FossilForKids Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 My surgery was able to determine what was wrong........The initial cold slice biopsy indicates.....VALLEY FEVER! The original blood test did not pick it up during the acute phase which can happem. It effected my lungs, heart, pericardiem and perepheral nervous system so they believe it was the dissemenating type. I will be on an antifungaly for at least 6 months and should be back to work in about one month. I will not be back digging there. The Infectious disease Doctor said that I am now vulnerable to further attacks and provbably had been previously exposed. I was arrogant and careless to my appraoch to digging there but my experience has changed all that. I want to thank all of you who have supported me during this tough time. John If only my teeth are so prized a million years from now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cat shark Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 I am gald everything went well and you are on the road to recovery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharklover Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 My surgery was able to determine what was wrong........The initial cold slice biopsy indicates.....VALLEY FEVER! The original blood test did not pick it up during the acute phase which can happem. It effected my lungs, heart, pericardiem and perepheral nervous system so they believe it was the dissemenating type. I will be on an antifungaly for at least 6 months and should be back to work in about one month. I will not be back digging there. The Infectious disease Doctor said that I am now vulnerable to further attacks and provbably had been previously exposed. I was arrogant and careless to my appraoch to digging there but my experience has changed all that. I want to thank all of you who have supported me during this tough time.John Hello John Got last friday also the result of the test. I have also Valley fiver, and i think Sean also. I need to take also for a longer period an antifungaly. Hope that we all after some time feeling better and can again surch fossils. Greetings Cor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaleoRon Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 It's good to hear that the mystery has finally been solved and you are on track to a full recovery. I have heard that Valley Fever is nasty but this is the first time that I have heard it from someone suffering from exposure. Good luck on a fast recovery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkeye Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 Glad to see they finally got it right! You should have listened to us all along, forget the ID docs! Did they start you on fluconazole/itraconazole or do you have to take an intial course of Amphotericin B? If you believe everything you read, perhaps it's time for you to stop reading... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilForKids Posted June 21, 2009 Author Share Posted June 21, 2009 It's good to hear that the mystery has finally been solved and you are on track to a full recovery. I have heard that Valley Fever is nasty but this is the first time that I have heard it from someone suffering from exposure. Good luck on a fast recovery. They should have started the ampho when I was first in the hospital but since it is so toxic and they weren't sure they didn't. So it's Diflucan. If only my teeth are so prized a million years from now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 Amazing that you dodged that bullet for all these years, only to now cross paths with the spore that had your name on it! Is your case more debilitating than usual? Sure sounds rough... Three people, one with years of exposure with nary a cough, then <wham> three serious cases... Do you think you just hit the environmental conditions for infection just right? Or is it possible that the shell layer is a particularly good breeding ground for the fungus? Sure glad you're on the mend! "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paleozoicfish Posted June 21, 2009 Share Posted June 21, 2009 Feel better! Hope all is well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted June 22, 2009 Share Posted June 22, 2009 well, at least now you have a diagnosis and a treatment to mitigate that problem. read everything you can regarding it. i've read quite a bit about it and have more or less decided i won't ever go collect in areas where it's an issue, as bad as i was hoping to some day when i am free to head whichever direction i want. i'm not interested in testing my immune system to see how good it is. best wishes for a speedy recovery. and we will make no jokes whatsoever about a fungus among us. regards, tracer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkeye Posted June 22, 2009 Share Posted June 22, 2009 They should have started the ampho when I was first in the hospital but since it is so toxic and they weren't sure they didn't. So it's Diflucan. Fluconazole is a pretty safe drug as far as antifungals go. Even if you are feeling fine, keep going for the full 6 months. If you believe everything you read, perhaps it's time for you to stop reading... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilForKids Posted June 22, 2009 Author Share Posted June 22, 2009 I will. I won't go through this again. There were dome bad moments. If only my teeth are so prized a million years from now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmy1971 Posted June 22, 2009 Share Posted June 22, 2009 John, I am really glad to hear that you're well on your way to a full recovery. I hope you get to feeling better real soon. Take care! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Inyo Posted June 22, 2009 Share Posted June 22, 2009 My surgery was able to determine what was wrong........The initial cold slice biopsy indicates.....VALLEY FEVER! The original blood test did not pick it up during the acute phase which can happem. It effected my lungs, heart, pericardiem and perepheral nervous system so they believe it was the dissemenating type. I will be on an antifungaly for at least 6 months and should be back to work in about one month. I will not be back digging there. The Infectious disease Doctor said that I am now vulnerable to further attacks and provbably had been previously exposed. I was arrogant and careless to my appraoch to digging there but my experience has changed all that. I want to thank all of you who have supported me during this tough time.John Yes, there was no other disease it could have been. Valley Fever was certainly certified, as it were, by your symptoms, by the incubation period, by the locality of exposure where beaucoup cocci fungal spores exist--and most certainly by the fact that two other individuals digging with your there contracted the identical set of syptoms after an identical lapse of time (and at least one of those other persons had already had his disease confirmed as Valley Fever). It just had to be. By the way, you may have misinterpreted your physician's admonitions about being "vulnerable to future attacks." Since the diagnosis is likely a severe case of disseminated Valley Fever (the worst kind, obviously--your initial decription suggested merely a stubborn case of undessiminated cocci), the fungus is likely now going to be with you for life, as opposed to the usual cocci case where the immnune system seals, walls off the infection in the lungs and generally take care of business, ridding the body of the opportunisitic fungus in short order. By "further attacks," I am certain that your doctor meant that you are now quite vulnerable to multiple relapses of the same infection for quite some time. The antifungal medication can only provide so much help. Also, I would disagree with your Infectious disease doctor on one point--you state that he believes you had "probably been previously exposed." By exposed, I assume he means that you already had activated cocci spores in your system, that you had never really recovered from a previous infection. That is just not a probable scenario. If you had already acquired Valley Fever during one of your visits to the Shark Tooth Hill Bone Bed--either you were asymtomatic (most folks who contract cocci show absolutely no symptoms), or you passed off a minor infection as merely a cold or perhaps even a mild case of the flu. Either way, if previously exposed to cocci infection, your body had successful defeated Valley Fever. And, you would never have had to worry about infection again. The most logical explanation is that this particular severe bout with cocci was your first infection with the dreaded fungus. http://inyo1.110mb.com/index.htm Some fossils (leaves and an insect) from the world-famous Middle Miocene Savage Canyon Formation of Nevada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoenixflood Posted June 22, 2009 Share Posted June 22, 2009 Glad to hear you know what happened and sorry that you had to deal with this! Geesh, what we do for fossils! The soul of a Fossil Hunter is one that is seeking, always. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paleozoicfish Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 Glad to hear you know what happened and sorry that you had to deal with this! Geesh, what we do for fossils! It's nice to know we have a doctor on the forum... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grampa dino Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 Think and dream fossils That and beer LOL keeps me going all the best , Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boesse Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 Holy (cow), John - I guess I originally suspected that the initial test was a false negative, but dang, I didn't seriously think you had it; that's crazy. I hope you make a speedy recovery. The nice thing is that unless you decide to return to STH in the future, you have another world class shark tooth locality practically in your backyard (albeit one that requires a bit more work). Bobby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Menser Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 Glad to hear you are recovering. I know from my own health issues the worst of it was not knowing. Be true to the reality you create. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted June 27, 2009 Share Posted June 27, 2009 John Get well soon. We have field problems to attend to! Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicholas Posted June 28, 2009 Share Posted June 28, 2009 Very glad you've solved the mystery and I hope you will be in the mend soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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