Sufferers of Morgellons disease complain of invisible parasites biting their skin. And they get skin lesions from which sprout strange fibers. And mysterious black spore-like specks appear on their skin. Cases of this strange disease seem to be spreading, especially in the Bay area. One theory is that it has something to do with Lyme disease. Or it may be a case of mass delusion. The medical community seems to think it's mass delusion. Most people who show up complaining of these symptoms get diagnosed with 'delusional parasitosis', which is a psychological problem in which people imagine that they're infested by parasites. Not having any medical qualifications at all, I won't weigh in on whether this is a real disease or mass delusion, but some of the behavior of the patients does sound suspiciously bizarre. Take the case of Theresa Blodgett:
Comments
Rod -
You DO realize you are coversing with two entirely different people here don't you? I am Victoria and live in North Carolina. The other person jaleenasmom lives in an entirely different state. We just happened to meet up on this web site after already connecting through another web site, but I posted here before I ever realized she posted here. You keep talking like you are addressing one and the same person. You are not.
I never referred to having meningitis. Nor have I asked for your private email address. From Victoria's point of view, let's DO keep it public.
I have even tried to politely present you with my own observations, not saying I have come to any conclusions, other than the fact that the other Morgellons sites are NOT fabricating or doctoring up photos.
Here are my symtoms, all documented through my family care physician, opthamologist, doctor of internal medicine, emergency room physician. YOU make a diagnosis based on these symptoms please.
Beginning two years ago:
Flash of light (almost like a camera flash going off) behind my right eye. It was an "explosion" of light, followed within an hour with an intense migraine headache that put me to bed. Upon awakening I had gray foggy floaters and a pinpoint of a very black spot that I chased around, but it would not go away.
Called my doctor - she ordered a CAT scan to rule out possible stroke or anuerism. Negative, she sent me to the opthamologist to see if it might be a detached retina - Negative - He could actually see the floaters, but said it was just stress related and that if I would reduce my stress they would go away. Took a trip to the beach - totally relaxed and de-stressed. They are still with me today and it is like trying to look through a thin veil at times. Guess what - Lyme Disease Symptom.
Stiff neck - can hardly move my head in the mornings - sometimes have to literally pick my head up with my hands because it hurts so bad.
LYME DISEASE SYMPTOM
Strange cough at night for at least 3 months that never went away and was not connected to a cold at all. But also at the same time, a constant post nasal clear drip of fluid.
LYME DISEASE SYMPTOM
Go on to Part Two of this post.
To Rod (and anyone else who wants to read!)"Brain fog" and forgetfulness, trouble with speech. Had recently been jumbling my words up and having difficulty getting my words to come out right and in the middle of a sentence forgetting what I am talking about.
LYME DISEASE SYMPTOM
(I have ALWAYS had excellent memory skills and have received superior employee reviews and have been with the same employer for fifteen years.
High liver enzyme count
LYME DISEASE SYMPTOM
Decreased white blood cell count
LYME DISEASE SYMPTOM as well as Ehrlichia.
(A CBC shows decreased white blood cells (leukopenia), decreased platelets (thrombocytopenia); a granulocyte stain shows clumps of bacteria inside white blood cells; the platelet count shows decreased platelets (thrombocytopenia); liver enzymes show elevated transaminase; a fluorescent antibody test may turn positive for E. chaffeensis or granulocytic Ehrlichia (also comes from a tick bite.)
LINK:http://www.diagnose-me.com/cond/C352822.html
Here are the facts - Almost all Morgellons patients who are even BEING tested eventually test positive for Lyme Disease or related vector type infectious disease. Many receive false negative test results until the proper test is administered. There are two new tests that are more conclusive but they have not been approved by the FDA at this point for diagnostic purposes, so the labs can't even use them.
I did not finish with my symptoms, but my doctor has my medical history and I have 37 out of 50 symptoms for Lyme Disease - plus the physical evidence of sores which are not created with my mind...CAN you NOT get it THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL that the biopsies from two labs reported finding a bacteria, but one they were unable to identify - what that means I don't know - it DOES NOT necessarily mean the bacteria they FOUND is S.Maltophilia. IF and I say IF Morgellons is caused by S.Maltophilia could it PERHAPS morph into another new bacteria. THAT has happened throughout medical history.
I am on a mission to find out what is wrong with me and I am sick, but I will DAMNED if I let anybody tell me this illness is delusional. I only wish I could be around the day the discovery is made to see the look on your face.
Victoria, if you go back and read all of this totally pointless dissertation (I mean all of it, not just mine, yours too) you will see in my posts that I reply mainly to jaleelasmom. When I refer to you, I use YOUR name. See? Two names? See how that works? Basically I fire off a one-liner to you, who are showing absolutely no proof of any kind, and spend the bulk of my time with someone else. This is because all it takes to refute your posts is one line. I spend so much time with jaleelasmom because she, apparently, although I believe she is probably deluding herself, is actually looking for a cause for her symptoms and not just saying "This is it. It's true." Although she HAS, a few times, said that I should prove her wrong and she doesn't HAVE to prove her case; this is faulty reasoning.
So what you are telling me is to keep an open mind? That anything is possible? Well, if that is the way you feel, type those words out and send them to me. Go for it!
Triple Dog Dare ya.
Keep an open mind please and also keep in mind anything IS possible.
And I do apologize for making the comment about "voodoo". I am certainly NOT into that kind of thing. I would NEVER in all honesty wish this illness on anyone else.
It just hurts me to know there are so many other people out there who have the same thing I do and so far nobody really knows exactly WHAT it is or what EXACTLY causes it. I am trying to do everything within my own extremely limited capabilities to do some of my own research.
All I want is answers, that's all.
I promise I will no longer argue my case with you. I may come back here from time to time to post any new developments...but no more debates. I promise it this time.
I go in peace.
Victoria
Keep an open mind please and also keep in mind anything IS possible."
YOU are telling ME to keep an open mind? Get real. Open your own to the possibility that YOU are wrong. I have an open mind, and anyone who reads back through all of this crap can plainly see it.
Also, if you read my previous posts, I gave you people the most sure-fire way to get someone to study it. If your research capabilities are limited, expand them. Go to school. Don't tell me it's not possible to go. I'm pretty freakin sure that if I had a disease that nobody believed me about, I would do everything in my power, EVERYTHING, to prove to someone that it was real, not just telling them that it is, and getting all pissy when they don't believe me. I would want to cure myself so badly that I would do whatever it took... Working cleaning dishes to get the knowledge I needed. If this problem is so real, why don't you PROVE it?
When I had migraines, my local doctor would not believe that they affected me the way that they do. Hence, no medication, extended suffering, etc. So, I spent several weeks digging through everythig from Gray's Anatomy (being the biggest) to pamphlets I found on the bus (being the smallest) in and out of a University library doing my research. Finally, I wrote it all down and gave it to the doctor. I even photocopied all of my sources so that he wouldn't have to go to his own bookshelf to look them up. End result? I proved my point, and now I get the medication that I needed.
My point? Do your research. Prove your point. If it is affecting you so badly, do something about it other than whining on the net and to a doctor who won't listen.
No more debates? Is that not what brings answers?
I also have a husband, and a MOTHER WHO HAS ROTTING HOLES ON HER NOSE AND NOW HER FACE AND DOESN'T WANT TO LEAVE HER HOUSE FOR FEAR OF SPREADING THIS TO OTHERS.
We went out of town today-about 200 miles away, one-way.
But "the bitch is back"!
I have read some of your other post here on the hoax, and I think you're brilliantly funny! :lol:
Moremellons!! :lol: :lol: :lol:
1. No, I am not saying s.m. is a new bacteria. Of course it isn't, however, NEW STRAINS of s.m. are appearing as stated by one of these studies.
2. One study of a hospital in Turkey in 2001 showed an EPIDEMIC break-out of s.m. When studied, 97.5% were found to have s.m. infection on the SKIN.
3. The mutating s.m., some develop flagella, you get that one! I am PROUD OF YOU!
4. CDC does not list our symptoms because they do not accept our symptoms...yet... 😜
5. It's not that Menengitis fits OUR symptoms. Look again at the article with the s.m. in mind NOT Menengitis.
6. More later...this night.
6. The INCREASING incidence of s.m. WORLDWIDE.
Are you Paranoid too???
Me ask YOU questions about MY GOD???
YOU do not KNOW my God. Why would I ask you questions about something you know nothing of???
I think you are a very intellectual person. An interesting person and a VERY GOOD debater.
I do not mind keeping things "public", my suggestion was that I would like to discuss other things that do not exactly pertain to Morgellons besides here on this thread ABOUT Morgellons.
In my opinion, you are not "shooting me down". You are proving what is simply the case throughout ALMOST the entire medical community.
"I am smarter to believe in nothing, or delusional parasitosis, than in Morgellons. I will NOT accept what patients say they feel, no matter how many become "delusional".
I tell her about these posts. I read them to her actually. Nothing much for her today all day except talk on the phone and watch t.v. Her eyes aren't that great anymore. Her flesh on her legs are necroting so badly! She tries to stay off of them as much as she can.
The only getting out she does is to the nursing home where my step-father is. He can't walk anymore, or talk much, and talk about brain-fog!!!!
She loves this stuff!
I am going to try to get her a web t.v. or something.
She justs loves your posts!
2. Okay, so you missed the part in the study (which I directly quoted, by the way) where they said that "S.M., a bacteria that is commonly found almost everywhere in nature..."
3. Not so tough. Like I said, many bacteria have "tails". Basic cell structure.
4. When they list your symptoms, I will believe it. You have to remember that these are some of the topmost scientists and researchers in the entire field. Do you really think that nobody there has heard of this? They spend hours a day on the lookout for possible outbreaks. Whether they take it seriously is judged by them.
5. Okay, ya lost me. Here is what I posted for this link--->"Link 5.) WOW. Here they say flat out that they have a drug of choice to kill this bacteria. Meaning they know about it and can kill it. Is it some kind of conspiracy to not let YOU get your hands on it?"
6. Of course the incidence of this bacteria is rising. SO IS EVERYTHING ELSE ON THE PLANET DUE TO THE RISING POPULATION. Murders, Marriages, Births, Death, Cancer, Lymphoma, EVERYTHING, because there are so many more people that the number of cases goes up and up. But check it out, the percentages stay within the same range, because it is not spreading, just getting more reports made on it.
I said it before and I'll say it again. I'm biased (guess which way?) but I have never made a decision so firm that if I see actual PROOF I will not reconsider.
As for the private email thing, sorry if I misunderstood, but religion was the only other thing that you ever asked me about. What else would you want to talk about?
And where did the quote at the end come from? You know, this one: "I am smarter to believe in nothing, or delusional parasitosis, than in Morgellons. I will NOT accept what patients say they feel, no matter how many become "delusional".
A little stubborn, but just enough to make him a very intersting...I would say "soul"...would that offend????
I WOULD LOVE, I SAY, LOVE TO HAVE ACCESS TO THE TYPE OF FACILITY THAT I NEED!!!!
I WILL BE WORKING ON THAT PROBLEM TOMMOROW. In the mean time, I only have what I've got to work with and that is free-thought process.
2. COMMONLY found, 'tis true!!! Read this article again. S.M. bacteria are NOT supposed to be able to get past "host" defenses.
3. I CONCUR. Bacteria and viruses will mutate to MAKE SURE THEY LIVE. This is a WELL KNOWN, COMMONLY KNOWN MEDICAL FACT, as common as s.m. itself!!!
I have to PROVE to my daughter now that she MUST SLEEP.
BBL...
4. My congressman, John Tanner-D, TN, told me 4 days ago that the CDC basically does not recognize a "new" disease until "enough people are found to have it". He told me that at this point the only way to "make" the medical community listen is to gain more exposure on t.v., newspaper, basically main-stream media.
"Whether they take it seriously is judged by them." Are "they" the "god" of medicine? Judges by which the entire world must look to first in order to make something real that isn't?
5. No conspiracy here that I see. I DO see different microbiologists recommending 3 different drugs, all with limited success.
6. I AGREE.
The quote is what I hear doctors tell patients who have something wrong with them but they don't know what. Instead of 'fessing up and saying I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS IS, SO YOU MUST BE DELUSIONAL, is what I am seeing a lot of.
Or, they are choosing to say, I WOULD RATHER BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVE NOTHING THAN SOMETHING I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT BECAUSE I'M SUPPOSED TO BE SMARTER THAN THAT. Remember my post about I couldn't unrinate??? Remember I told you that doctor told me to seek psychiatric care because HE COULDN'T FIND ANYTHING WRONG WITH ME? I wonder if doctor's egos are being "threatened"???
Hmmm...what if it's not a "delusional thing" but an "ego thing" with doctors. Although I do think the doctor that told me he didn't believe in Fibromyalgia is EXTREMELY egotistical. I saw him last night while I was out getting my mom some food. He saw me and he turned his head so fast I thought surely he had given himself whiplash!
:lol:
His wife noticed it too. She asked him what was wrong. He never looked back my way.
Apology accepted. :coolsmile: One thing I would like to know is what you think about this doctor telling me that I didn't have a PROVEN disease because he didn't believe in it. What would you have said to him if you had been in my shoes???
I am not sure if you live in the U.S. If not just say, don't have to tell me where you are.
I don't think that doctors are scientists in the true meaning of research.
Most all doctors that I know on a personal basis never do research; they read books written by researchers.
Ever take philosophy??
I am philisophical but I do believe in God.
Do you believe there are any government conspiracies, cover-ups?
Does anyone have a parasites? I need to borrow them.
(Go easy on me...it's my first play on words publicly...)
http://www.canlyme.com/
I love the smileys. I love to laugh! I love life!
Anyway, I think that we've both got about all we're going to get out of this exchange. I saw and understood your point of view, and you saw my point of view.
At this point, there will be no agreement. We both know that. I've checked out all I can find on the net about this. I've even exchanged a few emails with a student at the UofS. All she looked up supported my point of view (not really surprising, you're fighting this, you knew what they'd say).
I really actually enjoyed this exchange. Believe it or not, this is the first debate of any sort I've had on the net (and I used computers way back when e-mail meant echo mail, not electronic).
Okay. Psych courses? No, but I've read the first two years of book-work for the university course.
Philosophy? No. I just read whatever intersts me... All kinds of stuff. Particularly intersted in "profiling"... huge fan of John Douglas. I've read the new testament three times (KJV twice, some weird baptist version the third time (it was printed in the late 1800s)), the old testament, the koran, all the "major" religious works... you don't just become an atheist without research (that's why 99% of scientists (physicists, etc, are atheists)). I've read Mein Kampf, several old "magical" books (not the instruction manual type, the philosophical type), and all kinds of weird and wonderful stuff. I once spent 2 and a half months digging through the law library at the university where I used to live. (Did you know that peyote is legal where I live? It's specifically exempt, written right in the criminal code. Not that anyone would ever know unless they stumbled on it.)
Okay, as for the global warming thing, I really don't know much about it except what I "learned" in high school (it was all theory back then).
One side note though, I recently (about three months ago) read a National Geographic magazine from about 1980. The cover story was all about how, by the year 2000, the new ice-age would be upon us. They had as much proof for their theory back then as they do for the more modern heating theory. Which is right? Don't know, don't particularly care. I really can't do a whole lot about it. Not interested in finding out the current popular theories. It just doesn't interest me. Sorry.
But I can say this... I'll be keeping an eye on the morgellons thing, just to see how it comes out, and if the docs (and I) are a smart as we think we are. (It kinda shows that I've made up my mind now, but like I've always said... New evidence WILL be eveluated).
I can tell now that you are a person with a pretty good or a pretty bad I.Q. I totally agree with you, but I am still curious to know what you think about that doctor that told me Fibromyalgia is not a real disease. And what you may have said to him!
I have been doing lots of reading since our last exchange and I have been looking at my mother's "delusional" stuff that is coming out of her skin. I am going to be trying to start a web site over the next couple weeks and post our stories, and her pictures, and her "delusional" samples pictures. Anyway, the reading I've been doing is on Lyme disease. At this point, I am beginning to believe that maybe some of both of our points are right. I have found a doctor, scientist and researcher that has been studying Lyme disease for MANY years! He is world known for his research and his successful treatment of over 7,000 people chronically ill with Lyme. In the year 2000, he was finding new tick-bourne bacteria and was convinced he was finding parasites as well and that we would some day soon discover pathogens with Lyme disease. (Morgellons fits that bill exactly!) His research, as well as other's research has shown that there are over a dozen other bacteria that ticks can transmit to humans. Apparently his work was right on the money as the CDC has changed their views somewhat on Lyme also.
One thing is Babesiosis in ticks and that it CAN be passed in blood transfusions. There have been over 40 documented cases that people have contracted this Babesiosis through transfusions!
This is a very exciting time in Microbiology and Science as a whole! From his 13th to 14th Editions on Lyme, in 2000, and 2002 respectively, new discoveries have been made and some documented in humans, and some only working lab theory at the moment. However, my body, my mom's and my sister's could all prove him right on the money OUT of the lab and in human's as we all have these cysts that he says can be produced in lab settings by different bacterias carried by ticks. The funny thing is I don't remember a tick bite and neither does my sis, but my mom does! Immunodepressed patients have a high probability to "catch" these bacteria in some way. He has shown with his research that Lyme is ALWAYS present with these other tick-bourne illnesses and that Lyme is causing the comprimised immune system. His name is Joseph Burranscano from New York. I read that he and some of his fellow doctors may have had their liscense pulled because of their treatment options and that their peers were considering this to be "MEDICAL McCARTHYISM".
I can't wait to have just a LIFE without pain and lethargy.
I had to go to the grocery today. I spent 2 hours shopping and about 30 minutes putting everything away when I got home. I was so bloody exhausted by then all I could do was sit. I needed to sleep and let my body re-boot, so to speak, but when you have a toddler, you CAN'T, and sometimes that's the hardest part...because I have to literally push myself when I feel like this to take every step I have to make. It's a nasty feeling and I wouldn't wish it on anyone, not even with voodoo...hehehehe.
I don't care much about global warming and I am MOST definately NOT concerned about it. I know what I believe through my faith what the end of this earth is anyway.
DO YOU BELIEVE THERE IS OTHER LIFE BESIDES US HUMANS HERE ON EARTH???
I am glad to know you will be following Morgellons to IT'S diagnosis.
Could it be that what was known in the 17th century as Morgellons and what is beginning to come to light through the research of Lyme could be one in the same disease??? I believe it may be for some known and unknown facts.
I have been reading study and study, report after report, that most immue disorder illnesses may actually be Lyme disease or that Lyme is making their illnesses worse, and that Fibromyalgia may in fact be Lyme disease all together
I know there's a lot of proven research at the library about Fibro, because my ex suffers from it. I never said it in the last post, but I read every night before bed, sometimes for many hours. I will read just about anything if it's the only thing around that I have not read. I even TRIED to read "the book or mormon". Argh! Anyway, she had a collection of books about it. I ended up reading them all. Informative, definately.
I was so P.O.ed I wanted to hit him. So I went to the library (both Univ. and Public) and researched my symptoms, dug out the studies, etc. I told you about that part already.
As for the tick bites, they can attach, feed, and drop off without you even feeling it. Last spring at my brother's ranch EVERYBODY ended up with ticks... we counted 37 on the dog. My one neice had 3 on her head. The next day at school, she found one when she untucked her shirt; it had fed and dropped off. She had no idea it was there. And by the time they drop, they're so full of blood they're about 3/8 inch around. (Popping them with pliers is fun (think revenge on bug-kind) but pretty gross... lotsa blood!). We had to use pliers because they're damned near impossible to squish.
AUGH! And I spelled evaluated wrong!
As for life on other planets, who knows? I think there's a chance that it could happen. You never know. I have not seen enough from either side of that argument to really choose, but so far my uninformed bias is on the possibility, but not on the actual fact, that life exists elsewhere.
Gotta admit I've thought about it. I went through lots of sci-fi when I was in high school. I believe there's no chance UFO's are aliens, that they could all be explained by terrestrial phenomenon (not the least of which being humans), but there's just not enough to go on to prove this, and that opens the door for the alien theory.
😖
Saw my mom suffer with them for years! I used to help her roll over just to throw up!
Once she went to a doc here for a shot of whatever it was to relieve her headache. He told her to leave because she was only there because she was a drug addict. I wanted to deck him, but I was 12. I knew she was in big ass pain. Think I'll write that b?@#$^d a letter and tell him what I think about that now that I am old enough and I know I can.
I was so flabbergasted when I was told by that doctor that I didn't have Fibro. that I was speachless except for asking him if it wasn't Fibro what was it?????
Think I'll write him a letter too.
I used to read ALL THE TIME. It was all I ever wanted to do. Now, it seems as if it's not on the web, I don't read it. I am learning too much to go to a book today though.
http://www.gutenberg.org/
Download Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol. Holy shit that guy was on drugs. Kid's story my ass.
Yeah, doctors who don't believe you suck. The doctor (yes, THE) where I live graduated Med School 49 years ago... Holy old-fashioned thinking, Batman! I'm from a place so small that if anyone has a serious accident, they're probably going to be dead before they get to a hospital. The nearest Emergency room is 45 miles down the road, the nearest city Emerg room is 120 miles.
I was joking with a guy when I was in the waiting room last time; I told him that I was there to get bled, and have the troll removed from my stomach. (Familiar with Theodoric of York?)
The nurse/slash receptionist was not pleased, because the doc is her dad.
Anyway, MORGELLANS. There, now I wasn't TOTALLY off topic. 🙄
OK, now YOU don't like doctors who don't listen to you, so, you know how it feels.
If you had a patient come to you with the symptoms of an odd nature like this, what would you do??? Say to them???
Knowing how crappy it is when docs won't listen, would you??? Could you???
I'm going to check out that site.
:lol: Bled...haha...a troll...hahahahahahaha!!!
THAT IS RICH AND I WILL KEEP IT IN MIND!
I'll probably use it on my hubby first. He's always asking me, "what do you have to go there for". I am always trying to come up with witty things to say to him.
I think that Shakespere was on drugs, BIG TIME.
And WHO wrote Mother Goose?
Theodoric of York...never heard of him.
49 years ago???????????????????????????
You talk a lot younger than that!!!
I looked at my mom's "delusions" again last night. Got good pictures of her nose and face. She has a odd swelling on the left side of her upper body, neck, face. Lyme? Saw these things she pulls out of her skin, lesions, nose and mouth. NO SCABS! She's got weirder things going on than scabs.
I am gonna try to get a web site up in the next couple weeks and will be posting pictures, etc. We are going to get a micro that takes good digis. I can't wait to get it up and going!
I've always said I'd rather have a snake in my house than a tick under my skin. I think that's the only thing on earth, besides tarantulas, that totally wig me out!
TICKS SUCK!
:exclaim: (PUN INTENDED)
Okay, as for Theodoric of York...
In the dark ages, people went to the barber, not the doctor. The barber did most of the work with leeches, and bleeding, and surgery and crap.
Anyway, Theodoric was a recurring character on Saturday Night Live, played by Steve Martin.
There were a few different ones, judge, etc. My favorite was Theodoric The Barber.
It starts with Steve (Theodoric) lecturing people about a woman's depression. He says something about "in the past" and "evil spirts", but then says "But nowdays we know it's caused by a dwarf or a small troll living in her stomach." (or maybe it was a small toad...).
Then Bill Murray gets pushed into the barber's and Steve says "What seems to be the problem?"
Bill goes into a long story about how he drank too much mead and darted in front of an oxcart, and lost his legs. Theodoric (Martin) says "What you need is a good bleeding." Murray says "But I'm bleeding already!"
The reply? "Hey, who's the barber here?"