Need help with identification of parasite
I began seeing what appeared to be some type of parasitic worm in my stool about 2 years ago. I went to my doctor and submitted a stool sample and it came back negative. I continued to see these and went back a couple of months later and again my stool sample was negative. On this occasion I had submitted only the worms I found in the sample and I now realize that was a mistake since the eggs are primarily what are looked for. I now have numerous symptoms that I think are related to this. Skin lesions primarily on head, face, ankles, and arms from elbow to hands (seems to be concentrated in less fatty areas), apparent eggs in lesions occasionally, fatigue, inability to concentrate or maintain focus, anxiety, swelling around eyes, unusual mosaic pattern visible beneath skin, numbness in hands and feet, swelling in lower legs and feet, intermittent pain in right shoulder and right ankle, excessive mucus in throat, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, poor balance and I may be forgetting some of them. I seem to have trouble remembering things since all this started. I have probably 100 photos that I have taken with my mini-dv handycam but the doctors won't look at them. I just went to my 5th last week which is an infectious disease specialist and haven't gotten results back yet. All of them say that this type of parasite can only be contracted overseas and other than a trip to Hawaii in 2001 I haven't been outside the U.S. mainland. I've tried to match my symptoms and my photos with information available online and the only one that I've found so far that fits is Schistosomiasis. I've pulled things that are similar in shape to a spoon and are about a half inch long from lesions. They are slightly curved and shaped like a spade at one end. On my skin the middle part appears to be under my skin with the ends sticking up above the skin. They are the same color as my skin (tan) and are hardly visible until extracted. The worms have a clear membrane around them and I've seen movement from what I think is the female within the male fold but never in the large part of the worm itself. I've seen what appear to be calcified eggs in my stool that are somewhat large and also much smaller ones that appear to have the characteristic horn on them. I uploaded some of the photos in the "Parasites" gallery and can upload more photos if necessary.