Had a patient in the triage area with these symptoms. Kept saying, "look, there they are" while she scratched her skin raw. Didn't see a thing. Just another nut in the nutbowl, right?
So I presumed.
Bedbugs, scabies, narcotics withdrawal, delusional parasitosis, just plain kookoo.....all plausible explanations.
Then I stumble, days later upon a medical journal with an article on Morgellan's disease, which manifests all the above-mentioned symptoms. Even the CDC has a website addressing the issue.
I hope I washed my hands well that day.
1 comment:
I had a patient similar to that come into the office. She had a body wide mess of scars and sores that were angry and weeping. I prescribed just about every med I could think of. I took a skin biopsy and nothing came back except for skin inflammation. Duh? I started googling just to come up with ANY ideas.. One popped up that I preyed was wrong. Colon cancer. Yes, it sometimes manifests itself as a skin rash. She cried when I told her that I didn't think that she was crazy like all of the other doctors did. Sent for a colonoscopy and there it was. Sad. Several years were wasted.
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