The Nightmare Of It All – Horsehair - Nematomorpha - Gordian - Stongyloides Stercoralis or Thread Worm Part 1 - See Rewrite on Next Post

SEE THE OTHER POST AS I KNOW IT WASN'T FROM PERU NOW. I DID A REWRITE AND NOW I KNOW IT IS ACTUALLY AN INSECT PARASITE CALLED HORSEHAIR, NEMATOMORPHA OR GORDIAN WORM. IT IS SIMILAR TO HOOK WORM AND THREAD WORM. SEE MY OTHER POSTS FOR SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT ETC. TYPE IN "PARASITE" OR "HORSEHAIR" INTO SEARCH BOX TO FIND THE OTHER POSTS.

Seven plus years ago, I went on a service mission with my family. We went to serve in a small village in the high mountains of Peru above Cusco. I went for two consecutive summers with each of my seven siblings and their families as well as taking my five children. (Click here for a post about that.)

While there, I gave pedicures to the natives. I took gloves and used bleach they had in the village and boiled the water prior to doing the pedicures. The bleach, I found out, had been there for years so wasn’t potent and the water got into the gloves while I was working so I just took them off.

INFECTION SITE - Right after that, I developed an itchy rash on my left pointer finger that looked like a yeast or fungal rash with no specific points of origin so I thought it was non-specific just fungal possibly from their feet.

It took me over seven years and thousands of dollars to figure out what caused that rash and the deterioration of my health.

SKIN PIMPLE FIRST SIGN AFTER RASH - As soon as we arrived home, several of my family developed little pimple like dots on different spots of the body. They didn’t ever come to a head but if squeezed, a little “pop” would sometimes cause a little grain of sand sized white filling to come out. It wasn’t a hard center but was just the size of a sand grain. I attributed it to an ingrown hair as that was what it looked like to me as it was usually in a pore. I thought it weird that they were mostly on the right side of my body on my neck and shoulders at first. Eventually, they continued down onto my arms, legs, stomach etc. Most often they were on my upper arms on the outside. I researched this as I wasn’t the only experiencing it as my sister said she was having the same thing and my girls had them as well. At this point, I was thinking it must have been in the food rather than me getting it from the pedicures.

What I found, was it is called Keratosis Pilaris or “chicken skin” because it does look like chicken skin when the feathers are removed. I had these before and a dermatologist told me they were found on people who had “allergies.” It states online that this is a vitamin A deficiency. This problem was just on my arms before and now is everywhere and just got worse and worse as the years went on.

DIARRHEA and CONSTIPATION - The entire group suffered from diarrhea and stomach complaints on our trip. I went through bouts of both over the years not noticing more of one than the other.

STOMACH CRAMPS and ULCER PAIN - The stomach complaints for me got worse and worse. I would have such stomach cramps where I would just want to stay in bed curled up in a ball sometimes. The cramps weren’t consistent but would come and go. Sometimes I would get “ulcer” type pain as I had suffered from them as a teen where it would feel like something was eating or chewing my insides on one spot. This would get worse if I was eating something that would make my stomach acid more neutral like lemons or lime. Towards the end, I had pain not only in my stomach but all through my digestive tract. The spots would /will hurt sometimes if I pushed in that area but I have pain and cramps almost daily.

 

GAS, BLOATING, AND FLATULENCE – I had this on and off over the years but towards the end when I had a hyperinfection syndrome, (superinfection, autoinfection, disseminated disease) I woke daily with horrible burping for about 40 minutes and I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from having not changed my eating habits. I also had horrible gas, flatulence, farting or whatever you would like to call it. My girls were home one weekend and several commented on my gas saying that I rarely had gas so it was weird to hear me have it. I would wake almost daily to gas while stretching awake or getting out of bed. Not a normal thing for me. My stomach was almost hard with bloating. My belly was so engorged, swollen, distended etc that it was almost painful. My breasts would rest on my rounded belly feeling like I was being cut in half at the diaphragm and I would have pain in the top of my stomach valve where it felt like it was burning often and then I would try to stretch and see if it would stop which at the end, it never did. I felt distended 24/7.

HEART BURN AND CHEST PAIN -  For the last few years, I would be sitting at my computer at night writing my blog and in my journal. I would have HORRIBLE burning in my lung and heart area. It was extremely constricting and felt like someone had put a huge rubber band over my left lung and heart. I would shift in my chair, take deep breaths, hold my breath, nothing helped with this at first. This now crosses over to my lung problems so see that section for more.

DRY COUGH AND TICKLING THROAT – At the beginning, I had a horrible time with dry cough. It would wake me often at night and sometimes when I was places, I would have to leave due to not being able to control the cough. Over the past year, it got worse and worse and if I would bend over for a long time, I would generate the dry cough. It got to the point where it would wake me at night again and was / is happening often.

ENLARGED THYROID / DIFFICULTY SWALLOWING AND GAGGING AT NIGHT

Over the last six months, (hyperinfection syndrome) I started having difficulty swallowing. I would choke on my food frequently. Two of my girls commented that I had a “hump” at the back of my neck similar to a fatty lump or dowagers hump which made me think I was having adrenal problems as that often presents with a “hump.” Many times, I would wake up at night choking on stomach acid, saliva or nothing. This isn’t the same as sleep apnea as I have that as a symptom as well but it was actually choking on something / gagging on nothing. My thyroid is enlarged to the touch. I have every symptom of thyroid problems including several abnormal thyroid tests. I have gained 100 lbs and FREEZE at night lying in bed for hours trying to get warm. I, for years, have used hot bags to get to sleep putting them on my feet, neck and lower back. (Click here for a post about that.) Finally, I bought a heated mattress pad that I heat up for hours before getting into bed. I would lay awake until I got warm which sometimes was an hour even with the pad. I started rubbing rosemary oil on my thyroid over the last week at night and this is the first week in a few years, I haven’t needed the heater on to get to sleep. One of the pages I found said that the thyroid can be compromised as the parasites come up the lungs and out into the throat to be swallowed in their second phase of development. It is right near the thyroid and can cause calcification etc in the thyroid.

I believe that my main thyroid problems are due to parasites. I also stopped eating gluten for the past 18 months and my TPO went from 590ish down to 187. Normal results are 0 – 3.9. I believe that the diet has helped bring down my TPO and I do feel somewhat better not eating gluten as it made me feel like I was drugged when I would eat it. Leaky gut is also a symptom of this parasite as in the gut, it bores holes and this allows the undigested proteins to escape causing the body to attack the gluten. The thyroid proteins look like gluten proteins so the body attacks the thyroid as well. (That is a very basic description of what is happening and there is debate on this so all I can say is that I feel better NOT eating gluten.) I am now on thyroid medication and hope if we clear up the parasites, my thyroid can start to work normally again. 

Check out my many gluten free recipes by typing "gluten free" into the search box at the bottom of the home page.

To Be Continued....