Can detox strategies affect diagnostic tests?

[ellentk]

I've made an appointment with a good doctor (Robert Bransfield) for the first week of August. Until then, I'd like to detoxify using herbs and infrared sauna treatments and topical antibiotics, if needed.

However, will this affect the results of any tests that look for things associated with Morgellons, like the bacteria lyme patients have?

I want to minimize the effects as soon as I can, so I don't feel comfortable not detoxifying for a month, but I also want to know what I actually have, if possible, so that any antibiotics I take can be targeted to specific pathogens.

I've read that the reliability of some tests is questionable, will detoxification make these even more so?

Any and all opinons, advice, suggestions will be appreciated.

Ellen

[Morgan]

Wow, Ellen is your appointment with the infamous Dr. Robert Bransfield??

I reference this article often in our fight for acknowledgement in the medical

community.

Morgellons Disease -- Bransfield 42 (11): 24 -- Psychiatr News

If so I'm impressed. Secondly as an answer to your question I would actually

call his office and put the question to the good Dr. beforehand. I'm sure

He would have a more accurate answer as only he knows what sort of tests

he is going to perform on you. Does that make sense?

Have a great day.

Morgan

Ellen[/quote]

[ellentk]

Hi Morgan,

After finding some small black specks on my eyelid a few months after a pretty heavy mold exposure, I read, and read, and read about Morgellons, on this group and everything else I could find online. It was obvious that choosing the right doctor is crucial.

I also wanted someone near me, if possible, though that was a secondary consideration. Carla sent me her list of doctors and Dr. Bransfield is on it and is only an hour away. After I read that article you mentioned, and other things he's written, he went right onto my short list of approved doctors.

I live in Manhattan by the way, and this is the first time that I or anyone I know couldn't find a specialist here in NYC for a serious condition. There was one NYC doc on Carla's list but he no longer sees Morgellons patients.

I asked the person answering the phones in Dr. Bransfield's office my detox question but she said that he's on vacation and no one there now has medical knowledge.

These pages list tests that I'll discuss with Dr. Bransfield. I can't afford all of them and some may not be advisable, but I want to know everything I have so I can decide how to proceed

In the meantime, I am very, very happy that I have found Dr. Bransfield.

Thanks for your reply.

Ellen
--
P.S. Why did I say "These pages list tests...and not include any urls?
Because after hitting submit reply, I received a message stating that I can't post url's until I have posted 15 messages.

So, you can find these sites by searching in google for this phrase:
" M-R-O Author Morgellons diagnosis "
Click on the second hit:
"Morgellons diagnosis treatments unknown fiber fungal mould disease "
At the end of that page is a link to the second page I wanted to send. The link is called "Or see the M-R-O protocol with more medications"



Ellen

[Kritters]

Hi Ellen,

I reviewed all your posts, and forgive me if I missed something, but what else is going on with you besides finding black specs and your eyelids being irritated? Can you describe the specs?

Regarding your question, your doctor is probably only away for a week or even less now, so if it were me, I'd call again when he returns. Until then, again if it were me, I would wait on the detox. I doubt if a few weeks would make a difference. Are you considering a detox for fungi, or what detox?

Kritts

[ellentk]

Hi Kritts,

What a good idea about calling my doctor's office to find out when he'll be back so I can ask him about detox. I was thinking of general detox. I've begun to drink neem tea (an herb for blood detoxification), and take tumeric pills. I'm thinking of going to a far infrared sauna and taking additional more detox herbs. I'm eating healthier and that will lead to detoxification too.

Not much is going on with me besides the seeing the specks, so if I do have Morgellons it is probably in the early stages. I've seen the little specks two times on an eyelid felt irritated before the specks appeared. They are thin, about 1/8" long. About 3-5 were were randomly arranged on one eyelid. The first time I saw them, about two weeks ago, they came off when I washed my face. Since the eyelid felt irritated I put on a topical antibiotic and the next day some cortisone cream. At the time I thought the black specks were eyemake I didn't wipe off thoroughly. The sensation calmed down for about a week and a half and then stated again and this weekend the specks were back. I tried to remove them with a q-tip and did but it hurt and they didn't come out easily. I saved the q-tip, but it's hard to see them on it.

Since then, my eyelid has remained irritated, which I'd describe as burning, itching, like something may be moving, slight pressure. The fibers were not on the area that is irritated. I have also felt itching on my eyebrow, occasionally on the other eye. I have had periods of intense itching on my scalp. I recall that weeks before I saw the black specks, my lower eyelashes were clumped together sometimes, a new thing. And in the past few weeks, I've hot sweats a few times a day, which have gradually diminished. Those are the symptoms that make me suspect Morgellons.

Ellen

[Kritters]

Hi Ellen,

Thanks so much for going into detail. One more question: do the specks look like perfectly cut off 1/8" black thread?

Reason I ask is because I see them everywhere, and did find what looked just like them, just perfectly twisted as a thread in my research on the net and it was fungus, on clothes, and in the bathroom. This reminds me of when I first posted last year and found clumps of these things in my bathroom.

I have a major mold situation at my house (which I just rented out and the tenant is taking care of the mold as per professional advice he obtained... I was going to and he took over for me, full well knowing it existed). I have thought from the beginning, and still do, that mold is a major factor in my problem. It may not be a solitary player, but a player nonetheless. This fungi is, in my thinking at this point, interacting with the herpes AND/OR Borellia in my body, having a field day of it. Although there are so many other things I've been exposed to living at the shore, having had tons of sushi, walking the beach barefoot daily and living on the bay, this fungus thing, I believe is my foe.

I have also tested off the charts for mercury and iron and I know heavy metals play a role in parasitic invasion. Have you had any testing?

I look forward to hear how you make out with that doc in NYC. I live only 2.5 hours away and will surely follow your footsteps if he comes through for you and I hope he nips this in the bud (or spore ;-) for you.

Kritts

[ellentk]

Hi Kritts,

We are thinking along the same lines. I've long known about the dangers of mold because one of my friends is an environmental consultant. Mold has caused his clients all sorts of problems. Clean up is tricky and has to be done right under proper containment. A few months ago, he had a mold client who also had Morgellons, the mold in her apartment was very bad mold problem and from what he told me of her symptoms, the morgellons was playing havoc with her body and mind. Unfortunately, she wasn't properly diagnosed. Her father, who thought she was crazy, sent her to an epidimiologist who concurred. (Old, sad story.) I told my friend to let her know about this group and I hope he does.

I rent an apartment and have had occasional mold problems for years. I've had good and bad landlords and when I had a bad one most of the sheetrock in my bedroom was moldy and I developed type one sensitivity to aspergillis (not the most dangerous one, I forget the type) which means that I get hives if spores get on my skin. This has not gone away, but it's very controllable and treatable and only slightly annoying.

In the last year, there have been more leaks and a serious outgrowth of mold. At one point I needed to take about 3x more allergy medicine. I didn't pester my landlord to fix the leaks because in my experience mold symptoms go away when the mold does and I didn't have time to organize my apartment for serious remediation, which I knew was required. Eventually, someone else complained to my landlord and he retiled a wall in my bathroom, which solved (most of) the problem. I say most of because though my hives have stopped I still haven't done the remediation and the mold spores remain until they are removed. If I thought it was serious, I would not have put it off, but hindsight is always 20/20.

So, after I read an article called "Mystery parasites plague East Valley woman"
By J. Craig Anderson, in the East Valley Tribune (near Phoenix) about the mold/morgellons connection and noticed that mold seems involved in so many stories, it just made sense. (I'd post the url but can't until I make 15 posts here, but you can find it with google.)

About the specks, I didn't notice if they were perfectly cut or slanted or pointed. I didn't look at them under a super strong magnifying glass.

I haven't found them on anything but my eyelid. Are you saying that the black specs you found were fungus? Did you test them? From what I've read, I thought they were a form of the fibers. But I have read so much in the last few days that I'm sure I have not processed everything correctly. Please clarify.

And you've got me thinking. If my main symptoms are related to the the black specs on my eyelid and I have had a mold problem, perhaps it is a fungal infection and not morgellons? I guess it's easier to test for fungus, except a positive test doesn't rule out morgellons. And of course, I can have both as so many people do. I find waiting a month to see Dr. Bransfield difficult. In the meantime I could ask my dermotologist to take a culture when the black specs come back. And of course I won't say a thing about morgellons.

I haven't been tested for heavy metals. I'll talk to Dr. Bransfield about it. Thank you for mentioning it.

Thanks so much for your sharing your insight and experience. It is very helpful.

Ellen

[Kritters]

You're totally welcome, Ellen...and if it were not for this forum I don't think I'd still be sane or on my way back to health, so I'm glad you found us.

Until a few months ago, I had a microscope which I sent back because the camera that came with it didn't take pictures with clarity. I have been obsessed with it and it has served me well as I've matched up so many things with what I've found example pictures of on the net. Thank God for the net, huh? I'm fairly certain I also have Candida which often accompanies other parasites. It's really exciting to see these things and to identify them. The black fibers I speak of may or may not be what others who supposedly have Morgellons have. They do not come out of my skin. Well, at least I don't think they are the same as the few black hairs that came out of my lesions that healed, which looked like black wiskers.

Now that I think of it...I'm wondering if the herpes and fungi carry the hair genetics from one part of the body to another. I wouldn't be surprised. Sorry, thinking out loud.

I see these twisted fibers and every one I show them to says I'm totally bonkers and that they are thread. Well, pieces of thread don't have straight cut edges, are always uniform in size or close to it, and are found in a clump on my cotton white bath mat which is draped over the tub. Moisture-mold-fungi. When I saw this on the net I was incredulous, but I lost that info in the computer crash last year. I'll probably come across it again. I didn't have the scope then for even a blurry picture. The fact that it was confirmed is enough for me to go on.

You mentioned itching in your scalp and I think eyebrows and eyelashes? I have the same thing. It makes me think mites.

I'm also now putting mites together with fungi and I'll research it. There may be a connection.

Well, I've talked your ear off.

later,
Kritts

[commonsense]

I spent alot of my time collecting wood for my wood carving. I wonder if detoxing would help. Last night a woman was on the public channel talking about detox but the kit and
dvd cost quite a bit of money. If anyone can add positive stories of detox that would help me then I thank you. There are so many products out there that I am not sure which one is the best.

Gonna check out the mms thread now.

[lmamar]

is there any drs who are willing to treat this? help???