Story highlights In selfies, a woman documented a migrating lump on her face that turned out to be a parasitic worm

Humans are "accidental hosts" of the worm, which is often cured by surgical removal

(CNN) In selfies, a woman documented a lump under her skin for weeks before doctors were able to remove it -- and it didn't stay in one place, according to a case report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The lump appeared after the unnamed woman, 32, visited a rural area outside Moscow. First, it was a small bump under her left eye. Five days later, it appeared above the eye. Her upper lip was bulging 10 days after that.

Doctors ultimately gripped the bulge with forceps and, using local anesthesia, pulled out a parasitic worm known as Dirofilaria repens.

"The parasite can appear and disappear in few minutes," Dr. Vladimir Kartashev, a professor of medicine at Rostov State Medical University who saw the patient, told CNN in an email. "Doctors who are not familiar with the disease don't believe ... the patients. That's why I asked the patient to make selfies."

But Kartashev had seen "at least 10 patients with the same presentation before," and the migrating form can be "extremely confusing," he said.

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