Before setting out on my adventurous trip, I took the usual precautions against diseases - with a barrage of vaccinations and a stack of reading material to educate myself about possible dangers.  So I began my journey with confidence - armed with knowledge of which countries presented the highest risks - mostly under-developed Asian and African countries.

However, surprising though it is, the story I am about to relate took place in Norway - a very developed country indeed; and so far north, you'd think that nasty critters wouldn't be able to survive long enough to do anyone any harm.  And, even more surprising, it happened in Oslo - the most populated area in Norway.

During our visit to Malta a few weeks earlier, we met a Norwegian couple, Fredrik and Heidi, and they invited us to stop by for a visit when we got to Oslo.  We arrived on a Wednesday evening and called Heidi as soon as we got into town.  She told us that Fredrik was away on a scuba diving trip, but we made plans to meet for a short while the following day.

Now this is during the time that Kumiko and I were traveling in a rented camper van, so our nights in Oslo were spent inside a closed vehicle.  The next day, as we did our sightseeing - for a while with Heidi before she went to work at 2:00p, and the rest of the day by ourselves - the upper-right side of my right leg itched almost constantly.  I didn't think much of it at the time - I figured it was probably just a spider bite.

That evening, as we were getting ready for bed, Kumiko notice a red spot on my leg about 2cm in diameter (less than an inch) and asked what it was.  I told her what I thought it was and said it wasn't anything to worry about.  By the next morning, though, it was about 5cm (2 in.) across and was a deep red color with a white ring just inside the larger red circle.  We had plans to meet Heidi again that evening for dinner at her apartment.  She works as a mid-wife and, though that isn't exactly the same as a nurse who deals with things like this everyday, I thought I should get her opinion about what it might be.

By the time she came to pick us up that evening, the red circle had grown even larger and the white ring was more of a vague circle of a lighter color in the center.  Also, in addition to the near constant itching, it was sore to the touch, much like a bruise - and also ached at times when I flexed the muscles of my leg.  She examined it for a few minutes, listened to my story of how it had progressed and my theory about what it might be, and finally decided to take me to see a doctor friend of hers.

After a short drive, I found myself at a home in an upscale Oslo neighborhood, with Heidi and her friend (whose name I can't recall now) examining my leg.  This is what they saw:

After a few minutes of discussion between them, they finally concluded that it must have been a bee sting and that I was having an allergic reaction to it.  Heidi's friend gave me something for the itching and we went on to Heidi's apartment for dinner.  I must admit that I was a bit skeptical - trying to imagine how I could have been stung by a bee inside a closed camper van, under a sheet and two blankets.  But, they were the experts, so who am I to question their conclusions.

We left Oslo the next day.  Our route back to mainland Europe would take us again through Sweden, so we decided to stop off at the home of Curt and Helen, another couple we had met in Thailand.  We had spent a few days with them on our way north through Sweden, before going into Norway, and wanted to see them once more before we left Scandinavia for good.

The first evening after we arrived, I was relating my "bee sting" story to them and they both asked if they could see the affected area.  Helen works as a nurse - the type that does see this sort of thing on a daily basis - and Curt's job is also in the medical field, though more administrative.  The point being they both have more than a passing knowledge of things of this nature.  After seeing my leg, they decided that it looked like borrelia.

I had never heard of borrelia and, naturally, asked what it was - and, more importantly, what are the consequences of having it.  Helen got out a book of diseases and found a description of it, complete with photos.  She translated the description to me as I looked at the photos - one of which showed a man with a large spot on his right torso that looked almost exactly like the one on my leg - which now looked like this:

As you can see, the red circle had spread even more - but the skin in the center was starting to look like normal again.  Helen said I should see a doctor, so we went the following day.  The doctor confirmed that it was borrelia, gave me a 10-day prescription for penicillin, and assured me that that would take care of it.

Now for the description...  It turns out that borrelia is carried by ticks.  And it certainly seems more plausible that I was bitten by a tick, inside a van under several layers of covers, than stung by a bee.  The infection spreads under the skin in an ever-widening circle until, eventually, it disappears.  If it hasn't been diagnosed properly prior to that time, the infected person usually thinks that it's gone and there's nothing to worry about.  That couldn't be further from the truth.

After the surface symptoms disappear, it starts attacking the nervous system - causing, at the very least, paralysis; and, in an alarmingly high percentage of cases, death.  Death?  Are you serious?  From such a tiny bug; in a clean, healthy, developed country; so far north it's gets down to near-freezing temperatures at night even in August?  It was so difficult to imagine.  And to think that, had I not visited the very people who could recognize it for what it was, while I still had the visible symptoms, I might have been one of the many who thought, "Oh, it went away - so there's nothing to worry about."

Scary thought.