Morgellons – Conquering my Re-infection

After nearly a year of being totally free of Morgellons to my surprise I was re-infected by a single pat on the back from a person who I know has Morgellons. This happened to me on July 12th of this year. At the end of this post I am going to summarize what I think this all means.

I must admit, I was shocked. As soon as this co-worker gave me a pat on the back I thought “Oh crap!” but assumed nothing would come of it because my terrain was strong (even though I wasn’t doing much terrain building for months). However, something did happen and it happened very quickly. I felt the crawling start within a matter of minutes and even more alarming was that within two hours the crawling had reached my ears. I say alarming because in my previous three year struggle with Morgellons never did I have crawling in my ears. At this point I was still at work and my mind was racing with thoughts like “How bad is this going to get?” and “What in the world could go from a pat on the back to my ears so quickly"?” and so on …

Then, there it was, the panic, the fight or flight feeling, and a whispering in my ear, “You’re in for it this time, it’s going to get really bad now”. I decided I wasn’t falling for it. I mean after a year and a half of blogging and encouraging people not to go down that road was I now going to do that very thing? I was pretty sure I was done with this mess, but reality had other plans. It wasn’t long before I pushed those thoughts out of my head and began to formulate a plan.

I needed to go back to my Morgellons survival roots. So, the night of July 12th I informed the kids my couch was once again off limits (and still is as of this writing) and that evening I took a shower, lathered up in my sulfur Azufre soap, turned the water off, and stood there for a few minutes. Then I rinsed and slept on the leather couch. There’s nothing like sleeping on a leather couch to make you feel like you were rode hard and put away wet. One of the jokes I liked to say to my kids in the morning was “Did you get the license of that truck?” and they would say “What truck” and I would answer “The one that ran over me last night”. This is because that’s exactly how I felt (and did so for three years). I definitely did the right thing, if I had infected my bed I might not ever get out of this mess. However, things continued to get worse.

Within two days my stomach had the red rash/bite marks that had plagued me for so long, you could compare it to the skin on my Pityrosporum Folliculitis post only not as bad. The crawling seemed to re-infect my computer area again such that whenever I worked on the computer (which is often) I seemed to get re-infected thereby thwarting any progress I might be making. It became clear to me at that point that until I was better I had to limit my contact with nearly everything. I had to be very careful and starting right that very moment had to limit my contact with anything and everything in the house. And that is exactly what I did.

When I slept on the leather couch I used two towels, one on the bottom and one for a cover, they were big towels, beach towels basically. In the morning they went into a black garbage bag. I started washing my clothes with two to three times more the amount of Doctor Bonners Peppermint soap than I would normally use.

One night I covered my stomach with coconut oil just before going to bed. I figured that not only was coconut oil very antifungal but it would also suffocate any unwanted visitors. I actually think that it helped quite a bit. My stomach seemed to look much better the next morning. I also recalled that I had used the FIR heating pad I had bought quite a bit before I turned the corner the last time I got better. So, for three of four nights in a row I used it a lot, moving it to a new section of my body every 30 minutes or so. Things really seemed to clear up, my stomach looked normal again. However, the pad is very expensive, $400.00 and it might not work for you, so please don’t run out and buy one on my account. Things might be working for me because my terrain is working against Morgellons as well.

But how to treat my ears? At times I would feel the crawling in them and I hated that. I don’t use the FIR pad near my head, I’m afraid it might hurt my eyes so that was out of the question. I even felt the crawling slightly in my eyes (something I had dealt with in the past quite often). I went with what I knew seemed to work for me in most areas, sulfur.

Sulfur Ear Drops CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE FOR INFO	Sulfur Eye Drops CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE FOR INFO

Hepar sulphuris is a homeopathic remedy that was created by Samuel Hahnemann, the father of homeopathy. Hahnemann combined the inner layer of oyster shells (Calcium carbonica) with flowers of sulfur and burned them to create Hepar sulphuris calcareum, or Hepar sulph. as it is commonly called.

Now, it’s important that such things not be abused and that labels be followed correctly. Both of these products contain 12x sulfur, never use the ear drops in your eyes, ever. The Similasan ear and eye drops are available where I live at any CVS store, probably any drug store as well, but that’s usually where I go.

I did the ear drops four nights in a row. You simply turn the bottle upside down and squeeze the clear applicator and a drop or two will come out. This stopped the crawling in my ears eventually. Interestingly I had to throw my head phones out at work however.

In the morning I would get a wet dish towel and wipe down my leather couch each morning (after squirting a good squirt of Doctor Bonners Peppermint soap on it) and I would wipe down my computer table area.

Finally, I was taking two showers a day, lathering up in my sulfur soap, turning off the water in the shower and standing there for a few minutes, then rinsing. When I towel off I do so very rigorously, rubbing my skin pretty hard.

At this point my crawling has all but stopped, I still feel what I call “tinges” now and then. I am not ready to say I am 100% out of the woods, but I think I have nipped this in the bud, however, this experience opens a whole series of questions.

What does it all mean?

First, and most obviously, at least in my case, I can be re-infected by a single touch from a person who has Morgellons that is not treating it at all. Let’s stop and consider this for a moment.

This person who touched me meets with clients and shakes hands with them and so on. What happened to me probably doesn’t happen to many, if any people he meets, though I cannot know for sure. I remember once early on speaking with Randy Yaskal, she had Morgellons and was free of it for nearly 10 years and then got it back again. Her last words to me were exfoliate, exfoliate, exfoliate. It is my guess that we are susceptible for one reason or another to whatever it is that causes this reaction in us while others are not.

For people that cannot seem to shake it is their environment so full of whatever this is that there is no becoming free of it? Perhaps I just don’t know, I’m still trying to unravel what this whole experience may indicate.

Here’s where I think what I did comes into play with my recovery, and that is a strategy of “Minimal Contact” with everything. Keep in mind that I did very little to no cleaning that final year and yet became Morgie free. Maybe it was this strategy that played a bigger role than I thought. Do I think cleaning up my terrain is still key, “Yes I do”. But now I also think “Minimal Contact” with all things cloth might have played a big role as well.

You’ve heard me say this before, I live out of a single laundry basket. My clothes never touch anything made of cloth such as a hamper or other clothes in a dresser, they only touch each other. I only have like three, maybe four days worth of clothes in my laundry basket. I wear shorts and a t-shirt to work each day so we’re not talking a lot of clothes here. And when I’m taking two showers a day as much as 50% of my clothes go through the Doctor Bonners laundry treatment each day. I also dry them twice on two full hot cycles. If you are wearing clothes out of a dresser maybe it’s like your dipping your freshly washed clothes in a tub of Morgellons before you wear them again. All speculation of course. However, and let me say, living like this is abnormal and could cause strife in your home. Luckily, my wife puts up with it, but remember, do not tear your family life apart, try to keep things as normal as you can, especially if you have children.

Also, remember I slept on a leather couch, again no cloth except for the beach towels which are washed each night.

When we travel I bring a lawn chair very similar to the one in this photo that I can sleep on. I never sleep in a hotel bed, and never will again for the rest of my life.

If you are serious about trying to isolate yourself from all things cloth and don’t have a leather couch this might be something to consider. Of course, the older you are the harder it is to really rough it. But then I was designed to go through living hell, my wife says I should go on survivor. By the way, I sit in a vinyl chair at work and a wooden chair at my computer at home.

If there was something in my environment plaguing me then it died off because there came a point where I felt no crawling for a year. Did my minimal contact strategy play a role?

I hate to repeat myself but when a person first has scabies it can be weeks before they know it, maybe even a month, however, Re-infestation can provoke recurrence of symptoms within 24-48 hours, or sooner. The body reacts very quickly to them upon re-infestation. Am I saying that it is some kind of mite? The truth is, I don’t know. From a pat on the back to crawling in my ears within two hours certainly has me wondering. However, like my last post states, don’t trust your senses, it really acts more like a fungal element in the end. For now, I’m going to leave it at that.

Also, I get out outside every chance I get, I love full sun on my skin. I’ve been eating a ton of watermelon, it’s in season and very alkalizing not to mention delicious.

I hope I’ve helped shed some light on this subject. I’ll be honest, I’m couching my words as to what I think this is because I know two days from now my thoughts will change. I’ll let you know when I am for sure that I am 100% clear of this. I’m very close now but it’s only been two weeks and I want to be sure.

Morgellons Sufferer Creates Treatment Gel (Must See)

This is a brand new "News Story" …

Research kept pointing McDaniel to sulfur as a main ingredient. It made sense to Jim Dews, the pharmacologist who eventually concocted the gel.

"That’s reasonable because sulfur compounds have been used for skin conditions for a long, long time – hundreds of years," Dews said.

McDaniel uses the gel, called "Morgone," daily. Morgone and other remedies can be found on the Internet and are considered homeopathic. It isn’t FDA approved.

PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO ON THIS SITE …

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Morgellons-sufferer-creates-gel–91132214.html

Can you believe it, SULFUR !! BINGO !!  Exactly what I keyed in on some time ago as well.

Special thanks to Penny over at finding1cure for tipping me off to this very important story …

Am I Wrong, Is there Something Fundamental Medicine has Missed?

Okay, I am not at all saying everyone should run out and start loading up on Sulfur but I find this statement from PubMed absolutely astounding (and from the same article). Am I wrong here or has something fundamental to human health been completely overlooked?

Sulfur is the sixth most abundant macromineral in breast milk and the third most abundant mineral based on percentage of total body weight.

and then goes on to say …

Because the role of elemental sulfur in human nutrition has not been studied extensively, it is the purpose of this article to emphasize the importance of this element in humans and discuss the therapeutic applications of sulfur compounds in medicine.

So, we have PubMed saying we know almost nothing about the role of the third most abundant mineral in the human body yet they’ll tell you how important it is to have certain trace minerals in your body down to the 4th decimal point.

Sorry, I’m know I’ve really been on a rant on this topic for sometime now but I still cannot get over the statements above. What if all degenerative disease was linked to deficiency of these missing SAA’s (Sulfur based Amino Acids) Methionine, Cysteine, Cystine, Homocysteine, Homocystine, and Taurine? MSM also. In other words, is Fibromyalgia really a disease or simply a massive deficiency of what should be the third most abundant mineral in the human body?

I promise a new topic next time, this just had to be said. Why isn’t sulfur (or it’s SAA’s) listed on the back of all food items and or vitamins?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11896744

Skin Parasites That Doctors’ Don’t Know About

http://cancerskins.blogspot.com/2010/01/skin-parasites-that-doctors-don-know.html

In general, when one thinks of the skin parasites, they think of scabies and ring worm for the medical profession is well equipped.

Unfortunately, I have instructed the types of skin parasites that doctors know about anything. I had just had my annual Spring yard clean-up, when it happened. As I pulled a strangulating vine from a tree, I saw a cloud of dust descending on me. I disposed of the vine, decided to call it quits and took a shower no longer thinking of the cloud of dust.

My job is to manage stress and the use of hypnosis for the elimination of unhealthy habits. Within a month my life changed to the point that I am on the edge of anxiety panic attack.

Two days later, while visiting my mother, my friend, Fran, and I started itching all over. We immediately left home and took hot baths, provided the relaxation. But within a few hours we were both itching again. The next few days were horrendous and confusing as we get rid of everything that we could get to get rid of – against itch creams, Nix …

                Read the rest of the story here …

Notice this quote from the above article …

I experimented with about 30,000 mg of garlic and found that the symptoms stopped. After a few days I thought I was cured and stopped only to have the itching and biting to return within days.

I’m not sure if this person means raw garlic, but never eat loads and loads of raw garlic cloves as you can develop botulism and die. However, the interesting thing of note here is that Garlic is rich in sulfur and if Morgellons is parasites you need to keep your protocol up for at least three months. I certainly wouldn’t take 30 grams of garlic extract a day. An interesting article anyway …

Sulfur – A real mystery …

I’m working on PMP II (an update to my Poor Mans Protocol) which I think is going to be terrific for me. One thing I wanted to get a handle on is what is the amino makeup of the True Protein Egg White mix I take? Even though they say it has abundant sulfur I wanted to know “Is it really loaded with Sulfur?” The reason is my PMP II is going to focus quite a bit on sulfur, and from my reading Sulfur is the 4th most abundant element in the human body (or should be, more on that later).

I would encourage you to read this post, this is another revelation for me, as important as when I changed my thinking on how to approach Morgellons disease. You might be surprised by the summary (but don’t cheat). You’ll see why I’m focusing on this as part of my PMP II and I fully expect to be totally free of this menace by the end of 2010. I believe this post goes a long way to explaining my recovery.

Where Does the Sulfur Hide in those Eggs?

Taken from http://www.ochef.com/1165.htm

Is there sulfur in both the yolks and the whites of eggs?

You’re not going to believe this, but your United States Department of Agriculture does not report on the sulfur content of any part of an egg. And it’s not just eggs! The USDA will tell you the amount of manganese or selenium in just about any food down to the third or fourth decimal point, but doesn’t utter a peep about sulfur. 

There is great disagreement on the Web about your question. A prestigious academic site says sulfur in the yolk causes the greenish ring that sometimes forms around the yolk of an overheated hard-cooked egg, while the American Egg Board says it’s sulfur in the white. The University of Nebraska at Lincoln (which we have never doubted) says sulfur in the white sometimes reacts with iron in the yolk.

Once again Ochef must step in to set the record straight. The USDA does not reference the sulfur content of foods because it is itself a component of several amino acids and vitamins, which the USDA does quantify. At least two of those amino acids — methionine and cystine — are present in both the yolk and white of the egg, so sulfur is also present in both parts. 

Amino Acid Profile per 100g of Protein for Egg Whites

Alanine	5.49g	Isoleucine	5.0g	Serine	6.07g
Arginine	4.54g	Leucine	6.80g	Threonine	3.41g
Aspartic Acid	6.09g	Lysine	4.64g	Tryptophan	1.18g
Cystine	1.88g	Methionine	3.01g	Tyrosine	3.21g
Glutamic	10.89g	Phenylalanine	4.94g	Valine	6.02g
Histidine	1.67g	Proline	2.92g	Glycine	2.89g

Chemical index (as per WHO Standard) http://www.eggnation.co.uk/egg-faq-amino.php 

Notice that egg whites contain Cystine (not cysteine) so I should probably be sure to take my vitamin C with my protein drink. The ones highlighted in blue above are in the sulfur family.

What Are the Elements in the Human Body?

http://chemistry.about.com/cs/howthingswork/f/blbodyelements.htm

• Oxygen (65%)
• Carbon (18%)
• Hydrogen (10%)
• Nitrogen (3%)
• Calcium (1.5%)   <== Elements start here and downward
• Phosphorus (1.0%)
• Potassium (0.35%)
• Sulfur (0.25%) <== Sulfur is the 4th most abundant
• Sodium (0.15%)
• Magnesium (0.05%)
• Copper, Zinc, Selenium, Molybdenum, Fluorine, Chlorine, Iodine, Manganese, Cobalt, Iron (0.70%)
• Lithium, Strontium, Aluminum, Silicon, Lead, Vanadium, Arsenic, Bromine (trace amounts)

Basically, starting at Calcium, Sulfur is the 4th most abundant element in the human body yet you’ll never find it in a blood work report or any report for that matter, and it’s not listed concerning food contents either. Strange considering just about everything else on this list is, even those in very minute trace amounts.

More on Sulfur

http://www.drlera.com/MINERALS/SULFUR.HTM

Sulfur represents about 0.25 percent of our total body weight, similar to potassium. The body contains approximately 140 grams of sulfur-mainly in the proteins, although it is distributed in small amounts in all cells and tissues. Sulfur has a characteristic odor that can be smelled when hair or sheep’s wool is burned. Keratin, present in the skin, hair, and nails, is particularly high in the amino acid cysteine, which is found in sulfur. The sulfur-sulfur bond in keratin gives it greater strength.

Sulfur is present in four amino acids: methionine, an essential amino acid; the nonessential cystine and cysteine, which can be made from methionine; and taurine, which is not part of body tissues but does help produce bile acid for digestion. Sulfur is also present in two B vitamins, thiamine and biotin; interestingly, thiamine is important to skin and biotin to hair. Sulfur is also available as various sulfates or sulfides. But overall, sulfur is most important as part of protein.

Summary

Notice that Cysteine is very important for Keratin, which is present in the skin, hair an nails. So I’m getting Cystine and Methionine from my egg white protien and taking NAC which contains Cysteine, that’s three of the four amino acids in the Sulfur family. Could this be why I feel so much better? This is only part of my ongoing research into PMP II which I am devising for myself so please don’t draw any conclusions just yet. The deficiency symptoms are listed below, you’ll be intrigued when you see them (skin lesions and all).

From http://www.worldhealth.net/news/cysteine_n-acetyl_cysteine_nac/

Cysteine and N-acetyl cysteine (NAC)

Cysteine is a non-essential amino acid that can be manufactured in the liver. It is obtained in the diet from beans, brewer’s yeast, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, dairy products, eggs, fish, garlic, legumes, meat, nuts, onions, red peppers, seafood, seeds, soy, whey, and whole grains. N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) is a modified form of cysteine. NAC helps the body make the antioxidant enzyme glutathione. NAC is a sulfur based Amino Acid.

DEFICIENCY SYMPTOMS:

Symptoms of cysteine deficiency include:

1. apathy
2. loss of pigmentation in hair
3. edema
4. lethargy
5. liver damage
6. muscle loss
7. skin lesions
8. weakness
9. fat loss
10. and slowed growth in children.

SIDE EFFECTS/CONTRAINDICATIONS:

People with diabetes mellitus and allergies to eggs, milk, or wheat should not take supplementary cysteine. People taking the drug may experience severe headaches when taking NAC. Cysteine supplements must be taken with vitamin C to prevent cysteine being converted to cystine, which may form kidney or bladder stones. People with kidney or liver disease should consult their doctor before taking supplementary cysteine.

A Recent Experience – My Worst Fear Realized?

I am not a physician, nor am I a clinical nutritionist. The information provided here is for educational purposes only. Any decision on your part to read and use this information is your personal choice. I do not recommend any of this be used on children. I recommend all people check with their doctor before taking any supplements or vitamins. People with compromised kidneys or livers should always work with a doctor and always ramp up slowly incase of massive die off.

A few days before I downloaded and began to read the NanoTransformation book I was playing around the creation of a new protocol based on sulfur. I spoke about this new protocol in past blog and twitter posts and mentioned how important I think Sulfur is in my YouTube Video. This updated protocol is a big plan for me for 2010. I think sulfur is really key to recovering from Morgellons. In fact, I had emailed “Solar Angel” of the NanoTransformation team and we talked a little about MSM a few days before the book was released. It was funny on the timing of all this.

I had began to ramp up my MSM intake (not to be confused with MMS) when I read in the NanoTransformation book a quote something to the effect of “If I knew a giant storm was coming I will fill my shopping cart with MSM” and they feel it is key to getting rid of nematodes. I thought, “Aha, this is going to be interesting”. They have lots of information on MSM, a full chapter on it in fact. I didn’t have the brand of MSM they prefer but I’m not so sure it matters? I want to be careful and not publish information from their book in this blog post. They even have links showing where MSM is documented to be a good killer of nematodes, that kind of surprised me, but it shouldn’t have really. I have barely tapped into the book so far to be honest and need to read more.

Anyway, I ramped my MSM up to 1000mg with breakfast, lunch, and dinner with another 500mg tablet just before bed with a little food (you need to take it with food). That’s 3,500 mg a day. Guess what happened? I went from basically having no crawling (which is my usual state) to massive body wide crawling, including my eyes which hadn’t happened in a long time. Well, needless to say I was more than a little surprised and quite alarmed. I went back to sleeping on the leather couch, told the kids they cannot sit on the couch, and stopped hugging the kids. This crawling went on for about 2 and half to three days then pretty much stopped. Interestingly enough, just as I ramped up and the crawling began I had terrible pain in my lymph node on the left side of my groin which lasted about 36 hours (that didn’t make me stop taking the MSM though).

This all happened about a two weeks ago. I remember driving to work in the morning absolutely crawling from head to toe and thinking “This is it, my worst fear has come true, the worm people were right, it’s nematodes”. Fear was then crouching at my door wishing to devour me, I could feel a wave of panic trying to take hold. I happened to be listening to a CD at the time in the car on the way to work called “Scriptunes” that my youngest son was given when he joined the Upward Basketball league. Upward is a Christian basketball league, it’s very cool. Anyway, there was an awesome song “If we obey” playing at the time and all of a sudden I laughed out loud that “the thing I had feared the most had been realized”. I was shocked, I should be freaking out I thought not laughing? It was then that I knew God was forcing me to face this fear of mine and then the fear left me as quickly as it came and I began to sing along with the song like I was the one who wrote it, I was kind of astonished. Things like that never happen to me. After that I wasn’t afraid and knew that I could face this as well (if in fact, it was nematodes).

The crawling is over, I’m in fine shape, in fact, feel great and sleeping back in the bed now. I’m not doing the high dose MSM anymore but I am working on a new protocol that is based on Amino Acids and Sulfur products like MSM, NAC, my Sulfur soap for topical and so on … So, I will be doing the MSM again and long term, but I want to layout this protocol and stick with it for three months to see the effects. It’s really not much different than the poor mans protocol, but enough so that I think it will make a real difference.

So, was the crawling that I felt in fact nematodes? I don’t know. In truth, nobody has ever offered any proof that the crawling is nematodes. It could have been mites of some kind, could have been neither of those things, perhaps it was just MSM dancing on the end of my nerves. However, the pain in my lymph node is I think somewhat indicative of it being something akin to some kind of nematode. All I know is MSM had a profound effect on me. I had taken MSM before, but probably only 1000 mg a day at most.

Having had time to think about this experience here is what I have learned. The difference with my approach to Morgellons versus many others is that my improvements are lasting, not fleeting. I just read today somebody talking about MMS (Miracle Mineral Solution, I have never taken MMS) and they said it was really helping them, but as soon as they stopped it Morgellons came back with a vengeance. This does not happen with me I think because I work on the terrain rather than some magic bullet killer. I could take nothing now and often don’t take much of anything for weeks and I’m still okay. But obviously I’m not free of Morgellons. I believe I read somewhere that sulfur (not necessarily MSM) is the 3rd most abundant substance in the human body, so it is part of our natural terrain. I bet doctors never check for it’s presence or lack there of.