A friend called me yesterday totally freaked out because he is seeing tiny brown spikes poke out from under his fingernails and then they retreat. He says they feel like they have teeth and are biting him and is insistent they look like brown spikes and do not look like Morgellans disease. He has not been feeling well for a long time but was pushing through it because he didn’t know what to do or what was wrong. In the last month he has lost 20 pounds and is having gastrointestinal problems. Whatever this is, he has been suffering the last few weeks watching these things come out of his fingernails. In the past he would watch his fingertips swell up, turn red and then become normal again. He has showed this to friends and they could witness that. Of course he’s been to doctors who think it’s in his head. Any ideas or suggestions? We do have a local resource who will not judge him, he’s trying to get an appointment now but any info to help calm him would be really helpful.
Posted by TX Lyme Mom (Member # 3162) on :
Scroll down to read: "The most distinguishing characteristic of Morgellons are the fibers/filaments in the skin. These fibers can best be visualized with a 60X lighted hand-held microscope. These can be affordably purchased on the Internet & in some local stores for about $12.00 (example is the Radio Shack Model: MM-100 Catalog #: 63-1313). The CEHMDF has a similar scopes available for $8.00 on our merchandise page."
https://thecehf.org/merchandise/ -- Scroll down to bottom of page to see the little hand-held, lighted microscopes, which should be helpful when you visit a doctor whose eyesight might not be keen enough to visualize these tiny fibers with the naked eye.
Hopefully, all of these resources (above) will help you figure out if what you are experiencing is Morgellon's or not, but it surely does sound like it to me. (I don't have Morgellon's myself, but I've attended several of their annual conferences, and I have met quite a few Morgellon's patients there since I live within easy commuting distance of Austin, TX where their annual conferences take place.)
Posted by Curley911 (Member # 2205) on :
Thank you for the info.... my friend is so upset and agitated with good reason. I’ll pass this on!