Dear 80898:

I think I was infected with strongyloides about 1 month ago.
I read with sadness several of your blog posts and really feel for you. I am starting on a journey like yours, with unbelieving doctors. I guess that's not exactly true. They DO believe the patient can't be right.

My chronological listing of symptoms (along with environments) is below.

Anyway, I have watched the "Monsters inside ME" video of the doctor with strongyloides and I thought there might be some hope, after his attending doctors finally did an upper GI biopsy and determined that he actually had strongyloides stercoralis.

However in your post you say "they treated him with 14 days of ivermectin and albendazole but THIS DID NOT CURE HIM."

This is devastating news. Especially as I look through documented cases and find so many that do not end well for the patient.

(I got over 7,000 hits on Googling 'strongyloides "chest pain"'. Chest pain is one of my chief symptoms. A large number of the hits are cases reported in medical journal articles. Not very pleasant reading. Even the good outcomes leave one wondering if the affliction came back. It seems they often use a 'clean' fecal sample as evidence of cure.
I think we both know that that is not a sufficient test.)

##########################
MY QUESTION:
How did you get his information on "14 days" and "did not cure him"? I have not been able to find info on his treatment on the internet.
##########################

In the video (and on the Animal Planet web site), they mention that the doctor's name is Mohammad Meah.

I did a Google search on "mohammad meah doctor", looking for doctors over 60 years old. I have found one who might be he --- in Paramus, NJ, phone# 201-986-2806.

The web page
http://www.doctor.com/print.php?id=1853027

indicates he graduated from the Dhaka Med. Coll. of Dhaka U. in Bangladesh in 1960. That would make him in his 70's now. No wonder it says 'No' for 'Accepting Patients'.

############################
Have you ever talked to him? (I am assuming this is the doctor of the video.) (I would like to talk to him, or email him, if he would talk to fellow 'strongie' victims.)
############################

I may actually get a chance to get an upper GI biopsy tomorrow --- especially if blood samples taken today show parasite antibodies or high white cell count.

Since you are making slides and videos, you might be interested in a sampling technique I just read about yesterday 'on the internet' --- something called a 'string test'.

A doctor has the patient swallow a string. It is left in the GI tract for about 4 hours. It is taken out, and, with any luck, there will be some little 'strongies' on the string. (I have not found the nature of the string.)

I have read recently tthat he female strongies in the intestine can get to about 1" to 2" in size. It seems it might be hard to pull up the string without ones of those size being swept off of the string. So the 'string test' sounds rather hit-or-miss to me --- like sputum and fecal samples taken to look for this monster.

They call it a 'threadworm' but I call it the 'Terminator-worm', because it resembles a Terminator (of movie fame) in a couple of ways:

1) it merges into the environment of the host in such a way that it is very difficult to isolate and identify,

2) you can smash it and smash it, biologically speaking,
and it just keeps on coming. It is indestructible. It seems like the only way to destroy it is like at the end of one of the Terminator movies: Throw oneself into a vat of molten metal.

This email is long. I had better sign off. My symptoms list is below.

I hope for a miracle for you, and for all 'strongie' sufferers --- and for sufferers of foolish (to put it mildly) doctors.

Cheers, 'flash999'

############################
Symptoms & Environments List:

Patient/Victim: 67-year-old male, 5'9", 170lb, no drugs Newport News, VA
July 2010

Suspected disease: strongyloides stercoralis (threadworm) w. L1-4 stages
(symptoms & environments below)

Treatment combinations:
(an L4 nerve-paralyzer & an L1 tubule/glucose-uptake obstructor)
ivermectin, albendazole - U.S. ; piperazine, mebendazole - U.K.
Another possibility: pyrantel, fenbendazole
An old treatment: thiabendazole (many side effects)
----

My Symptoms: Approx. first date noticed

00) snap-crackle-pop sounds in lungs when ~04jul2010
breathing at night with head on pillow
(San Juan Island, WA) - 'Rice Crispies chest'
0) dull ache at top right of chest, over several days
- caused me to call for doctor apptmt (info below) ~07jul2010
- back in Newport News, VA [back from 23jun2010 to
6jul2010 trip to West Coast]
1*) burning feeling in lungs - like low blue flame w. prickling ~08jul2010

2*) microfragments welling up in throat -- consistent with
autoregeneration of microorganism, lungs to intestines ~10jul2010
3*) 'constipation' rather than diarrhea - like 1 pound in and
1 ounce out, initially - then loss of appetite ~10jul2010
4) dark small feces --- indicative of blood in intestines ~10jul2010
5) pin-prick-like feelings around body: arms, chest - later ~11jul2010
neck, top of head, buttocks, legs
6) feeling of microfragments eliminated near corners of eyes -- ~11jul2010
strange feeling, never before
7) prickly feeling on tongue surface ~11jul2010
8) itchy rashes on body, like thighs ~13jul2010
9) moving bumps in stomach area, kind of like baby kicking ~13jul2010
- one on left side and one on right side, about the same
time one evening (Never had this, even after huge meal.)
10) loss of ability to write --- and even to type, ~14jul2010
i.e. fine motor skills degenerating (consistent with
reports of threadworm attacking nerve-sheaths/brain)
- getting worse each day 12,13,14 jul2010
(on 12th, writing thank you notes;
on 13 & 14, writing notes to Dr. Taylor)
11) Elevated heart rate (> 85) at very little exertion - ~14jul2010
heart may be receiving significant damage --- also
unusually high systolic and diastolic pressures at
very little extertion
--
Item 2* indicates a microorganism is probably involved.
Item 1*, after web search, indicates 'strongyloides stercoralis'
(threadworm) is just about the only parasite that causes
burning feeling in lungs. Example 'hit':
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strongyloides_stercoralis

Items 3 thru 9 consistent with various reports on strongyloides.
Item 10 consistent with reports of possible serious damage, even death.
---

Probable origination of infection:
(This occurred to patient about 12jul2010.)

A) probable entry point of original organisms: ~23jun2010
five-plus points on right forearm
(scars still, but faint, 14jul2010)

(during trip to West Coast to vist daughter
in Oakland, CA, graduating from medical
residency --- flew from Norfolk to Oakland)
Retrace of events:
Felt a pricking feeling on right forearm when I had it on the
arm of a chair. Cannot remember which chair because I did not
think much of it at the time, except that it was QUITE piercing.
But it was probably one of 3 chairs:
1) chair at gate in Norfolk airport
2) chair on the one plane we flew from Norfolk to Oakland
3) a chair in the living room of our daughter's apartment
(The pricks grew into raised sores at her apartment. Thought
it might be poison ivy/oak at the time -- acquired back in
Newport News. At her apartment, applied some soothing ointment
~27jun2010. We flew to Portland; drove to Oak Harbor, WA, and
San Juan Island, WA. Kept applying Calamine lotion; very itchy.)

NOTE: Airports and airplanes are frequented by worldwide travelers.
Daughter is worldwide traveler -- recently returned from Uganda and
Kenya. Her roommate (let's call her 'H.') was Asian (bed-ridden) and
Asian friends visited. 'H.' also was graduating from medical residency
and may have done a tour in an 'endemic' area.
---

Concerns: irreversible blindness, irreversible brain damage,
(irreversible) death --- or other irreversible damage
--- damaged heart, damaged lungs, damaged nerves/sheaths,
damaged lymph and vascular systems, damaged eyes/ears
----

Newport News doc: Dr. Brian Baines (Dr. Taylor substituting)

First apptmt: Mon 12Jul2010 (Taylor because Baines on vacation)

Local Xray at TPMG imaging, Omni Blvd, 14jul2010 757-853-1258
Local blood sample LabCorp, Omni Blvd, 14jul2010 757-873-0848

------

In case the labs in Newport News do not have facilities to
perform full analysis of appropriate samples
(blood, sputum, swabs, MRI, CT scan, intestinal biopsy, whatever) :

Some UVA Infectious Disease contacts:

Richard Guerrant M.D., 434-929-5242 rlg9a@virginia.edu
Tropical & parasitic infectious diseases, incl. enteric

Eric Houpt M.D., 434-924-1931 erh6k@virginia.edu
Tropical infections

or Richard Pearson M.D or William Petri M.D. or ...

For 'Clinical Faculty in Infectious Diseases & International Health', see
http://www.medicine.virginia.edu/clinical/departments/medicine/divisions/infe...


UVA Dept. of Infectious Diseases & International Health: 434-243-6832 or 800-251-3627

UVA Infectious Disease Clinic: 434-982-1700 or 800-251-3627

Fax of Infectious Disease Clinic: 434-982-3268 Attn: Serena

----

'Interesting' video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyqZPwGrtkQ
(or Google Video 'strongyloides')

(An "at death's door" !DOCTOR! who had strongyloides in
his body for years before it was identified, via upper GI biopsy.)