Doctors puzzled over bizarre infection surfacing in South Texas

KENS 5 Eyewitness News ^ | 05/12/2006 | Deborah Knapp

[Williams]

The part I do not understand is as follows. I've read about this disease before. IF the fibers part is real, somebody could go to a doctor when it is occuring, the doctor would see it, you would not need the victim alone to produce a photo. The photo of the "fiber" is something already pulled out and it's not very clear. So if you have 100's of cases, why don't doctors see it and take samples?

Instead you have someone who says they repeatedly went to doctors, the doctors said they were crazy, so they stopped going. A crawling sensation I can understand, but not an observable physical phenomenon.

[PGalt]

Very interesting. Never heard of it. Thanks to all contributors to this thread. BTTT!

[Smokin' Joe]

Apparently the fibers are an intermittent phenomenon. By the time you find a doctor who does not assume it is all in your head, or who does not read your chart and make that assumption because the last doctor you saw did, you set up an appointment, etc., the phenomenon might be over.

Instead you have someone who says they repeatedly went to doctors, the doctors said they were crazy, so they stopped going.

From what I have seen, very few doctors are going to spend time on a problematical and highly questioned malady when they can be raking it in hand over fist on sniffles and skinned knees.

Unfortunately, most of the doctors I have run across do not want challenges, they are quite content to tell someone something is just their imagination rather than do the work to find out what the problem is. It is as if: they cannot find the problem, so no problem can exist, therefore, the patient is making it up.

Once that gets in your chart, the next doctor reviews the chart and says "Sure, you have a problem.", winks at the nurse, and you are wasting your time. (FWIW, No, I do not have this problem, my experience was with something else.)

Maybe some of the fibers are lint, maybe some are not. I can't say I am an expert on fibers of any nature, but the micrographs on the website look an awful lot like some sort of critter spine (pointy projection, not backbone) to me.

Part of the job (any kind of detective work) is to separate the noise from the signal, no matter what you are trying to figure out.

[Froufrou]

Two things:

First, let me remind you that AIDS was not immediately recognized, either. It was a new disease.

Second, the last item you posted, having seen numerous physicians to no avail, is self-fulfilling prophecy of the nonrecognition. Anathema to diagnosis. Redundant. Of course, if the physician can't diagnose, the patient is the one with 'psychological illness.'

I hope you never know the agony of dermatitis NOS. My husband has it and if anyone were to call him a hypochondriac I'd be at them with both barrels.

[mlc9852]

I didn't write the article so you are mad at the wrong person. And I hope I never have whatever you said, either.

[Froufrou]

I'm not mad at anyone. I live in San Antonio and I think it was indelicate for Deborah Daniels to say "you may wish you were dead" when she was preparing to tell us about the 23-yr-old who took his life over this strange stuff.

We're told that there is a stress-related eczema that can last up to five years and then goes away. We're almost halfway through it.

[Gone GF]

"Horrors! The world is crumbling before our very eyes! Truly this is the End of Days. </sarcasm>"

And if you think it's bad now, just wait til that DaVinci Code movie opens. Then you'll see some real wrath.

[Froufrou]

Then you'll see some real wrath.

Why? Surely anyone with gray matter knows that it's a work of fiction!

[Gone GF]

I was being sarcastic.

[Froufrou]

I'm glad. I've seen comments here that indicated the posters couldn't get past the hack writing...and others who were 'incensed' by the gall it implies.

Personally, I can't wait to see it! I love Tom Hanks!