Hello everyone. My name is Marco. I'm a 24 yr old male living in Northwest Indiana and I have blasto. I'm so glad to have found this website through Wikipedia. I just wanted to share my story because as much as I try to explain to my friends and family about what I'm going through, they don't fully understand me or what I've gone through. I also hope that my story will perhaps help anyone who might share the symptoms I had or help someone who is going through the long process of getting diagnosed properly. In any case, I just want to tell my story.
My story began earlier this summer around June i believe. I had noticed a tiny bump on my inner right thigh. I thought it was just a bump caused by hair irritation because that has happened to me before. It wasn't until a week later when i noticed it became very solid and discolored. I also noticed another pop up on the lower right side of my abdomen. Some more time passed and 2 more popped up on my left arm above my elbow and one on my chest which were all discolored. I could also feel one on my right arm and one on the left side in the middle of my abdomen both of which were hard but still under the skin. I was also having diffculty straightening my left arm.
When the 2 lesions on my left arm became very large and painful, I went to see the family doctor, in late July, who thought they might just be fatty cysts and he sent me to a dermatologist. The dermatologist had never seen such large discolored lesions before. She took a biopsy on the larger of the 2 and then lanced them both so they could drain. It was pretty nasty. Lots of pus and blood. Once they were opened up she said that they were just fatty cysts and that a biopsy wasn't necessary. I was prescribed 2 antibiotics.
2 weeks passed and the lesions were still all over me and I still couldn't straighten my left arm. During this time, the middle toe on my left foot began to swell up. My family doctor thought I had just hit it on something and was more worried about the lesions. To me that was understandle, I thought I had bumped my toe as well even though i couldn't remember. Anyways, I went back to the dermatologist and also had her look at my toe. She was wondering why the antibiotics were not working. I was the day's medical mystery she told me. She brought in 2 other specialists who had no idea what could be wrong with me. So i was given a stronger antibiotic and referred to an infectious disease specialist.
After lots of blood work and xrays to my toe and left elbow, I was told that I had a staph infection with osteomylitis in my toe. I went to the hospital for 24 hours and was told I would be getting a PICC line in my right arm. My treatment would be an IV antibiotic for 6 weeks. 1 1/2 weeks of getting antibiotics everyday had no effect on anything. My toe got so big it cracked and was draining. The ID specialist was worried and I was rushed to the hospital in Mid september. Lots and lots of blood was taken. I had an MRI and a CT scan done.
On the 2nd day of my hospital stay, I met with an orthopedic surgeon who was going to perform surgery on my toe. He was going to open it up and clean it out. He also warned me about the possibility of an amputation. When I woke up, I found out that so much of the top bone in my toe had been eroded he had to do a partial amputation of my toe. It wasn't until the 4th day at the hospital, my doctor came in and told me the bittersweet news. I had blasto. I started crying tears of joy because I was so happy they figured out what was wrong with me. The neext day the PICC line was removed and i was free to go. Sunshine and fresh air had never been so wonderful to me. All this was the only major medical event I've ever had in my life other than a broken arm when I was very young. Before this, I had never had to stay in a hospital and I had never had blood taken. This was quite a journey which I don't wish upon anyone.
So here I am now and I feel great. I am 1 1/2 months into my itraconazole treatment. 200mg twice per day. I'm missing half of a toe which is healing up nicely. I can straighten my left arm and all my lesions are disappearing though the discoloration remains on a few. I am also starting to gain some of the weight I lost during this ordeal. I believe I lost roughly 30 lbs from June - September.
Well that's my story pretty much and as best as I can remember the details. If anyone has questions, I will try try to answer as best as I can. Thank you to anyone who read my story.
-Marco
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Topic: This is my story (Read 1146 times)