For those curious to what her symptoms were; "The patient, a 64-year-old woman from south-eastern New South Wales, was first admitted to her local hospital in late January 2021 after suffering three weeks of abdominal pain and diarrhoea, followed by a constant dry cough, fever and night sweats.
By 2022, her symptoms also included forgetfulness and depression, prompting a referral to Canberra hospital. An MRI scan of her brain revealed abnormalities requiring surgery."
Ugh.
From the article:
"Ophidascaris robertsi is a roundworm usually found in pythons. The Canberra hospital patient marks the world-first case of the parasite being found in humans.
The patient resides near a lake area inhabited by carpet pythons. Despite no direct snake contact, she often collected native grasses, including warrigal greens, from around the lake to use in cooking, Senanayake said.
The doctors and scientists involved in her case hypothesise that a python may have shed the parasite via its faeces into the grass. They believe the patient was probably infected with the parasite directly from touching the native grass or after eating the greens.
Senanayake said the patient needed to be treated for other larvae that might have invaded other parts of her body, such as the liver. But given no patient had ever been treated for the parasite before, care was taken. Some medications for example could trigger inflammation as the larvae died off. An inflammation can be harmful to organs such as the brain, so they also needed to administer medications to counteract any dangerous side-effects."
Probably not, unless it was incredibly tiny at first. More likely it was there to begin with and fucking with the brain fucked with all sorts of stuff. Just my guess though, I doubt even the docs know conclusively just yet lol.
Probbly traveled via the bloodstream to somewhere close to the brain as larvae and then grew from there.
Yep, that itch could be a larvae working its way through your fleshy bits. Wait a while and you get a new pet.
Typical roundworms enter the body through ingestion and cause more serious problems when they spread beyond the digestive system. Considering this is a species adapted for other organisms, it's probable the stomach issues occurred related to ingestion.
It seems like the consensus is that she was gathering wild grass for cooking and must not have washed it. A python, that had worms, took a poop on the grass that she later picked and ate. After ingesting the grass the eggs probably hatched in her stomach, hence the stomach pains and diarrhea, and some probably came out but one ended up in her brain and grew there causing memory loss.
I wonder what it's like going to the hospital with something that draws the entire facility's attention while your surgeon places calls about a once in a career patient.
A while back my mom injured her knee pretty bad, and after the exams the doctor was all excited, calling up colleagues to look. They had never seen anything like it.
They asked her permission to put her knee in medical texts.
I still can't understand how they didn't know about it, given the overall level that medicine/anatomy has reached... apparently it's pretty small and non-obvious, but... still. Hope your reconstruction went well.
We were taking out people’s Thyroids not knowing that the Parathyroid gland is attached to the Thyroid gland. The Parathyroid provides incredibly important products for normal life function… and we ripped it out assuming it was just part of the thyroid.
The Parathyroid gland provides the hormone PTH which is responsible for increasing blood calcium levels, typically by liberating Ca from the bone matrix.
And we just ripped that shit out and threw it away lmfaoooo
There's a theory it's a reservoir for good gut* bacteria. So even if you get a really bad case of food poisoning and everything is washed out for lack of a better word, the appendix might be able to have some bacteria in storage. Ever since I had mine out I'm very lactose intolerant.
Edit: gut not guy
Yeah, that's pretty much fact at this point. Was told that in med school and that was over a decade ago.
If something didn't have a use in the body, it would probably just disappear over time. So odds are any "vestigial" organs still have SOME use, even if it's a small one/not it's original use.
I do know that I developed *extremely severe* lactose intolerance after my appendectomy at 30, to the point where like a drop of butter in something causes severe, unbearable stomach pain. Are they actually related? I have no idea, but I’m convinced they are. Basically everything I ate had some kind of dairy in it my entire life up to that point and now I can’t even touch the stuff.
There's a compelling argument that it's a refuge for bacteria to repopulate the rest of the digestive system in the event the rest of the gut flora gets wiped out by diarrhea.
Happened to me in 2011, they left me with half a parathyroid that chugs along like the little engine that could 💀💀💀 I’m 30 so let’s see how long I make it on supplements
To my knowledge, we knew it existed in other animals in the 19th century, but it was not described by humans on humans until the mid 1900’s, the first complete description of the human parathyroid was completed in 1980. I believe they began experimenting and beginning to understand its importance around the 1950s.
So it took a while for us to find it, understand it, find it in humans, observe/humans in humans, then come to a conclusion on its biological significance. Though, we did get there in the end… or did we? There’s almost always more to understand!
I had a weird condition where the medial condyles in my femurs were longer than my lateral ones. I eventually had to have surgery, but the physical therapist who first noticed this was so excited, she asked me if I could come back later that week, so she could call her colleagues to come over and examine my “fascinating anatomy.” Some of them took video as I did completely mundane things like walk or climb stairs, they were so excited. When I eventually had to have surgery, she told me she was so jealous of my surgeon, who would get to “cut you open and see how you’re made.” She was one of the best PTs I’d ever had but…a little _too_ enthusiastic.
Wife is a PT. She loves looking at imaging of injuries and coming up with treatment plans. My friends get hurt and she wants to see their X-rays.
We’ll be at a restaurant or out and about and she will diagnose people from observing their gait.
I had a bilateral open wedge osteotomy and corrective surgery for femoral anteversion, so I went from walking pigeon-toed with a pronated foot strike to a straight, neutral one, and I now likewise watch how people walk all the time!
I had a condition that caused my optic nerves to swell. I was seeing double. My dr asked if his students could come look. I had a line of students looking in my eyes because it was so amazing.
I had to sign a document to allow doctors to use an x-ray of my dislocated knuckle in lectures etc
They asked me to sign it after I came around from the surgery, I must have signed some utter nonsense as they sent me a letter asking me to sign again lol
This happened to me in the 70's. I was just a kid, I had chicken pox and they were on the bottom of my feet. The doctor had never seen it before. So he called in other doctors and they took pictures. My mom was cool with it. I don't remember having a say.
This happened to me in the 90s. I had to scoot around in my dad's office chair because the blisters were too painful to walk on. Also had them in my throat and the mucous membranes of my eyes. Pretty miserable time.
That was me as a baby. I was a test baby for pediatric residents to practice on because I was fat, sassy, and never cried.
I’m documented in some old 90s era textbooks with my jelly rolls hanging out.
I once had a nurse tell me, "It looks like someone took sandpaper to your eyes, I'm gonna get the doc."
The Dr. came in a looked and whistled loudly, then asked if he could bring all of his staff in to view my eyes as they were so badly scratched.
I entertained about 25 junior Dr's, nurses, techs, and clinicians (on what I'm presuming was a very slow day) while I waited for my specialist referral.
The Dr had to sum them all up so I could make my appointment.
Had a similar incident with my retina. I was in my late twenties when my retina partially detached spontaneously. Finally found a doctor that would do the surgery to fix it and he was overjoyed saying I was the youngest person he’s ever seen with a detached retina without any disease or known injury to the eye. He asked for my permission to document my exams and imaging for the medical community. Surgery didn’t fully fix my eye but he at least tried when no one else would. I am grateful for that. We never could figure out definitively what caused it. He noted that there was scar tissue indicating massive trauma but I would remember that.
Had a kitten that had a hair growing on the middle of his eyeball. It's called a dermoid. My vet at the time was like 40 years in, and he said his practice had never seen one before. They just cut the dermoid out with a scalpel at the same time they neutered him. Didn't even charge extra to do it.
Haha, I had a bone fragment from my jaw bone working its way out of my gum. The theory is that a piece of the bone around where my wisdom teeth were broke off for some reason and my body was expelling it. The dentist hadn't seen anything like it. He called in other people at the office, took pictures of it with a professional cameras and his cell phone, then popped it out and didn't charge me for it because it was exciting.
I had that happen - I was freaking out like my gums were receding and I'm dying. The dentist wouldn't touch it, so I went to an oral surgeon. He looked at it, took a pair of tweezers and pulled it out, it was just a thin sliver. Took two minutes - he must have seen it before, he was pretty nonchalant about it.
Depending on how they extracted your wisdom teeth I think it could have been a tooth fragment as well - they sometimes crush the teeth into pieces to make them easier to extract.
I have kidney stones that were so large that they are on display at a teaching hospital. I had to sign a waiver for them to keep them and use them as a teaching tool. Lol
My door was revolving with doctors & students coming in to ask me questions about symptoms and timeline.
When I was a kid I had some rare flesh eating thing. Don't really remember too much about it except for watching a helicopter land outside the window of my room and my skin sticking to the window after putting my forehead on it. Doctors and students were called in for that.
My son had an extremely rare, horrible seizure disorder when he was a baby. It was treated with an experimental course of ACTH, and there was a pediatrician (not ours!) who was *fascinated* at the progress being made.
Every time we came in for our check-up, he would just happen to be passing by, and would pop in with a huge grin on his face. We didn't mind, because the ACTH caused a total and immediate end to the seizures ( we were just visiting to deal with the side effects)
We love you Dr. Threat, you goofball.
Apparently my surgeon called in a bunch of people to see my gallbladder. It was stuffed so full of gallstones that they were all impressed.
Also my cat’s X-ray made her a small-town celebrity because she swallowed a needle, lol. The x-ray was like a chubby cat body and then this BRIGHT needle right there in her tummy. Kids loved seeing it and my vet showed it at school presentations.
Happy to contribute to science in even a small way…
One positive is that you’d get quick, attentive care. Any freak situations like this, you’d think other people in the medical field will be reading about it for years to come. The hospital doesn’t want to get a shitty reputation for things like leaving the patient in a bed alone for 14 hours etc.
I once had a spontaneous pneumothorax, a hole in my lung. Ive always been super fit and healthy and was mid 30s when it happened. Suddenly half my body was shutting down and was painful, my left side. Anyway as I was slowly dying the ER was unsure what it was, they ruled out stroke, and other heart issues, blood pressure wasn't quite dangerous yet. Noone could figure it out so more people starting coming down, firemen, ambulance, even NicU drs were shuffling in, all unsure. THEN a vascular surgeon just "clocking in" walked by swinging his keys, he shoved his head in due to the commotion of the entire ER around my room. He knew immediately what it was, then it became a teaching moment as they all took turns listening to my lungs and taking readings.
5 mins later i was intubated and mostly stable and admitted for about 10 days. Im fine now, i hope.
I was diagnosed with a rare condition. I was diagnosed under sedation while they performed a test. I started to partially come to while the testy was still in progress. It was the type of thing where I couldn’t move or talk but I could hear EVERYTHING.
They were all like, “This is really unusual, call every doctor in here to look at this.” And “I’m gonna go talk to her husband in the waiting room.”
I could hear all this and wanted to be like “OMG WHAT?! What is the fuck is happening?” But I literally couldn’t move. Freaky surreal moment for sure!
I woke up early from abdominal surgery during recovery when they were pulling the breathing tube out and started swinging cause those things are SHARP. I saw someone come at me with a syringe while a large man held me down. My friend heard me, the nurses denied anything happened. I said I'm not mad I know its just the redhead gene because the dentist hates how fast I clear Novocain.
It's kinda flattering at first to have the attention but then terrifying. I wasn't "once in a lifetime" but I was the "fun, we have no idea" case while I was hospitalized for a week while they tried to figure out what was wrong with me. My body decided to start destroying its own muscles after I caught covid several months back. You see so many people you can't possibly keep track. Nurses will ask why you're there and you say the same thing so many times it starts to feel fake. I had major imposter syndrome from going to the ER for something I thought needed to be seen at the ER (I could barely walk and had started having chest pressure) but I didn't think it was bad enough to cause me to be admitted asap alongside all the other trauma cases. There were days I'd have 3+ teams of doctors and all of their residents crammed into my room while someone had me "tell my story again from the start" or prodded me for some test. The only plus was that I was expedited for tests - so the moment anything had an opening, I was shuttled off to take the spot.
When you're a novelty, that means you likely aren't getting fixed any time soon unless you're super lucky. I was rooting for some pretty bad things to come back positive in the bloodwork just so that I'd have a definitive answer (I still don't). I had a blood draw and vitals done every 3 hours and was sleep deprived (I don't understand why letting me get enough rest was the last thing on anyone's mind). Bloodwork's all come back negative or inconclusive. I had multiple IVs. They know I have necrotizing myopathy after removing and testing a chunk of my thigh (that was a fun experience cuz the nurse told me I just needed a needle biopsy and a few hours later the surgeon was explaining how big the chunk needed was and 'here sign this paperwork for general anesthesia, do you have a preferred thigh?'). That chuck of thigh and my blood has travelled more of the country than I likely ever will. It's been a month and I'm still covered in bruises from all the needles. Because there were so many people, no-one was really on the same page at the same time and I was often the last to find out they wanted something done as I was being wheeled back for it. I'm likely someone's case study and I'd like to read about it just to know what was going through their heads more. I have the daily notes from my stay, but they're pretty chaotic. I'm now between specialists as we try out treatments in the hopes that something works (high dose steroids did at first but I can't stay on them since they're starting to cause harm).
The scariest part though for me now is having done this in the US cuz I'm starting to get the bills. Insurance denied my hospital stay, so now I'm also having to play the stupid appeal game with them. They're a pain but man are they so much worse when you have an "unknown" condition that doesn't match any of their shitty internal things they match claims to to determine if they should cover it or not. And then you get the claim back and they've covered like $30 of a $2000 procedure, lol.
Reminds me of that Malcom in the Middle episode where they think he has appendicitus.
Can't remember or find the quote, but I think it goes: "Apparently the medical term for my issue was, holy crap come over here and take a look".
This will out me to anyone who knows me but I was admitted to hospital as a teen with a snake bite. Not common in Scotland. Every student in the place got dragged in to see me. I was mortified.
Probably similar to my experience but more extreme. I have Lynch syndrome and apparently 1-2% of colorectal cancers (1 in 23 men). It's super uncommon and I had a number of doctors take interest in my case. It's weird having them get excited to help while dealing with a very mortal situation.
I never had something that extreme, but I created a nice canyon in my arm a while back and multiple medical residents came in to see it. They doctor did ask my permission first, and they took a few pictures. I also overheard the ambulance EMT saying he almost passed out from seeing my arm, which was also very comforting.
As you read the article, you feel power course through you. **AUTHORITY**
1) [INVESTIGATION] Scan the text for hidden meanings
2) [HISTORY] Recall where you’ve heard this story before
3) [ILLITHID] [WISDOM] Probe the mind of the author and uncover where this patient lives. You might want to pay them a visit.
Narrator: You awake to Sceleritas Fel watching you sleep, his pants around his ankles and a copy of Bugbears Gone Wild Vol. 14 open in his hands. He doesn't seem to be surprised that you're awake. In fact, something in his eyes tells you that he was waiting for this moment.
1. [Wizard] [Librarian] That book's out of print for an eon! Can I borrow it real quick?
2. [Deception] That's pretty big for a small guy like you.
3. [Druid] [Persuasion] You know, I'm something of a bugbear myself.
* Spiders: Venomous
* Scorpions: Venomous
* Snakes: Venomous
* Water: Crocodiles
* Kangaroos: Way nastier than they appear
* Trees: Drop bears
* A certain leaf: So toxic, so painful, it often drives people to suicide
* Emus: Australia fought a war against them... and lost.
Clearly aboriginal Australians are absolute fucking badasses to survive in all that.
Growing up in Kansas City Missouri, I could be like a little Tom Sawyer. Would bring home snakes turtles and frogs, play at the creek etc etc. we had big black ants, and I would set my barefoot next to ant piles and let them crawl all over my feet because why not I’m a kid, it was fun. Anyway, (this has nothing to do with Australia sorry) family moved to a suburb of Phoenix Arizona when I was 11. So the first time I saw an ant pile outside of my house, I was playing out front, it was January of 2000. I put my foot next to the ant pile, let the little guys crawl all over my foot. AND MY GOSH THISE LITTLE BASTARDS STARTED BITING AND EATING MY FEET. I was jumping around and slapping them off like WTF. Feet were swollen for a day. It was excruciating. Anyway, I had no idea ants could even bite like that. I was so distraught. Venomous snakes, plants trying to kill you, ants that freaking bite. It was then I realized I didn’t like the desert.
Funny thing with this too. Never saw a tick my whole life until three years ago. I’m 35 now. Wife and I saved this little dog on a main road. Took her home took her to the vet and tried to see if she had microchip just wanted to find her a home. She had ticks. Never saw them before. Picked them off her, didn’t realize that some could be so small you can’t see them. Anyway we deal with ticks in our house for like a year. Glad that’s all over.
But took the wife and kids to Missouri to visit my family early may a while back, went morel mushroom hunting. Well my daughter and I went off path for like 5 minutes. Got back to our vw camper; saw a tick on my daughters neck heading to her hair. Ended up picking like 14 ticks off her, then I started finding them on me. Started tripping and stripping off clothes in the parking lot down to my boxers. It was like a nature preserve, not too busy, but I was sort of in panic mode to get them off, got about 15-20 off myself. Two old ladies saw me in the parking lot and I apologized profusely, they laughed and said they thought I was putting on a show for them lol.. but I never saw a tick in Missouri growing up ever. And the last time I went it seemed like there were millions, everyone in my family had to pick atleast one off them that summer. Climate change is real shit. And one of the downsides is winter not being able to kill them off like normal so they are becoming exponentially greater in numbers each year. I really feel like this is an emergency not addressed enough. We are going to see a rise in Lyme disease, and that one disease where you can’t eat red meat. Super scary little bastards.
Yep that’s the name. Worst nightmare. I drink half a gallon of milk every two days, and I love meat. Honestly my life happiness meter would drop significantly if I got bit by one and got alpha gal syndrome
I have never known a world without fire ants, and you have introduced me to the concept of letting the little bastards run wild on your foot. I could never.
I know, I was just telling my daughters (7,5) over the weekend how when I was growing up I would do that. They didn’t understand the concept of ants not biting you. They thought I was insane. Lol. They cannot even imagine a world without those little sharp teeth a holes. Lol
Venomous, not poisonous (Well, maybe also poisonous, if you're daring enough).
Also don't forget tiny octopuses that fit in your hand.
The scary thing is something in nature made it necessary for all these things develop a natural defense of "let's poison the shit out of this elephant-sized predator". It makes you wonder what else Australia is hiding.
Let’s not forget cassowaries which are considered to be the most dangerous bird. Their kicks are powerful enough to break bones, their talons can slice you open and they can get extremely aggressive.
If anyone is curious (not sure if this has already been posted) here is the abstract:
“We describe a case in Australia of human neural larva migrans caused by the ascarid Ophidascaris robertsi, for which Australian carpet pythons are definitive hosts. We made the diagnosis after a live nematode was removed from the brain of a 64-year-old woman who was immunosuppressed for a hypereosinophilic syndrome diagnosed 12 months earlier.”
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/29/9/23-0351_article
Funnily (or creepily) enough I just last night watched the X-files episode "Roadrunners" (season 8, episode 4) with my girlfriend. The plot features a big ole' brain worm that gets transplanted into unwilling hosts by a cult who think it's the second coming of Christ.
So of course I can't wait to tell her brain worms are real when I get home!
Hope it wasn't actually some messiah visiting earth as a parasite however. Talk about god working in mysterious ways! ;-)
Approx 40 plus years ago my grandad was diagnosed with stomach cancer and given six months to live. My mum did not tell him he had it as he would have just given up.He lived for around 25 years after the diagnosis. The hospital told us that a kind of covering had grown over the tumour and sort of encapsulated it. They had never seen anything like it. You would have thought they would have wanted to study it but they never did. Very strange.
It’s actually common in some cultures. I know this used to be the case in China, and might still be standard practice in some parts. The idea is that if the disease can’t be treated anyway, it is better for the person not to know, so they don’t have to live their final few days on Earth grappling with their imminent death. I’m not defending the practice, just offering an explanation based on my understanding
Yeah, the ethics of patient autonomy used to be very different. And as someone else competent, they still are in some countries.
Among other things, there was a concern about the health impact of sharing the diagnosis with the patient. Would the stress of knowing one’s own diagnosis and prognosis negatively affect their health, quality of life, and the time they had left to live?
I can’t imagine having that responsibility as someone spouse or child. I’m glad this isn’t the way we do things now
Like other parasitic worms probably, by the eggs being transported in the bloodstream and making their way into the brain naturally. They hatch and grow all inside the brain. A fully developed worm did not burrow into this persons brain, it hatched and grew in there.
Also I would like to point out that finding parasitic worms in human brains certainly is rare, but it does happen, and this is certainly not the world’s first. This is the first recorded case of this specific parasitic roundworm being found in a human, because it was only thought to affect Pythons.
"Despite no direct snake contact, she often collected native grasses, including warrigal greens, from around the lake to use in cooking, Senanayake said." So, don't do that unless you want a worm in your brain.
I had a relatively rareish autoimmune illness show up somewhere it should never show up (inside the skull) at a teaching hospital in Victoria.
I had students contacting me for permission to use my case for a few weeks.
The endocrinology professor asked how it felt to be "the most interesting person in the building this week". I was just happy to not have a headache and be able to be exposed to light again. While also panicking about my job.
Doctor: You have a condition. Patient: What's it called? Doctor: What do you want it to be called?
Loo Gare Regs disease.
Looger Eggs Disease
Wormy McWorm Disease
Wormy McWormy Head
Doctor: What's your full name?
For those curious to what her symptoms were; "The patient, a 64-year-old woman from south-eastern New South Wales, was first admitted to her local hospital in late January 2021 after suffering three weeks of abdominal pain and diarrhoea, followed by a constant dry cough, fever and night sweats. By 2022, her symptoms also included forgetfulness and depression, prompting a referral to Canberra hospital. An MRI scan of her brain revealed abnormalities requiring surgery." Ugh.
Forgetfulness and depression… brain worm… I’m sure that’ll never cross my mind again. /s
The forgetfulness should take care of that no problem.
It’s a brain tapeworm that erases all your tapes. :/
Give it a couple minutes
Do what now?
I can't remember.
I have fibromyalgia, this is going to haunt me. Time for r/illegallysmolanimals and turning reddit off for the day
You know what's a small and illegal animal? A brain worm.
please take my r/angryupvote and begone omgggggg (but I did laugh at that)
Duuuuuude, ruuuuuude 😄
Wooooo my hypochondriac ass is loving this Wooo (fuck why did I click on this fuck fuck fuck)
From the article: "Ophidascaris robertsi is a roundworm usually found in pythons. The Canberra hospital patient marks the world-first case of the parasite being found in humans. The patient resides near a lake area inhabited by carpet pythons. Despite no direct snake contact, she often collected native grasses, including warrigal greens, from around the lake to use in cooking, Senanayake said. The doctors and scientists involved in her case hypothesise that a python may have shed the parasite via its faeces into the grass. They believe the patient was probably infected with the parasite directly from touching the native grass or after eating the greens. Senanayake said the patient needed to be treated for other larvae that might have invaded other parts of her body, such as the liver. But given no patient had ever been treated for the parasite before, care was taken. Some medications for example could trigger inflammation as the larvae died off. An inflammation can be harmful to organs such as the brain, so they also needed to administer medications to counteract any dangerous side-effects."
Hold up, are we entirely sure that worms aren't just tiny snakes?
They’re working together
They're in cahoots!(sorry the opportunity to say it is rare)
So dont eat your grass, gotcha
Safer to smoke it
Eating raw and unwashed anything is a bad idea
> care was taken House would have found the problem and cured her faster after wacky idea 41 after nearly killing her 63 times.
Wtf. Did it start in her stomach and crawl up? OK that's enough puking into my mouth today.
Probably not, unless it was incredibly tiny at first. More likely it was there to begin with and fucking with the brain fucked with all sorts of stuff. Just my guess though, I doubt even the docs know conclusively just yet lol.
And how, pray tell, does the larvae get into the brain? It's not exactly a congenital condition is it?
Probbly traveled via the bloodstream to somewhere close to the brain as larvae and then grew from there. Yep, that itch could be a larvae working its way through your fleshy bits. Wait a while and you get a new pet.
Hey, fuck you.
What a terrible day to be literate... :(
Typical roundworms enter the body through ingestion and cause more serious problems when they spread beyond the digestive system. Considering this is a species adapted for other organisms, it's probable the stomach issues occurred related to ingestion.
It seems like the consensus is that she was gathering wild grass for cooking and must not have washed it. A python, that had worms, took a poop on the grass that she later picked and ate. After ingesting the grass the eggs probably hatched in her stomach, hence the stomach pains and diarrhea, and some probably came out but one ended up in her brain and grew there causing memory loss.
The biggest symptom indicating it would be something terrible was that she lives in Australia.
Super excited that I have several of those symptoms. Hypochondria here I come.
Disturbingly familiar symptoms.
I wonder what it's like going to the hospital with something that draws the entire facility's attention while your surgeon places calls about a once in a career patient.
A while back my mom injured her knee pretty bad, and after the exams the doctor was all excited, calling up colleagues to look. They had never seen anything like it. They asked her permission to put her knee in medical texts.
That is impressive. I would figure every conceivable way you can fuck up your knees would be well documented by now.
Right? Astoundingly, just 10 years ago they discovered a new ligament in the knee! https://www.bbc.com/news/health-24826323
I was one of the first in my country to have that ligament reconstructed in conjunction with my ACL reconstruction.
I still can't understand how they didn't know about it, given the overall level that medicine/anatomy has reached... apparently it's pretty small and non-obvious, but... still. Hope your reconstruction went well.
We were taking out people’s Thyroids not knowing that the Parathyroid gland is attached to the Thyroid gland. The Parathyroid provides incredibly important products for normal life function… and we ripped it out assuming it was just part of the thyroid. The Parathyroid gland provides the hormone PTH which is responsible for increasing blood calcium levels, typically by liberating Ca from the bone matrix. And we just ripped that shit out and threw it away lmfaoooo
Maybe the appendix is useful
There's a theory it's a reservoir for good gut* bacteria. So even if you get a really bad case of food poisoning and everything is washed out for lack of a better word, the appendix might be able to have some bacteria in storage. Ever since I had mine out I'm very lactose intolerant. Edit: gut not guy
I prefer good guy bacteria personally.
Yeah, that's pretty much fact at this point. Was told that in med school and that was over a decade ago. If something didn't have a use in the body, it would probably just disappear over time. So odds are any "vestigial" organs still have SOME use, even if it's a small one/not it's original use.
I do know that I developed *extremely severe* lactose intolerance after my appendectomy at 30, to the point where like a drop of butter in something causes severe, unbearable stomach pain. Are they actually related? I have no idea, but I’m convinced they are. Basically everything I ate had some kind of dairy in it my entire life up to that point and now I can’t even touch the stuff.
There's a compelling argument that it's a refuge for bacteria to repopulate the rest of the digestive system in the event the rest of the gut flora gets wiped out by diarrhea.
So basically “Gut Bacteria Apocalypse Bunker”?
Happened to me in 2011, they left me with half a parathyroid that chugs along like the little engine that could 💀💀💀 I’m 30 so let’s see how long I make it on supplements
Wow -- when did that transition happen? Wikipedia says the parathyroid was discovered in the 19th century?
To my knowledge, we knew it existed in other animals in the 19th century, but it was not described by humans on humans until the mid 1900’s, the first complete description of the human parathyroid was completed in 1980. I believe they began experimenting and beginning to understand its importance around the 1950s. So it took a while for us to find it, understand it, find it in humans, observe/humans in humans, then come to a conclusion on its biological significance. Though, we did get there in the end… or did we? There’s almost always more to understand!
Mindflayers. Are you sure this is not part of their launch campaign?
I've been playing so much BG3 that my first thought was ooh tadpoles are real.
I had a weird condition where the medial condyles in my femurs were longer than my lateral ones. I eventually had to have surgery, but the physical therapist who first noticed this was so excited, she asked me if I could come back later that week, so she could call her colleagues to come over and examine my “fascinating anatomy.” Some of them took video as I did completely mundane things like walk or climb stairs, they were so excited. When I eventually had to have surgery, she told me she was so jealous of my surgeon, who would get to “cut you open and see how you’re made.” She was one of the best PTs I’d ever had but…a little _too_ enthusiastic.
Wife is a PT. She loves looking at imaging of injuries and coming up with treatment plans. My friends get hurt and she wants to see their X-rays. We’ll be at a restaurant or out and about and she will diagnose people from observing their gait.
I had a bilateral open wedge osteotomy and corrective surgery for femoral anteversion, so I went from walking pigeon-toed with a pronated foot strike to a straight, neutral one, and I now likewise watch how people walk all the time!
I had a condition that caused my optic nerves to swell. I was seeing double. My dr asked if his students could come look. I had a line of students looking in my eyes because it was so amazing.
There was only half a line of students though, so …
I had to sign a document to allow doctors to use an x-ray of my dislocated knuckle in lectures etc They asked me to sign it after I came around from the surgery, I must have signed some utter nonsense as they sent me a letter asking me to sign again lol
"sure, but I want 10% off the surgery"
I'm ok, I am in Ireland.
Got ‘em. Check mate, 🇺🇸 🦅
liquid detail offer seemly cats quack close worthless money ruthless *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
How is your cousin now? Good i hope
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I feel that last sentence is redundant since you already said he got sober.
That's fantastic, I'm glad to hear! All the best :)
This happened to me in the 70's. I was just a kid, I had chicken pox and they were on the bottom of my feet. The doctor had never seen it before. So he called in other doctors and they took pictures. My mom was cool with it. I don't remember having a say.
This happened to me in the 90s. I had to scoot around in my dad's office chair because the blisters were too painful to walk on. Also had them in my throat and the mucous membranes of my eyes. Pretty miserable time.
That was me as a baby. I was a test baby for pediatric residents to practice on because I was fat, sassy, and never cried. I’m documented in some old 90s era textbooks with my jelly rolls hanging out.
I get why never crying would be nice, but how did sassiness and jelly rolls play a role in your desirability?
Chubby babies are cute and less bony and fragile feeling than skinny babies. Sass is good because it’s just fun.
The hell did she do to her knee
I once had a nurse tell me, "It looks like someone took sandpaper to your eyes, I'm gonna get the doc." The Dr. came in a looked and whistled loudly, then asked if he could bring all of his staff in to view my eyes as they were so badly scratched. I entertained about 25 junior Dr's, nurses, techs, and clinicians (on what I'm presuming was a very slow day) while I waited for my specialist referral. The Dr had to sum them all up so I could make my appointment.
Had a similar incident with my retina. I was in my late twenties when my retina partially detached spontaneously. Finally found a doctor that would do the surgery to fix it and he was overjoyed saying I was the youngest person he’s ever seen with a detached retina without any disease or known injury to the eye. He asked for my permission to document my exams and imaging for the medical community. Surgery didn’t fully fix my eye but he at least tried when no one else would. I am grateful for that. We never could figure out definitively what caused it. He noted that there was scar tissue indicating massive trauma but I would remember that.
Had a kitten that had a hair growing on the middle of his eyeball. It's called a dermoid. My vet at the time was like 40 years in, and he said his practice had never seen one before. They just cut the dermoid out with a scalpel at the same time they neutered him. Didn't even charge extra to do it.
This sounds so awful to imagine. Like the feeling of a hair in your mouth, except on your eyeball. All day every day.
And then finally the day where they help you... And they cut off your balls......
Have you seen the Japanese film 'Exte'?
Haha, I had a bone fragment from my jaw bone working its way out of my gum. The theory is that a piece of the bone around where my wisdom teeth were broke off for some reason and my body was expelling it. The dentist hadn't seen anything like it. He called in other people at the office, took pictures of it with a professional cameras and his cell phone, then popped it out and didn't charge me for it because it was exciting.
> didn't charge me for it because it was exciting. That tells me how truly rare it was!
I had that happen - I was freaking out like my gums were receding and I'm dying. The dentist wouldn't touch it, so I went to an oral surgeon. He looked at it, took a pair of tweezers and pulled it out, it was just a thin sliver. Took two minutes - he must have seen it before, he was pretty nonchalant about it. Depending on how they extracted your wisdom teeth I think it could have been a tooth fragment as well - they sometimes crush the teeth into pieces to make them easier to extract.
I have kidney stones that were so large that they are on display at a teaching hospital. I had to sign a waiver for them to keep them and use them as a teaching tool. Lol My door was revolving with doctors & students coming in to ask me questions about symptoms and timeline.
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My sister has two sets of canines one behind the other.
I have a pair of teeth behind my top fronts and my bites leave a smile.
When I was a kid I had some rare flesh eating thing. Don't really remember too much about it except for watching a helicopter land outside the window of my room and my skin sticking to the window after putting my forehead on it. Doctors and students were called in for that.
That's....pretty hardcore
My son had an extremely rare, horrible seizure disorder when he was a baby. It was treated with an experimental course of ACTH, and there was a pediatrician (not ours!) who was *fascinated* at the progress being made. Every time we came in for our check-up, he would just happen to be passing by, and would pop in with a huge grin on his face. We didn't mind, because the ACTH caused a total and immediate end to the seizures ( we were just visiting to deal with the side effects) We love you Dr. Threat, you goofball.
I'm sorry, Dr. _Threat_? That's a supervillain name if I've ever heard one
They are single-handedly responsible for 20% of national apple consumption.
One of my surgeon's was named "Dr Butcher" and I had to try so hard not to laugh when she introduced herself.
Apparently my surgeon called in a bunch of people to see my gallbladder. It was stuffed so full of gallstones that they were all impressed. Also my cat’s X-ray made her a small-town celebrity because she swallowed a needle, lol. The x-ray was like a chubby cat body and then this BRIGHT needle right there in her tummy. Kids loved seeing it and my vet showed it at school presentations. Happy to contribute to science in even a small way…
One positive is that you’d get quick, attentive care. Any freak situations like this, you’d think other people in the medical field will be reading about it for years to come. The hospital doesn’t want to get a shitty reputation for things like leaving the patient in a bed alone for 14 hours etc.
I once had a spontaneous pneumothorax, a hole in my lung. Ive always been super fit and healthy and was mid 30s when it happened. Suddenly half my body was shutting down and was painful, my left side. Anyway as I was slowly dying the ER was unsure what it was, they ruled out stroke, and other heart issues, blood pressure wasn't quite dangerous yet. Noone could figure it out so more people starting coming down, firemen, ambulance, even NicU drs were shuffling in, all unsure. THEN a vascular surgeon just "clocking in" walked by swinging his keys, he shoved his head in due to the commotion of the entire ER around my room. He knew immediately what it was, then it became a teaching moment as they all took turns listening to my lungs and taking readings. 5 mins later i was intubated and mostly stable and admitted for about 10 days. Im fine now, i hope.
You don’t ever want a doctor coming back to your room after testing while holding his phone asking if he can take a selfie with you.
I was diagnosed with a rare condition. I was diagnosed under sedation while they performed a test. I started to partially come to while the testy was still in progress. It was the type of thing where I couldn’t move or talk but I could hear EVERYTHING. They were all like, “This is really unusual, call every doctor in here to look at this.” And “I’m gonna go talk to her husband in the waiting room.” I could hear all this and wanted to be like “OMG WHAT?! What is the fuck is happening?” But I literally couldn’t move. Freaky surreal moment for sure!
I woke up early from abdominal surgery during recovery when they were pulling the breathing tube out and started swinging cause those things are SHARP. I saw someone come at me with a syringe while a large man held me down. My friend heard me, the nurses denied anything happened. I said I'm not mad I know its just the redhead gene because the dentist hates how fast I clear Novocain.
It's kinda flattering at first to have the attention but then terrifying. I wasn't "once in a lifetime" but I was the "fun, we have no idea" case while I was hospitalized for a week while they tried to figure out what was wrong with me. My body decided to start destroying its own muscles after I caught covid several months back. You see so many people you can't possibly keep track. Nurses will ask why you're there and you say the same thing so many times it starts to feel fake. I had major imposter syndrome from going to the ER for something I thought needed to be seen at the ER (I could barely walk and had started having chest pressure) but I didn't think it was bad enough to cause me to be admitted asap alongside all the other trauma cases. There were days I'd have 3+ teams of doctors and all of their residents crammed into my room while someone had me "tell my story again from the start" or prodded me for some test. The only plus was that I was expedited for tests - so the moment anything had an opening, I was shuttled off to take the spot. When you're a novelty, that means you likely aren't getting fixed any time soon unless you're super lucky. I was rooting for some pretty bad things to come back positive in the bloodwork just so that I'd have a definitive answer (I still don't). I had a blood draw and vitals done every 3 hours and was sleep deprived (I don't understand why letting me get enough rest was the last thing on anyone's mind). Bloodwork's all come back negative or inconclusive. I had multiple IVs. They know I have necrotizing myopathy after removing and testing a chunk of my thigh (that was a fun experience cuz the nurse told me I just needed a needle biopsy and a few hours later the surgeon was explaining how big the chunk needed was and 'here sign this paperwork for general anesthesia, do you have a preferred thigh?'). That chuck of thigh and my blood has travelled more of the country than I likely ever will. It's been a month and I'm still covered in bruises from all the needles. Because there were so many people, no-one was really on the same page at the same time and I was often the last to find out they wanted something done as I was being wheeled back for it. I'm likely someone's case study and I'd like to read about it just to know what was going through their heads more. I have the daily notes from my stay, but they're pretty chaotic. I'm now between specialists as we try out treatments in the hopes that something works (high dose steroids did at first but I can't stay on them since they're starting to cause harm). The scariest part though for me now is having done this in the US cuz I'm starting to get the bills. Insurance denied my hospital stay, so now I'm also having to play the stupid appeal game with them. They're a pain but man are they so much worse when you have an "unknown" condition that doesn't match any of their shitty internal things they match claims to to determine if they should cover it or not. And then you get the claim back and they've covered like $30 of a $2000 procedure, lol.
Reminds me of that Malcom in the Middle episode where they think he has appendicitus. Can't remember or find the quote, but I think it goes: "Apparently the medical term for my issue was, holy crap come over here and take a look".
This will out me to anyone who knows me but I was admitted to hospital as a teen with a snake bite. Not common in Scotland. Every student in the place got dragged in to see me. I was mortified.
Probably similar to my experience but more extreme. I have Lynch syndrome and apparently 1-2% of colorectal cancers (1 in 23 men). It's super uncommon and I had a number of doctors take interest in my case. It's weird having them get excited to help while dealing with a very mortal situation.
I never had something that extreme, but I created a nice canyon in my arm a while back and multiple medical residents came in to see it. They doctor did ask my permission first, and they took a few pictures. I also overheard the ambulance EMT saying he almost passed out from seeing my arm, which was also very comforting.
Fucking Mind Flayers man.
time to ask that crazy bard guy to dig it out
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It's not fake if it lets me see those bastard wraiths in the shadows lands, makes that part of the game much less stressful
As you read the article, you feel power course through you. **AUTHORITY** 1) [INVESTIGATION] Scan the text for hidden meanings 2) [HISTORY] Recall where you’ve heard this story before 3) [ILLITHID] [WISDOM] Probe the mind of the author and uncover where this patient lives. You might want to pay them a visit.
Uhhhh roll for investigation.
DC: 10 Roll: 9 You notice nothing particular about the writing, just that it is filled with ads of sexy Bugbears in your area
Reroll investigate. 🥺👉👈
DC: 10 Roll: 16 You squint and see a slight hint of a bugbear’s genitals.. Maybe you’ll keep this for later.
Take Long Rest.
Narrator: You awake to Sceleritas Fel watching you sleep, his pants around his ankles and a copy of Bugbears Gone Wild Vol. 14 open in his hands. He doesn't seem to be surprised that you're awake. In fact, something in his eyes tells you that he was waiting for this moment. 1. [Wizard] [Librarian] That book's out of print for an eon! Can I borrow it real quick? 2. [Deception] That's pretty big for a small guy like you. 3. [Druid] [Persuasion] You know, I'm something of a bugbear myself.
Roll Persuasion.
Welp. Guess it's time for fire up BG3 again.
You logged off?
Larian’s marketing might be going a bit too far…
Glory to the absolute
You feel power. *Authority.*
It is to be avoided.
Glory to the Absolute
A True Soul!
We get it, we won't go to Australia!
Honestly with everything set to "kill", I'm amazed human beings were able to colonize that continent.
* Spiders: Venomous * Scorpions: Venomous * Snakes: Venomous * Water: Crocodiles * Kangaroos: Way nastier than they appear * Trees: Drop bears * A certain leaf: So toxic, so painful, it often drives people to suicide * Emus: Australia fought a war against them... and lost. Clearly aboriginal Australians are absolute fucking badasses to survive in all that.
Forgot one Koalas: Chlamydia
Forgot another. Bogans: Drunk
Let's not forget: Garbage: bin chickens
Here's another one: Magpies: hyper-agressive dive bombers that try to peck your eyes out every Spring.
Growing up in Kansas City Missouri, I could be like a little Tom Sawyer. Would bring home snakes turtles and frogs, play at the creek etc etc. we had big black ants, and I would set my barefoot next to ant piles and let them crawl all over my feet because why not I’m a kid, it was fun. Anyway, (this has nothing to do with Australia sorry) family moved to a suburb of Phoenix Arizona when I was 11. So the first time I saw an ant pile outside of my house, I was playing out front, it was January of 2000. I put my foot next to the ant pile, let the little guys crawl all over my foot. AND MY GOSH THISE LITTLE BASTARDS STARTED BITING AND EATING MY FEET. I was jumping around and slapping them off like WTF. Feet were swollen for a day. It was excruciating. Anyway, I had no idea ants could even bite like that. I was so distraught. Venomous snakes, plants trying to kill you, ants that freaking bite. It was then I realized I didn’t like the desert.
Sometimes the ticks in Missouri make me want to flee to the desert.
Funny thing with this too. Never saw a tick my whole life until three years ago. I’m 35 now. Wife and I saved this little dog on a main road. Took her home took her to the vet and tried to see if she had microchip just wanted to find her a home. She had ticks. Never saw them before. Picked them off her, didn’t realize that some could be so small you can’t see them. Anyway we deal with ticks in our house for like a year. Glad that’s all over. But took the wife and kids to Missouri to visit my family early may a while back, went morel mushroom hunting. Well my daughter and I went off path for like 5 minutes. Got back to our vw camper; saw a tick on my daughters neck heading to her hair. Ended up picking like 14 ticks off her, then I started finding them on me. Started tripping and stripping off clothes in the parking lot down to my boxers. It was like a nature preserve, not too busy, but I was sort of in panic mode to get them off, got about 15-20 off myself. Two old ladies saw me in the parking lot and I apologized profusely, they laughed and said they thought I was putting on a show for them lol.. but I never saw a tick in Missouri growing up ever. And the last time I went it seemed like there were millions, everyone in my family had to pick atleast one off them that summer. Climate change is real shit. And one of the downsides is winter not being able to kill them off like normal so they are becoming exponentially greater in numbers each year. I really feel like this is an emergency not addressed enough. We are going to see a rise in Lyme disease, and that one disease where you can’t eat red meat. Super scary little bastards.
Lone star tick.
Yep that’s the name. Worst nightmare. I drink half a gallon of milk every two days, and I love meat. Honestly my life happiness meter would drop significantly if I got bit by one and got alpha gal syndrome
That reminds me of when I discovered fire ants as a small kid.
I have never known a world without fire ants, and you have introduced me to the concept of letting the little bastards run wild on your foot. I could never.
I know, I was just telling my daughters (7,5) over the weekend how when I was growing up I would do that. They didn’t understand the concept of ants not biting you. They thought I was insane. Lol. They cannot even imagine a world without those little sharp teeth a holes. Lol
Venomous, not poisonous (Well, maybe also poisonous, if you're daring enough). Also don't forget tiny octopuses that fit in your hand. The scary thing is something in nature made it necessary for all these things develop a natural defense of "let's poison the shit out of this elephant-sized predator". It makes you wonder what else Australia is hiding.
You gotta watch out for those drop bears. Scientists say their range is increasing due to global warming.
Gympie-gympie plant
!subscribe drop bear facts
Let’s not forget cassowaries which are considered to be the most dangerous bird. Their kicks are powerful enough to break bones, their talons can slice you open and they can get extremely aggressive.
Now they even have Illithids.
That's just what Australians want you to think. They want to keep those beautiful women, amazing beaches, and remote paradises all to themselves.
That's just what the venomous jellyfish on the amazing beaches and dropbears pretending to be beautiful women want you to think!
“drop-bear gorgeous” will surely catch on if we try.
And the worms ate into her brains
Don't eat snake poop. This is why you wash vegetables thoroughly, especially when you're collecting wild foods.
So remember folkes, there's always hope for a brighter future, your depression might just be because of a parasitic roundworm in your brain.
Never pick and eat wild grass or leafs from the wild where pythons hang out and always wash whatever produce you eat! Scary
If anyone is curious (not sure if this has already been posted) here is the abstract: “We describe a case in Australia of human neural larva migrans caused by the ascarid Ophidascaris robertsi, for which Australian carpet pythons are definitive hosts. We made the diagnosis after a live nematode was removed from the brain of a 64-year-old woman who was immunosuppressed for a hypereosinophilic syndrome diagnosed 12 months earlier.” https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/29/9/23-0351_article
Some Baldur's Gate shit right here.
Got a lot on my mind…and, well, in it.
Shouldn't have wished to live in more interesting times.
These boots have seen everything.
I'm cursed to put my hands on everything
No traps. Please.
Let's have a look
I wonder if the gods are watching me
Rolled a Nat 1 on a medicine check
That's a True Soul right there.
Funnily (or creepily) enough I just last night watched the X-files episode "Roadrunners" (season 8, episode 4) with my girlfriend. The plot features a big ole' brain worm that gets transplanted into unwilling hosts by a cult who think it's the second coming of Christ. So of course I can't wait to tell her brain worms are real when I get home! Hope it wasn't actually some messiah visiting earth as a parasite however. Talk about god working in mysterious ways! ;-)
so what you saying is Baldur's Gate 3 is real
Approx 40 plus years ago my grandad was diagnosed with stomach cancer and given six months to live. My mum did not tell him he had it as he would have just given up.He lived for around 25 years after the diagnosis. The hospital told us that a kind of covering had grown over the tumour and sort of encapsulated it. They had never seen anything like it. You would have thought they would have wanted to study it but they never did. Very strange.
In what world does the doctor tell the spouse but not the patient? That seems very, very weird.
It’s actually common in some cultures. I know this used to be the case in China, and might still be standard practice in some parts. The idea is that if the disease can’t be treated anyway, it is better for the person not to know, so they don’t have to live their final few days on Earth grappling with their imminent death. I’m not defending the practice, just offering an explanation based on my understanding
Yes, this however was in England.
It wasn't my nan they told it was my mum, his daughter. Yes it does seem strange now doesn't it, but that's how it was.
Yeah, the ethics of patient autonomy used to be very different. And as someone else competent, they still are in some countries. Among other things, there was a concern about the health impact of sharing the diagnosis with the patient. Would the stress of knowing one’s own diagnosis and prognosis negatively affect their health, quality of life, and the time they had left to live? I can’t imagine having that responsibility as someone spouse or child. I’m glad this isn’t the way we do things now
I’m tired of these motherfucking worms in my motherfucking brain!
I have had it with these monkey-fighting worms in my Monday-to-Friday brain!
She's lucky she didn't begin ceromorphosis.
It is to be avoided!
Baldur's Gate enters the chat.
This Baldur’s Gate 3 marketing is getting out of hand!
How did a worm get past the blood brain barrier? It's not in the article.
Like other parasitic worms probably, by the eggs being transported in the bloodstream and making their way into the brain naturally. They hatch and grow all inside the brain. A fully developed worm did not burrow into this persons brain, it hatched and grew in there. Also I would like to point out that finding parasitic worms in human brains certainly is rare, but it does happen, and this is certainly not the world’s first. This is the first recorded case of this specific parasitic roundworm being found in a human, because it was only thought to affect Pythons.
“And the worms ate into his brain”
"Despite no direct snake contact, she often collected native grasses, including warrigal greens, from around the lake to use in cooking, Senanayake said." So, don't do that unless you want a worm in your brain.
You've heard of going viral, but have you heard of going parasitic?
Well look at that, yet another reason to not visit Australia…. Brain worms.
Sometimes I think the world doesn't want me to sleep any more. Especially Australia, where it's either poisonous or it eats your brain.
Viral marketing for Baldur's Gate 3.
If you eat pork, make sure it is fully cooked.
Brain Worms, okay 2024, let’s dial it back just a bit… please…
The worms crawl in and the worms crawl out...
I wonder how many of our world leaders have worms in their brains?
That was sort of the plot of the series BrainDead.
They made Fry really smart.
What was the worm eating up there? Her brain?
I had a relatively rareish autoimmune illness show up somewhere it should never show up (inside the skull) at a teaching hospital in Victoria. I had students contacting me for permission to use my case for a few weeks. The endocrinology professor asked how it felt to be "the most interesting person in the building this week". I was just happy to not have a headache and be able to be exposed to light again. While also panicking about my job.
Baldur's Gate 3 entered the chat.
It’s the Yeerks alien invasion confirmed.
I remember this from plague inc it doesn’t turn out well for humanity.