January 2011 - Mayo Clinic

 After 9.5 months of being sick I am finally at the Mayo Clinic getting help.  It's been a difficult summer, fall, and winter, living with this mysterious, debilitating illness.  It hangs around my head like an old tire, pulling me down to the ground.  My muscles are always weak, and breathing is labored and difficult.  Ringing in my ears is near constant, and my chest and lungs feel tight and constricted.  On a positive note, my fingernails have cleared up.

There are only slight slivers of the gold remaining.  Most of the nails are clear.  Vitamin use has increased and the following have allowed me to function where I am.  Without these supplements I would be in bed too fatigued to move around.  Vitamin D3 (4000 IU a day) Fish Oil, Vitamin C (2000 mg day) Vitamin E (1000 IU) Dophilus.  Even so...the condition grips me and keeps me burdened.  In the Mayo Medical System now, so hopefully they will get to the bottom of this and offer me some relief.

My Story

In early April of 2010 I began noticing a soreness and throbbing on the back of my neck around the C6/C7 vertebrae area.  While in the grocery store a pulsating electrical current shot out of my neck and briefly paralyzed  half of my body.  This occurred again 3 days later.  A shortwhile after this I was struck ill with a mysterious flu-like condition that rendered me very confused, nauseas, and with difficulty breathing.  When I woke up the next morning I could barely gain control of my muscles enough to walk.  When I did finally stand up I could barely maintain my balance and felt constantly wobbly.  This continued for weeks.  My neck and chest muscles were tight and I was coughing up yellowish sputum.  I felt overall sick, weak and confused.  I tried various things and noticed that when I took an over the counter anti-histamine my condition improved a little bit...although by not much.  I was sensitive to light, my eyes were bloodshot and my muscles were very weak and I couldn't stand for very long before I had to sit down again.  Approximately 2 weeks after the onset of this illness I noticed these "blood spots" growing in the middle of my fingernails that expanded outwards and eventually turned into a gold, flaky crust on the inside of my nails.  Some nails became bent and crooked and had deep open "pits" in them.  To this day, 6 months later, my nails are still the same and new blood spots grow out on occasion.  5 out of my 10 fingers are affected.  Update:  The nails tested positive for Aspergillus Niger by Lab Corp August 2010

Update:  Travelling to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN for help.

MRI of Cervical Neck

MRI w/ contrast C6/ C7 disc bulging caused by Aspergillus Niger

MRI w/out contrast C6/C7 disc bulging caused by Aspergillus Niger

Fingernail Infection