From: "Robert Comer" 

And here I'm going to Corpus Christi the on Saturday the 20'th.  (That's in
South Texas)   Bummer.

--
Bob Comer


"Rich Gauszka"  wrote in message
news:4464d7d5{at}w3.nls.net...
> Black tarry sweat, strange colored fibers popping out of your skin and
> it's not a science fiction movie.
>
> http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA051106.morgellans.KENS.320
30524.html
>
> Doctors puzzled over bizarre infection surfacing in South Texas
>
> Web Posted: 05/12/2006 10:51 AM CDT
>
> Deborah Knapp
> KENS 5 Eyewitness News
>
>
>
> If diseases like AIDS and bird flu scare you, wait until you hear what's
> next. Doctors are trying to find out what is causing a bizarre and
> mysterious infection that's surfaced in South Texas.
>
> Morgellons disease is not yet known to kill, but if you were to get it,
> you might wish you were dead, as the symptoms are horrible.
>
> "These people will have like beads of sweat but it's black, black and
> tarry," said Ginger Savely, a nurse practioner in Austin who treats a
> majority of these patients.
>
> Patients get lesions that never heal.
>
> "Sometimes little black specks that come out of the lesions and sometimes
> little fibers," said Stephanie Bailey, Morgellons patient.
>
> Patients say that's the worst symptom - strange fibers that pop out of
> your skin in different colors.
>
> "He'd have attacks and fibers would come out of his hands and fingers,
> white, black and sometimes red. Very, very painful," said Lisa Wilson,
> whose son Travis had Morgellon's disease.
>
> While all of this is going on, it feels like bugs are crawling under your
> skin. So far more than 100 cases of Morgellons disease have been reported
> in South Texas.
>
> "It really has the makings of a horror movie in every way,"
Savely said.
>
> While Savely sees this as a legitimate disease, there are many doctors who
> simply refuse to acknowledge it exists, because of the bizarre symptoms
> patients are diagnosed as delusional.
>
> "Believe me, if I just randomly saw one of these patients in my office, I
> would think they were crazy too," Savely said. "But after
you've heard the
> story of over 100 (patients) and they're all - down to the most minute
> detail - saying the exact same thing, that becomes quite impressive."
>
> Travis Wilson developed Morgellons just over a year ago. He called his
> mother in to see a fiber coming out of a lesion.
>
> "It looked like a piece of spaghetti was sticking out about a quarter to
> an eighth of an inch long and it was sticking out of his chest," Lisa
> Wilson said. "I tried to pull it as hard as I could out and I could not
> pull it out."
>
> The Wilson's spent $14,000 after insurance last year on doctors and
> medicine.
>
> "Most of them are antibiotics. He was on Tamadone for pain. Viltricide,
> this was an anti-parasitic. This was to try and protect his skin because
> of all the lesions and stuff," Lisa said.
>
> However, nothing worked, and 23-year-old Travis could no longer take it.
>
> "I knew he was going to kill himself, and there was nothing I could do to
> stop him," Lisa Wilson said.
>
> Just two weeks ago, Travis took his life.
>
> Stephanie Bailey developed the lesions four-and-a-half years ago.
>
> "The lesions come up, and then these fuzzy things like spores
come out,"
> she said.
>
> She also has the crawling sensation.
>
> "You just want to get it out of you," Bailey said.
>
> She has no idea what caused the disease, and nothing has worked to clear
> it up.
>
> "They (doctors) told me I was just doing this to myself, that I was nuts.
> So basically I stopped going to doctors because I was afraid they were
> going to lock me up," Bailey said.
>
> Harriett Bishop has battled Morgellons for 12 years. After a year on
> antibiotics, her hands have nearly cleared up. On the day, we visited her
> she only had one lesion and she extracted this fiber from it.
>
> "You want to get these things out to relieve the pain, and that's why you
> pull and then you can see the fibers there, and the tentacles are there,
> and there are millions of them," Bishop said.
>
> So far, pathologists have failed to find any infection in the fibers
> pulled from lesions.
>
> "Clearly something is physically happening here," said Dr.
Randy Wymore, a
> researcher at the Morgellons Research Foundation at Oklahoma State
> University's Center for Health Sciences.
>
> Wymore examines the fibers, scabs and other samples from Morgellon's
> patients to try and find the disease's cause.
>
> "These fibers don't look like common environmental fibers," he said.
>
> The goal at OSU is to scientifically find out what is going on. Until
> then, patients and doctors struggle with this mysterious and bizarre
> infection. Thus far, the only treatment that has showed some success is an
> antibiotic.
>
> "It sounds a little like a parasite, like a fungal infection, like a
> bacterial infection, but it never quite fits all the criteria of any known
> pathogen," Savely said
>
> No one knows how Morgellans is contracted, but it does not appear to be
> contagious. The states with the highest number of cases are Texas,
> California and Florida.
>
>

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