 |
| Author | Post |
|---|
DonnaReagan
Guest
| Joined: | |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: |  |
|
Posted: Tue Mar 6th, 2007 01:52 am |
|
|
harrietbish
Member
|
Posted: Wed Oct 31st, 2007 04:21 am |
|
OK, I admit to having had Morgellon's for so many years I can't count them up. As a teenager, my fingernails weren't like the other girls' in that beneath them was a kind of callus material that I had to work hard to keep clean. And beside the nail, the skin would break in a kind of arrowhead shaped cut that would hurt like crazy until it healed on its own weeks later...only to break open again later on. That happened all my life. Then the wart-like things appeared, and even Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio could not eradicate them. They tried harsh liquids applied to them, and when that didn't work they cauterized them, cut back the nail, and re-cauterized next week. That was all through the 1970's. I still remember how it hurt and smelled like burned flesh. I went to work with my hand in severe pain, under the bandages. All that to no avail.
Then the nerve involvement began and I started to drop the milk bottle or the orange juice pitcher right in front of the fridge because my hand muscles would fail. Off to Neurology for nerve conduction tests...failed tests. But no good treatment, just Vitamin B-6 which did help some.
Then the complete muscle exhaustion all over my body, heart palpitations, tendinitis in the elbows and shoulders, stabbing pains repeatedly, and the spinal pain so severe I would sit backward in the bathtub and let burning hot water run down my spine. It felt better than the pain inside the spine. I'd sit there until my back was red because that actually felt better. I lost a tooth to internal reabsorption--it was simply hollow with no cavity visible from the outside. Lightheadedness and nausea and dizziness were daily occurrences. All these problems while I am trying to enjoy my retirement by hiking and swimming and cross country skiing and taking ice skating lessons while living in Vancouver, B.C. Eventually quit everything, even knitting because I couldn't do that anymore either due to loss of muscle strength in fingers. And the roughness of all-over callusing caught on every fabric so I could no longer sew, and even putting on clothes hurt. Forget trying to button a blouse...all my clothes were pull ons, even slacks--no zipper and button because it hurts too much to fasten. Sound odd? REALLY odd. No fun to live that life.
My fingers had to have thick ointments on them all the time, covered with clean white cotton gloves, day and night. Normal activities were impossible.
Crawled home to Texas to cry beside the lake, with fingers now so callused and lacerated all over and bleeding that I couldn't hold a pen, much less type. But when a smart health care practitioner saw my hands, she said I probably had had Lyme disease for quite a long time! What? Me? Lyme disease? I dunno...
So the tests went off to IGeneX and came back positive for Lyme. More tests went to IGeneX and came back positive for babesiosis, ehrlichia, and bartonella. At the same time a normal General Practitioner sent off a test to probably CPL, and it came back negative. Based on the clinical diagnosis, I was begun on antibiotics. It has been two and a half years on steady antibiotics and the lesions are mostly closed, much of the callus material has sloughed off and I feel terrific once again!
The Health Care Practitioner had said, "We have no treatment yet for Morgellon's, but we treat the Lyme, and the Morgellon's gets better." I trusted that, and it has proven true. So all you Morgies out there, hie thee to a good Lyme Literate MD or Nurse Practitioner and get treated if you want to be able to live a more normal life! It can happen for YOU!
Harrietbish
____________________
Harriet Bishop
|
Current time is 10:33 am | |
|
|
|
|
