Posted on 05/19/2006 12:58:10 PM PDT by BenLurkin
CBS) LOS ANGELES It's a "mystery” straight out of the "X-Files."
But those who suffer from it will tell you it's painfully real.
Imagine sweating "beads” of a *black tar- like substance" -- or pulling colored threadlike strings from sores all over your body.
Worst of all... not only are doctors unsure of what it is, many tell patients they're making it all up.
The disease literally makes your skin feel like it's crawling-- but here's the real scary part for us. Out of the entire country, the L.A. area has the highest percentage of cases.
According to some patients: "They start out like little pimples or something and you scratch them, and they bust open and they spring forth these weird fibers like a strand of a piece of cotton. "
"I saw white fiber on my face, I saw black specks coming out of what looked like pimples really. "
It sounds like these people are talking about something out of a science-fiction movie. But they're not-- they're describing the painful symptoms associated with a mysterious skin disease called Morgellons.
Most sufferers have lesions on their skin that ooze multi-colored fibers.
"Blue red yellow pink white coming out of the skin, not landing on it."
Black pepper-like particles are also often found on the skin-- and then there's the bugs.
"The most disturbing symptom is just the crawling feeling on your skin like you got bugs crawling all over you."
“My son felt it first: ‘Mommy I have bugs on my skin.’ I thought he must be having a vivid dream. Then I started having the symptoms.”
This woman-- who only wants to be identified as Marcella, says in addition to the bugs, there's severe pain.
"Yes, tremendous amount of joint pain particularly the large joints. Like the hips and the knees."
These are just a few of the more than 3500 Americans believed to be suffering from the illness. The highest rate is right here in the L.A. area.
"My symptoms started out as small lesions that looked like birth marks, exactly like birthmarks"
William Zielenbach believes he's had the disease for the past two years. Right now he has lesion covering his arms and legs. He lives with his girlfriend, Katherine Walker, in this Hollywood apartment building. She recently came down with it and dropped about 40 pounds in a matter of months. They're now shells of their former selves.
"I was getting little lesions on my ears. Again my case wasn't as bad except for the chronic fatigue, which is how a lot of people say it starts for them."
Another troubling symptom-- hair loss. Annette Riaubia of Harbor City shows us why she has to wear a wig.
"My biggest symptom has been hair loss."
She often get lesions on her scalp.
"They don't actually heal. They just end up leaving strange looking scars."
On top of having to live with this devastating disease-- these people have had to deal with a lack of support from the medical community. Some have been diagnosed with scabies--- a contagious skin disease caused by a mite.
"Doctor diagnosis? Yeah, scabies from about 10 feet away."
Or they're told they’re delusional and that their ailments are from self-mutilation.
"Went to the doctor, went to the dermatologist first and he basically said that I was delusional.
"I’ve had everything from nerves to drug addiction to delusional parasitosis is the biggest common diagnosis.”
The disease does seem to cause a brain fog or lack of clarity. However, this Florida woman wanted to prove to doctors that it wasn't all in her mind so she saved the fibers that were growing out of her body.
"This has absolutely brought me to my knees."
Some doctors even admit to a lack of acknowledgement of the illness.
"A lot of times, not all of us but there are a lot of us who feel like if it doesn't exist in my medical book then it doesn’t' exist anywhere."
"Believe me if I just randomly saw one of these patients in my office, I would think they were crazy, too."
Nurse practitioner Ginger Savely treats Morgellons patients from all over the country at her San Francisco Medical Center.
“But after you've heard the story of over 100 patients and they’re all down to the most minute detail saying the exact same thing, which becomes quite impressive.”
As you can imagine living with such an illness can cause emotional distress. Lisa Wilson’s son, Trevor, developed the disease just over a year ago. At times she'd try to help him alleviate the pain.
"It looked like a piece of spaghetti was sticking out about 1/4 to an 1/8 of an inch. It was sticking out of his chest when having a bad attack. I tried as hard as I could to pull it out."
Trevor tried several medications-- antibiotics, antiparasitics and pain killers-- but when things became too much to bear, he took his own life.
" I knew he was going to kill himself and there was nothing I could do to stop him."
Other Morgellons patients have felt this same type of deep depression. The children have their own struggles:
"I used to have the whole softball team come over. Now no one wants to come over anymore. "
"Every day we just have to think that the end is soon. We just hope it will be over soon."
Researchers at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences have been testing scabs and fibers from patients.
"We don’t' know how to treat it we don't know what causes it. We don't know if it’s an environmental factor, if there are bacteria involved, if there are parasites, or worms or viruses."
Meantime sufferers are praying someone can unlock this medical mystery and release them from this living hell.
"It's just one big Twilight Zone episode that hopefully we get an end here soon!”
Nurse practitioner Savely says she's found some success by giving her patients a combination of anti-fungus, antibiotics and antiparasitics.
Disturbing to say the least.
So, THAT'S what happened to Michael Jackson's face...
Wow..the video is frightening.
Bio terror? Or probably more likely brought to this country by some illegal immigrant, but of course that's just speculation on my part.
Hopefully CDC is tracking the progress of this as it spreads.
Maybe it will be traced back to a point of origin.
Whatever doctors don't understand, doesn't exist.
The only cure for brain fog is to throw yourself into a volcano.
It is pretty scary. But isn't it kind of strange that there are alot of disease/epidemics that we thought we had beaten making a comeback? Like mumps, TB, etc? Kind of makes me wonder.....
Heck . . . that cures just about anything.
Excellent point. That is the way most doctors are.
Those poor patients, the last thing anyone wants to hear when they go to the doctor is, "I have never seen anything like that before".
Hopefully the people at the Oklahoma University will figure something out to help these people.
Yeah, third-world diseases seem to be making a comeback in areas where illegal immigrants congregate. Weird...
I guess I'll cancel that trip to LA.
You are so right, their pride is amazing.
There was a Catholic priest from Italy, called Padre Pio, (now Saint Pio). A modern Saint, he died in 1968. Long story short, he healed many people through the power of Jesus Christ, one of those being a blind girl named Gemma. She was born without pupils. After a visit from Padre Pio she could see as well as anybody, even though she was still without pupils.
The doctors came to investigate her case. The head of the medical crew, an optometrist, put her though a series of eye exams, and she passed them all with flying colors. Frustrated, because she had no pupils and therefore was not supposed to be able to see, he asked her which hand he had raised, how many fingers am I holding up, where did I put my coat, what color is it, etc? She continued to answer all his questions with the precision that only the sighted could have answered. His official diagnosis? "The girl is without pupils, therefore she is blind".
Nurse practitioner Ginger Savely treats Morgellons patients from all over the country at her San Francisco Medical Center.
Compared with:
Ginger Savely is a nurse practitioner in Austin, Texas, who has documented over 100 incidents of Morgellons.
Yeah, third-world diseases seem to be making a comeback in areas where illegal immigrants congregate.
&&
My thoughts, exactly.
I wonder.. if the fibers were tested to see what they were made of?
There are funny bacteria that were lab cultured to produce nylon fibers.
What would happen if somehow they infected the skin?
Or if that is even possible?
*shrugs*
Sounds freaky to me at any rate, hopefully they figure out what teh cause is.
Yes, last week it was south Texas.
makes me feel pretty good about living in "the sticks".
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