what antihelmintic drugs are for – just like deworming your dog!
  - Chevan
    
    Ah! I suppose I should have guessed they’d have drugs for that, that makes sense. Thanks!
Warren V

Mark Li-cheng Wu and Vanessa A. Jones

(2000) Ascaris lumbricoides. Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine: January 2000, Vol. 124, No. 1, pp. 174-175.

A 69-year-old Ecuadorian woman complained of a 4-month history of severe
nuchal pain. Her past medical problems included long-standing rheumatoid
arthritis requiring the replacement of multiple joints. She had moved
to the United States from Ecuador 1 month previously. At presentation,
x-ray examination showed impacted cervical vertebral bodies. She denied
any gastrointestinal or pulmonary symptoms. She was later admitted for
corrective cervical fusion, grafting of bone, and placement of
orthopedic hardware. On the first postoperative day, while she was under
the influence of general anesthesia, a cylindrical moving object
emerged from her mouth. Gross examination revealed a roundworm measuring
22 cm long with an uncoiled tail and a prominent convoluted uterus (Figure 1, ×1). Stereoscopic examination of the head revealed a mouth with 3 distinct lips characteristic of Ascaris lumbricoides (Figure 2, lateral view, ×3.75; and Figure 3, anterior view, ×3.75). The patient is currently being treated with antihelmintic therapy.
http://www.facebook.com/chloe.neill Chloe Neill

Need kittehs now.
Karen Lauer

Horrifying. Serious, serious, nightmares.

I need a chaser of puppies after that one.
juepucta

I feel like hugging my colon…

:O

-G.
Guest

WOWZERS.
gwyllion

ok- i am not queasy about most things but roundworms – yes specifically roundworms gross me the fuck out big time – i’ll take a bot or a guinea or or a tapeworm any day
http://twitter.com/spockosbrain Spocko

I had one of those for a while. I mentioned it when someone criticized my eating.

“I’m eating for two now. I have a tapeworm”
http://xmacex.wordpress.com Mace Ojala

Unicorns, quick!!!
Antinous / Moderator

42 comments and nobody’s said, We have wormsign? Very disappointing.

Maybe I’m not grossed out by this because I’m old enough to remember getting de-wormed every time one of my classmates scratched his ass and pulled one out. Little purple-brown pills.
- Bucket
  
  Mua’derator, we have wormsign the likes of which even God has never seen!
- penguinchris
  
  That’s… awful.
http://www.facebook.com/lharden1 Laura Harden

Oh this is going to be on my mind for days now…
http://www.facebook.com/lharden1 Laura Harden

I remember the deworming pills and the sticker type thing that was placed over the south door at bedtime, apparently roundworms come out to play at night.
- virtual human
  
  Roundworms don’t come out to play at night; you’re thinking of Enterobius vermicularis, the pinworm.
  
  Technically, I suppose pinworms are roundworms too in that they’re also part of the phylum Nematodes, but the common name roundworms (“You have roundworms. That dog has roundworms.”) usually refers to ascarids.
  - http://www.facebook.com/lharden1 Laura Harden
    
    I stand corrected, pinworm is what I meant.
awjt

Maggie, I love you but you suck. gawwwd, and Antinous not too far behind.
Marya

Myself, I prefer Necator Americanus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy
wendyblackheart

Maggie, I love you. This was great. It falls under the umbrella of ‘things I am not allowed to *show* my husband, but enjoy describing to him from the other room.’ (This umbrella heading came about after I showed him a BME blog post from the ‘Hard’ gallery in one of the ‘guess what’ games. Yeah.)

I do enjoy seeing things like this, that you can’t see on your own. I had a colposcopy to check up on some funky cells, and had the doctor take an extra photo for me to take home. Apparently, I was the first person in his entire career to ask – though, he was quite young!
Mike Walshe

Christ, what an asshole!
AirPillo

Ha! Unlike last time with the picture, people can use a flash blocker to shield themselves from your squick trolling :p
Lynne

I had my first colonoscopy last month, a fairly unpleasant experience that I paid for. Nice to know that they then share the more interesting exams with family and on Youtube.
Otis Romano

Should have listened to Ro-Revus the frog:
http://www.avgeeks.com/wp2/ro-revus-talks-about-worms-1971/
Gulliver

Squeamish lot, aren’t ya?

Worm to colonosope: “Hey, get your own intestine, you plastic freak!”
social_maladroit

Here’s a story to accompany this video, from {fray}: The Worm Within.
http://www.facebook.com/lharden1 Laura Harden

SO…how does one know if one is a host without having a colonoscopy?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Leave a plate of milk and cookies by your bed and see if it’s still there in the morning?
Ashen Victor

Too late chap!
They already did with a whole face missing! Ugh…