Tennis-elbow, Tropical fish, Second opinions.

[Bluefront]

Disclaimer: Don't try this at home. I'm not a doctor. Your results may vary. This is a true story. Forgive spelling errors of medical terms.

I had an annoying case of tennis-elbow (so I thought) for several weeks...wouldn't go away. I finally went to a sports-medicine doctor. He gave me a shot of cortozone in my left elbow. It cured the pain for a month, then the pain returned. He gave me another shot in the same spot. This shot made the pain worse, then my elbow started swelling. He put me on penicillin for a while, then Demmoral (heavy-duty pain killer). Swelling kept getting worse...It was obvious this doctor wasn't helping me.

Enter doctor #2, a general surgeon. He took one look at the elbow, said "you should be in the hospital right now". Four hours later I'm in surgery, my elbow being drained, biopsy of the stuff made. A few days later I'm in his office..."You have tuborculosis". WHAT? " Ever been around anyone with this disease"? No I say. I don't believe this guy. After many x-rays he determined my lungs were clean...only my elbow was infected. I go to a third doctor.

Doctor #3 is the head of the infectious disease department of the best hospital in St Louis. He agrees with doctor #2. So I start chemo-therapy for tuborculosis. After two years my elbow is still swollen, hurts. This doctor tells me the cure takes two to three years. I'm pissed. No improvement after two years? I haven't been able to touch my face with my left hand, due to the swelling all this time.

Doctor #4 is me. I read up on the subject, got the books from the medical library. I find out there are several similar, but rare diseases related to tuborculosis. One is named mico-bacterium marinum. This is a rare disease found in semi-tropical areas in fresh water. It only affects extremities (arms and legs).

Enter the tropical fish. I'm raising a rare species of killifish from tropical Africa. Got twenty tanks in the basement. Hmmm. I've got some medical connections....I perform a biopsy on myself. I get some samples from the fish tank filters. After a test called an "acid -fast test" and some pictures using an electron microscope, the stuff from my arm and the tanks looks identical. When I show the pictures to doctor #3....his mouth drops open, speechless. Then he poo, poos the whole thing. His diagnosis was correct, not mine.

I started my own treatment, consisting of only heat pads on my elbow, ten hours a day. This variation of tuborculosis cannot live in high temps....that's why it only lives in extremities. I'm still taking the drugs, but immediately after I started the heat treatments, my elbow got better. After two months I'm cured. I continued taking the drugs for another year (three years in all). I never told the doctor what I was doing..he thought his drugs cured me. I know better.

Moral of story....

Get second opinions, or third opinions...doctors can be wrong.

Read up on your disease or problem..it's easy now with the internet.

Don't be afraid to try alternate treatments, particularly if standard medical treatments aren't working.

Get rid of your fresh-water tropical fish, salt-water fish don't have this problem.

This whole thing cost me three years of my life, couldn't drink beer the whole time (kidney failure could result). Maybe this story will help somebody here......

 

[amnesiac]

Wow, that's incredible. Good for you that you found that out.
I have a salt water tank, thankfully. I was getting worried for a second.

 

[rgwalt]

Wow, what a story... did you get rid of your fish?

Ryan

 

[notfred]

I want a Lionfish.

 

[amnesiac]

Originally posted by: notfred
I want a Lionfish.

Yeah, they're cool. I would get one but apparently the normal ones aren't very social, they're fragile, and they are poisonous. Knowing me I'd get stung moving around some coral.

 

[BD2003]

Get rid of your fresh-water tropical fish, salt-water fish don't have this problem.

I dont think fresh water fish is the issue, I think 20 tanks of a rare african breed is....

 

[chiwawa626]

You should tell your story on Oprah or 20/20 or 60 minutes, that way more people can hear about this incredible story and about how you should always get a 2nd opinion if u can....good luck man hope ur elbows a lot better now

 

[bmacd]

i used to fish when i was a kid. I'm thinking about going soon. Thanks for the reminder

-=bmacd=-

 

[Bluefront]

I'm back in one piece now, elbow ok. Had about seven different surgeries to lessen the swelling while the thing was going on. About a year after it was over, I was driving by a local project, when I got hit by a stray bullet in almost the exact place....more surgery. Really bad luck. But I got fixed ok. Couple years after that, I fell on the ice and tore a rotator cuff on the same arm. That still hurts, but there's no real fix for it.

After I saw the pictures...all the fish went. There was so little info on this disease in the medical litarature that I saw, I really cannot speculate on which fish could carry it. I don't think it was a particular type of fish....I think it's water temps. Maybe all semi-tropical fish have it...In any case I don't go near the fish section of my local pet store.

Another thing....apparently it was the cortozone shot that caused the explosion of the disease. I already was infected, but the cortozone, an anti-inflamatory drug, allowed the disease to spread. I won't take any more cortozone either.

 

[chiwawa626]

Man...that is one amazing story i still am surprised...

 

[Jzero]

Actually, eMedicine says you can get it from saltwater or freshwater....their data agrees with your statement right down to it often being misdiagnosed and the affected area given cortisone shots, and applying heat along with antibiotics is helpful.

I'm starting to doubt you after the part about the stray bullet, but it's still good information since I'm a fishkeeper, if I ever get similar symptoms, at least I'll have some ammunition.

Whether you are exaggerating or not, you do make an excellent point about doing your own research on your own conditions.

 

[Bluefront]

Jzero, interesting you found some info on the internet about the disease. This all hapened to me long before I had any internet access, so I was forced to rely on whatever info I found in medical books, mostly older stuff. I do recall the books mentioning fresh water only...maybe the information about this disease has changed over the years. There was no exaggeration about any of this incident....just a bunch of really bad luck with my left arm. It looks like a medical experiment with all the scars.

Listening to what you found, I'm really surprised about the lack of knowledge of the disease in the fish trade. Buy your kid a cute tropical fish....you know he'll get his hand wet. Maybe an open cut, who knows? Then you've got medical doctors who are set in their ways, who won't listen to patients who might have more knowledge then they on a particular subject. Bad scene.....

 

[Jzero]

Listening to what you found, I'm really surprised about the lack of knowledge of the disease in the fish trade. Buy your kid a cute tropical fish....you know he'll get his hand wet. Maybe an open cut, who knows? Then you've got medical doctors who are set in their ways, who won't listen to patients who might have more knowledge then they on a particular subject. Bad scene.....

It is somewhat disturbing....
I've only been in fishkeeping for a year. My gf has had fish most of her life, but is specializing in genetics and wants to start putting her college education to use by seletively breeding bettas.
I have a friend who worked as the "fish man" in a pet store all thru college.
None of us have heard of this! I guess you have to be extra careful. Maybe I won't clean my fishtank until this cut on my hand heals

It's also worth noting that it's pretty rare (.27% per 10k people) and that you can also get it from swimming in pools, lakes, oceans, etc.