Frightening Skin Disease Invades L.A. (Morgellons)

KCAL9 ^ | 5/19/06 | KCBS

[Sir Gawain]

So what's your take on Morgellons? Just another name for delusional parasitosis? The symptoms look identical to me.

[spunkets]

I should also mention, that there is no nurse pratitioner that specializes in treating Lyme disease. This woman works in what I think is a 3 person dematology clinic in Autin, TX. If her nickname isn't Ginger, than she's one of the doc's wife.

[spunkets]

Delusional parasitosis occurs w/o any lesions. The only symptoms and findings are the patient's own description of the sensations. I think delusional parasitosis includes a host of idiopathic conditions, or diseases that the doc(s) can't put a finger on the cause.

In this case the "itch" moves. It's not a generalized area "itch". It's more common to find folks with an idiopathic generalized area itch. The docs just can put a finger on the cause and either attack it as a trial and error thing, or just dismiss it as delusional. I assume that most patients are not delusional.

With this media reported morg's disease, there are physical findings, lesions and other phenomena that haven't been examined and studied by real scientists. That's not something that's hard to do. In addition, the descriptions of the lesions are all over the place. I can also see that the fibers in the posted imsges are not part of the lesion. They are simply laying on the surface. It looks to me like these folks are a collection of patients from incompetent docs.

[bd476]

spunkets wrote: "I should also mention, that there is no nurse pratitioner that specializes in treating Lyme disease. This woman works in what I think is a 3 person dematology clinic in Autin, TX. If her nickname isn't Ginger, than she's one of the doc's wife."


That's a fair enough guess, but it would have been more honest of you to state that you were unable to verify, rather than your making the statement:

"...there is no nurse practitioner that specializes in treating Lyme disease."

According to Austin Advanced Practice Nurses, Ginger Savely, FNP-C, was named TNP NP of the year.

Further:

"In 1999 Ginger started to gain expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of tick-borne diseases.

She is now recognized as one of about 100 top Lyme disease specialists in the country and patients come to her from all over the state of Texas and from six other states as well.

Ginger is an active member of an exclusive professional organization in her field called ILADS (International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society). She also serves on the board of directors of the Texas Lyme Disease Association. She has organized two support groups for her patients.

Ginger is married to Bill Brands, a UT history professor and Pulitzer prize nominated author of 18 books ..."

Austin Advanced Practice Nurses

[Sir Gawain]

Delusional parasitosis occurs w/o any lesions.

The lesions can be caused by the patient trying to dig the "bug" out of the skin, right?

[Sir Gawain]

With this media reported morg's disease, there are physical findings

DP includes physical findings. My grandmother would collect the "bugs" to try and show us. In her case we took her off some meds and the dr gave her some to treat the dp symptoms. We had to tell her the medicine was for getting rid of the bugs because she refused to take it when we tried to tell her the truth, that there were no bugs.

[bd476]

Spunkets, here is the website for International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society and an article about Ginger Savely, Nurse Practitioner of the Year. Nurse practitioner takes on Lyme disease

[spunkets]

Lyme disease is treated with penicillin, or ceftriaxone in later stages. There are simple tests to determine whether one has it, or has had it. There is no reason to travel to see this dematology clinic in Austin to get treatment. If one does not treat Lyme at the primary stage and developes the later symptoms, they would need the services of an immunologist, or arthritic specialist.

She's a nurse practitioner that works under the superviison of a doc. What you posted is career padding used for marketing purposes. She is not a research scientist, she treats patients according to the work of research scientists. Keep in mind that she works in a dematology clinic and very few of her patients have Lyme disease.

[spunkets]

From the healthview reporters article:"Doctors often misdiagnose the disease because it mimics other illnesses like MS, lupus, or chronic fatigue syndrome, so most people with Lyme disease are sent to all sorts of specialists."

Nonsense.

This is a journalist's writup of Savely for promotional purposes.

[spunkets]

"The lesions can be caused by the patient trying to dig the "bug" out of the skin, right?"

That would be an excoriation. Notice there are no reports of and all the pics show an intact vesicular lesion. The epidermis is still present.

[spunkets]

"In her case we took her off some meds and the dr gave her some to treat the dp symptoms."

See her doc knew what was going on and changed the meds. I realize some folks will always insist there's something else going on. In general normal folks can have these syptoms from small muscle contractions in a wave motion though the skin, or just traveling waves of adjacent receptor firings. If the meds hyperpolarize certain nerves, or muscles, or change change transmitter concentrations, they'll have the effect of causing these things.

[spunkets]

As a side note, you can generate the symptoms of delusional parasitosis in most women. The sight of cockroaches does an excellent job on most cases.

[rodeo-mamma]

It's possible that this could be the boils that are described in the book of Revelations in the Bible. In addition, perhaps it is contagious, either that or it could be a Biological Weapon that has been unleashed by either the Chinese, the Russians, or the Terrorists. Whatever the case, it could still be one of the plagues mentioned in the Bible. I'm not saying it is, I am just saying it is possible.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Nurse practitioner Ginger Savely treats Morgellons patients from all over the country at her San Francisco Medical Center

If this is the woman I'm thinking of, some other news story puts her down as working in Austin, TX.

[KneelBeforeZod]

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I checked snopes. Couldn't find it.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

"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.

San Francisco, Austin, whatever...

[television is just wrong]

"Seems to be where the illegal invaders reside...probably caused by burritos"

bringing us diseases we could never dream of. Chagas is another disease. Only comes from Mexico and South America. Also known as the kissing bug disease. This causes enlargement of the abdominal organs and eventual death. NO CURE.

[Ditter]

I have a friend who was bitten by ticks while vacationing on Cape Cod. A few months later she suffered a terribly swollen knee and other painful symptoms. She was tested for Lyme disease but the test was negative. She has continued to suffer painful bouts and now she has a problem with nerve pain that moves around her body. I think the negative Lyme disease test was a mistake.