riddle me this

last night i dreamt i fell asleep on a large and porous rock in an underwater cove.  thirty tiny tiny snails attached themselves to my right thigh and started burrowing themselves into my skin.  the only way to detach them was to get out of the water and wait for them to push their way back out.  it hurt so badly, i screamed every time one would fall off my leg.

the temptation to just rub them all off was nearly more than i could bear.

when i woke up, i still had seven attached.

it took me several minutes laying there in the dark to get up the guts to rub my leg, afraid that maybe there really were snails and maybe they really would just burrow deeper if i tried to rub them off.  those little scales, knots, growths, attached to my leg like they were part of me.

so, joseph, can i get a little interpretation?