One reason is because I have floaters in my field of vision that resemble amoebas. Some are transparent circles with a darker dot in the center, usually seen on my 'better' days, if you can call them that.
And some are these transparent circles with two thread-like tails on my bad days.
I was looking at pictures of...I think it was bart? And these look similar to what I'm seeing EXCEPT bart seems to be more elongated or oval, as opposed to circular. I'm not seeing long ovals. I'm seeing circles.
I'm especially worried because I've been reading about another brain-eating protozoa,naegleria fowleri, that has only been identified through autopsy, and this bug apparently enters through the nasal passages.
Around the time I first developed these horrific symptoms, I thought I had a zit on my nose the one day that needed popping...looked around for a zit forever, and found none, eventually realizing that I had some kind of sore inside of my left nostril. The sore was there inside my nose for a lonnng time (years).
What's really scary is that when I was looking at pics of this brain-eating bug, this is what I'm seeing in my field of vision as 'floaters' (click on naegleria fowleri):
Please tell me that bart looks circular and has two tails...?
Anybody have Rife frequencies for this one?
Posts: 495 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2010
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joalo
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posted
Up.
-------------------- Sick since January 1985. Misdiagnosed for 20 years. Tested CDC positive October 2005. Treating since April 2006. Posts: 3228 | From Somewhere west of the Mississippi | Registered: Aug 2007
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Pinelady
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
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I saw some really good eye infectious disease docs on Monsters Inside Us.
I believe I would seek one out who knows how to find them.
-------------------- Suspected Lyme 07 Test neg One band migrating in IgG region unable to identify.Igenex Jan.09IFA titer 1:40 IND IgM neg pos 31 +++ 34 IND 39 IND 41 IND 83-93 + DX:Neuroborreliosis Posts: 5850 | From Kentucky | Registered: Dec 2008
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posted
It's what I have and haven't come across anyone with this except you. I have perfect circles with a perfect darker circle in the center. When I look at a tv monitor or skyline, it's more clear.
These are perfect circles I see with a dark circle in the middle. It almost resembles an eyeball with the pupil in the middle.
But transparent and not a black dark center but more of a grey. It's the reason I'm sick and no doubt why my brain is infected.
I will try to did up the info I found and can send them to your email if you like. Send me a PM with your email.
I have also saw a nuro-opth, and have a second appointment next month. So I hope he can shed some light on this.
Maybe we can help each other out because no one else seems to have this problem.
-------------------- HERX is a Four Letter Word! Posts: 716 | From If you're going through hell, keep going......Winston Churchill | Registered: Apr 2007
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posted
I have the same problem especially when looking at the skyline. My husband has them too but not my children. My eye dr. said it was just debris. http://www.mdsupport.org/library/floaters.htmlPosts: 433 | From new york | Registered: Dec 2004
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posted
No, it's NOT debris. This is some kind of protozoa or something. I see them nearly every day. Some days they appear in only one eye, but nearly every day one of my eyes has these types of floaters, sometimes both. I mentioned these to my eye doctor earlier this year using the word 'protozoa', and his response was, "That's an interesting way of describing them."
bigstan, did you ever have a sore inside your nostril like I did? It hurt so badly...that's why I even remember it...that I actually spent months trying to get my finger deep enough inside my nostril to see if it was 'poppable'. Now I'm not even sure it was a zit...it couldn've been an ulcer, but I was never successful in getting my finger deep enough inside. The sore is no longer there, but these protozoa-like floaters (with flagella) definitely remain.
I'll PM you and send you my email.
Posts: 495 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2010
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posted
I'm really worried about this. I think whatever this is it entered through my nasal passages. That sore was there in my left nostril for YEARS, and that's when I got sick. It says this naegleria fowleri is almost always fatal, and I did...I almost DIED. I weighed 88 lbs and was diagnosed with malnutrition. Doctors though thought I was lying, not eating, and really suffering from anorexia nervosa because everything was coming back normal.
I had trouble breathing, was nearly passing out, palpitations. It felt like my head was going to explode numerous times.
Today I have severe memory loss (both short term AND long term).
I wonder if this is why my OCD worsened, too???
And this may sound crazy, but I was using a cordless phone heavily around this time, holding it to my left ear, and the sore inside my nose was in my left nostril...
blinkie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14470
posted
I have stringy looking floaters. I know they are some kind of bug because they move and change all the time. Not sure if it's protozoa or lyme cysts.
You should stop stressing out. It sounds like you are not as sick now as you used to be, if I'm reading your post right. If it was deadly, you'd be a lot sicker. The more you stress, the weaker your immune system will be and the sicker you will get. I was functioning ok until I stressed out and cried for two straight months over finding out I was sick. That put me out of functioning.
You could do a parasite treament if that would make you feel better.
My hubby gets a large, zit-like cyst on the tip of his nose that sounds like what you are describing. Much less often after some lyme treatment.
Posts: 1104 | From N.California | Registered: Jan 2008
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cactus
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Why don't you ask your LLMD to test for this? (naegleria fowleri)
My LLMD tested me because I have a long, outdoorsy history and have backpacked to many hot springs. Some of which now are known to have this, and fortunately now have signs posted about it.
At the time, I was informed enough to know to avoid putting my nose under the water, at least.
Do you have a history of enjoying hot springs?
-------------------- �Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?� - A.A. Milne Posts: 1987 | From No. VA | Registered: May 2005
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posted
How do you test for it though? Everywhere I read it says it's diagnosed and confirmed at autopsy, which sounds about right because no doctor will listen to me. No Lyme, bart, or babs medication has had any effect on these floaters yet - or the jaw symptoms which can be extreme. I'm not kidding though...I did almost die. I am not exaggerating this. I looked skeletal.
Also, my body temp is usually low, which I know is no big deal with Lyme, but...and this concerns naegleria fowleri...
Flagellate In fresh water between 80.6 to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (27 to 37 degrees Centigrade) the trophozoite can grow two flagella within 1 to 20 hours.
My body temp is ideal for these flagella to grow. And I became ill mid-90's when more people in the US began being diagnosed with this...between 1995 and 2007. That is the period of time the sore in my nose appeared. I am not a swimmer either, but we had some wet years there, and I AM a gardener.
Posts: 495 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2010
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cactus
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I had a blood test.
-------------------- �Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?� - A.A. Milne Posts: 1987 | From No. VA | Registered: May 2005
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cactus
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Adding that I was tested long after the acute onset stage of my own illness.
So I understand what you mean when you say you almost died.
And now you are surviving - but sick.
I don't remember the exact test that was used for me - it was in with a lot of bloodwork. 36 vials one week, and a similar amount on another week.
My LLMD looked at all the possibilities, given my travel history etc... and there were a lot, so I was tested for a slew of things all at once.
In addition to the usual TBD culprits, I also had a chronic infection of legionella and salmonella, plus a host of viruses.
Oh, and I know what you mean about the nose sore, too - had one as well! Ick!
For what it's worth, my 5 years of rotating abx have addressed all the infections because I am feeling very well.
So whether we found the exact diagnosis for all of the diseases or if there might have been more we didn't catch... eventually they were all addressed in the rotation of abx.
-------------------- �Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?� - A.A. Milne Posts: 1987 | From No. VA | Registered: May 2005
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posted
I don't think that you have naegleria fowleri based on that first link you posted. It sounds like you would have been dead already since the link said it has a very rapid onset and you said that you have been sick since the mid 90's. This is what it said in the link that you posted...
"rapid clinical course with death in 4-5 days after onset of symptoms"
Hope this helps to ease your worries a bit.
-------------------- Sick since 10/2001. Tested CDC positive for Lyme 10/2008 through Quest and Igenex. Started treatment 1/2009 with LLMD. Lyme, Erichilosis, Chlamydophila Pneumoniae, Q Fever, Strep Syndrome and probably a few others I am forgetting. Posts: 451 | From Virginia | Registered: Feb 2009
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I'm not convinced. Why is it saying then that autopsy is the only way to diagnose this? and that the only medication used to treat it, is usually not successful?
Amphotericin B is effective against N. fowleri in vitro, but the prognosis remains bleak for those that contract PAM, and survival remains less than 1%.[9]
And what about this?...
Dr.'s Fowler and Cutler first described human disease caused by amebo-flagellate in Australia in 1965 [3].
...the year I was born, 1965.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the amoeba killed 23 people between 1995 and 2004.
...exactly when I got sick.
In their free-living state, trophozoites feed on bacteria.
Did killing some spirochetes cause them to quiet down some? If this is the case, this might explain why I survived.
cactus
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Do you have a good LLMD?
If you are concerned about this - run it past your doc. Send him/her an email with a link to the info, and explain why you feel you may have been exposed.
My LLMD was always very adamant that I *not* spend too much time worrying about these types of issues - she suggested that I contact her as they arise, or discuss them at my monthly appts. And most importantly - let her worry the most about these things.
She encouraged research, and respected it.
She'd also found many studies about a correlation between stress and immune function. Every moment we are stressed lowers our immune system for hours afterward.
You are doing excellent research. That's good!
The trick is to take that excellent research and present it to your doc, so that you don't get caught up in fear and stress - thus lowering your body's ability to fight.
Hang in there.
-------------------- �Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?� - A.A. Milne Posts: 1987 | From No. VA | Registered: May 2005
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sutherngrl
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Almost everyone has eye floaters. They can be in many different shapes and forms. Look up eye floaters on the net. It will calm you down.
Mine are long and thin with a circle on one end like a head or tail and slightly bumpy along the sides. Sometimes they are straight and sometimes they curl up.
I could imagine a million things, but I read about eye floaters and now I know that most ppl have them.
Posts: 4035 | From Mississippi | Registered: Jul 2008
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I have strange floaters. Many have strange floaters.
I know it may be annoying, but try not to get worked up and try your best not to worry. It will do you a lot of good. It seems like I have a bunch of strange stuff happen to me on a daily basis; and many of these things are easy to get worried about. I wasn't a worrier before this disease; in fact I thought I was invincible. It wasn't part of my perosnality, and the way this disease messes with my brain and nervous system causes worry and anxiety.
The anxiety/stimulated feeling hasn't really gone away yet, so I am now wired to worry, get scared, or freak out over the sound of a vacuum cleaner (literally).
See if you can put your worries aside and live in the moment. I find self-hypnosis great. Some like EFT.
If you're in acute pain, or are going blind that's one thing. If not, do whatever it takes to relax. If you can, try to forget about your floaters by distracting yourself with something else, and maybe you won't notice them so much.
I hope you don't take this the wrong way. I'm really trying to help. Posts: 967 | From A deserted island without internet access | Registered: Sep 2009
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I don't know...I'm becoming keenly aware of the fact that most people don't get OCD either. As soon as I mention having OCD, the word 'obsession' seems to come to the forefront a lot. I wish they would have never named it that. Most OCD-ers KNOW exactly when they're OCD-ing over something, and this is not one of them.
I had a strange sore in my nose that I never showed a doctor - not that they would have even considered naegleria fowleri - heck, they won't even consider Lyme. Could that be why everyone who contracted this naegleria fowleri died? Probably. Why everyone with Lyme now has chronic neuro Lyme?...because it wasn't recognized early enough? Yea.
My LLMD lives in another state. She treats me over the phone. Nothing so far has worked antibiotic-wise, so yea, I am worried and not very comfortable leaving the worrying up to my LLMD alone. And if I hadn't worried enough years ago and had just left it up to my doctors, even my Lyme would have never been diagnosed.
Guess I'll just tell my family to make sure my brain is autopsied upon my death. Even my family doesn't seem to get it. And by 'it', I mean that this is something serious. I don't know...my brain is kind of important to me?
Posts: 495 | From USA | Registered: Mar 2010
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cactus
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Have you treated babs yet?
What have you tried, and for how long?
Oh, and OCD... I've been here quite some time, and I see come up here all the time. You are not alone.
If my post came across as blaming your worries on OCD - that was not my intent, so I'm truly sorry. I was a research queen too, and I'm not OCD.
I did not mean to trivialize your concerns, only to help you figure out how to address your concerns constructively and hopefully get concrete answers.
-------------------- �Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?� - A.A. Milne Posts: 1987 | From No. VA | Registered: May 2005
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I may not be the norm here, but I really believe in supporting your methylation cycle and treating KPU (if you have it) if you aren't making any progress.
KPU can cause OCD and has a strong association with Lyme. The test is around $50 through Vitamin Diagnostics. Though to warn you, if you are positive, treatment isn't usually easy.
Posts: 967 | From A deserted island without internet access | Registered: Sep 2009
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