My Morgellons Journey - Key Points
- I am not a doctor. I am not offering medical advice. I am telling my journey. Consult your physician about medical advice.
- "Morgellons disease MD is a skin condition characterized by the presence of multicolored filaments that lie under, are embedded in, or project from skin .... Because individuals afflicted with the disease may have crawling or stinging sensations and sometimes believe they have an insect or parasite infestation, most medical practitioners consider MD a purely delusional disorder" Middelveen et al. This is the most distressing part of the disorder .... because of ignorance, doctors usually do not take the disease seriously, instead concluding that the patient is imagining things."
- MD can be a life affecting affliction. Borrelia burgdorferi is a spirochete bacterium that can infect ticks or lice. A bite from these infected parasites can infect humans. The disease can progress to sores that heal slowly. It seems it can become a blood infection and affect different organs and tissues. The bacteria can use the host keratolytic cells and collagen cells and melanin cells to carry out their DNA agenda of proliferation. The bacteria causes human cells to form hairlike and other strange fibers to exit the skin tissue. The colors are usually black, white, blue and red. They come out as fur or hard fibers or hair or hard sand crystals.
- "History - The name "Morgellons" (pronounced with either a hard or soft "g") comes from a letter written in 1674 by Sir Thomas Browne, an English physician. The letter contains a brief description of a skin disease in French children:
".... Hairs which have most amused me have not been in the face or head, but on the back, and not in men but children, as I long ago observed in that endemial distemper of little children in Languedock, called the Morgellons, wherein they critically break out with harsh hairs on their backs, which takes off the unquiet symptoms of the disease, and delivers them from coughs and convulsions."" Middelveen et al
Women in their forties and fifties, have hormonal changes that seem to contribute to the bacteria's proliferation. Adding progesterone or estrone cream may help create an environment hostile to the parasite. I took extra vitamin D, sometimes up to 10,000 units/day and zinc 50 mg/day to improve my immune function.
- The first episode happened at age 40 lasted two weeks. Second episode at 42 lasted three months and third episode happened at age 47 lasted 3 years, all from kids bringing home lice from school. After we got rid of the lice, there appeared mites on my body that would come out in the bath. They seemed to become resistant to my many experiments to get rid of them. The keys for me in curing the disease was to get in full baths of relatively hot water in which I
put a whole container of iodized salt or 3 to 4 bleach tablets (alkaline). I saw the organisms come out
of the skin and float and even swim in the water. I took a cup and took them out of the bath so
they did not re-enter my skin. I felt it was important to immediately take a bath every time I felt them
crawling so that I didn't get sores. I believe the bacteria might infect your blood and organs
through the sores. The bacteria can even infect your scalp. Bleach can cause hair to be
damaged. Iodized salt caused less damage. Crisco or crisco-like substances rubbed into the
skin can also make them come out with pressure from a plastic scraping tool, such as an old credit card. I got out
egg like crystals and black like mites this way. I tried a vinegar bath (acid) which made them much worse. Therefore, the cure might have to do with pH.
You may see specks of black pepper shed in your environment. These can reinfect you. I cleared my environment of any fibre material. These shed mites can live in the fibre and reinfect. I slept on plastic surfaces and sat on metal or plastic chairs and wiped off black specks. Unfortunately I had to tear out the fabric in my car. I got rid of carpet and wiped down the floors. To this day I am unsure exactly how I got rid of them. I washed clothes in very hot water and dried in very hot dryer. I used Tide with stain remover which seemed to be the most effective at getting them out of fabric. My husband and children experienced body itching and fiber from their skin, but when I kept away from them, their infection with mites and fibers went away completely without any experiments that I had to do. It was a very frustrating time, but eventually, I got rid of them from my body.
I found this article by Marianne J Middelveen, Melissa C Fesler and B Stricker particularly helpful in validating my experience, and that there are dedicated doctors who are prepared to research this condition.
"Abstract: Morgellons disease (MD) is a skin condition characterized by the presence of multicolored filaments that lie under, are embedded in, or project from skin. Although the condition may have a longer history, disease matching the above description was first reported in the US in 2002. Since that time, the condition that we know as MD has become a polemic topic. Because individuals afflicted with the disease may have crawling or stinging sensations and sometimes believe they have an insect or parasite infestation, most medical practitioners consider MD a purely delusional disorder. Clinical studies supporting the hypothesis that MD is exclusively delusional in origin have considerable methodological flaws and often neglect the fact that mental disorders can result from underlying somatic illness. In contrast, rigorous experimental investigations show that this skin affliction results from a physiological response to the presence of an infectious agent. Recent studies from that point of view show an association between MD and spirochetal infection in humans, cattle, and dogs. These investigations have determined that the cutaneous filaments are not implanted textile fibers, but are composed of the cellular proteins keratin and collagen and result from overproduction of these filaments in response to spirochetal infection. Further studies of the genetics, pathogenesis, and treatment of MD are warranted."
[SAMA] Episode 68: Morgellons Disease: From Delusion to Definition
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