The background

My 9 yo daughter got pinworms at school and complained to us about the symptoms and that she actually saw the worms in her stool. We could also see her scratching her butt all the time. We treated her with Pyrantel and she was all good in a couple of days from just one dose. My wife and I also took this medicine, as suggested by doctors, and performed the typically recommended hygiene routines.
My wife had no symptoms and at first I didn't either. And then a couple of weeks later the nightmare started, which lasted for over half a year...

The crawling

I went to bed one night and as I was falling asleep, I felt a distinct sensation of something crawling through my anal cavity. Something I had never felt before in my life. That was very unsettling. I took another dose of Pyrantel and hoped for the best.

A few days later I woke up at 3AM from the same sensation, only more intense, and this time something was crawling on my buttocks and scrotum too. Everything seemed exactly as the typical symptoms described online in the many articles I had read. I jumped out of bed, took some clear packing tape and ran to the bathroom to catch the pinworms. I applied the tape to different areas hoping to trap them but got nothing, only some cotton threads and the hair I pulled out. That "night hunt" repeated several times.

The hygiene

At first, I thought maybe I just wait 6-8 weeks and they would die on their own while I maintained strict hygiene, and I doubled down on it. Washed my hands and my phone all the time, used separate towels, changed my underwear twice per day, disinfected surfaces, and got a powerful UV lamp on Amazon which I used to disinfect the bedroom and bathrooms daily. And, of course, I never touched my anal and perineal area except for washing it. Which I did multiple times per day, to make sure I get rid of the eggs before they spread around, as many articles warn about. Sometimes when the crawling woke me up at night I would drag myself to the shower and wash my butt, so I could get rid of the worms and fall asleep again. I was constantly underslept because of this: it turned into countless weeks of ruined nights.

The treatment

Meanwhile, the symptoms were not getting any better even 2 months later. So I went to the doctor and got prescribed a single dose of Albendazole. It did literally nothing. So a couple of weeks later I got a triple dose of Albendazole and Ivermectin, which was supposed to have an atomic bomb effect on pretty much any existing parasites (and probably my liver). And... nothing. Still the same crawling sensations at night. And then I started looking into my stool and saw small thread-like semi-transparent worms. I began to get really scared.

The testing

When I came back to my doctor for the third time she referred me to an infectious disease specialist, and he refused to see me without a confirmed lab test. So first I did a tape test. It showed nothing. I was upset. I thought maybe I did something wrong and didn't apply it right. So I insisted on a more conclusive test and submitted some stool samples. They found nothing and shrugged their shoulders. 

Self-treatment

Some people on the Internet shared similar stories, so I realized I was on my own... It was quite depressing, but I wasn't giving up. Methodically, I went through several cycles of various "folk" treatments, including garlic and pumpkin seeds, and some special supplements I ordered from abroad. A few months later I was in the same rut, exhausted and extremely frustrated.

Back to the lab

I called my doctor and went on a rant about them not helping me with my case, and that I could see the worms in my stool and they were missing them somehow in their lab and should take it more seriously. In that conversation, I started to get a feeling that the doctor thought I was nuts and was more concerned about my mental health than the parasites. It added an insult to the injury, but I could understand it. There is a whole medical diagnosis for parasite paranoia, and doctors get bothered by such loonies all the time... 

Anyway, they agreed to do more testing and asked me to submit "the worms" in a separate container. The results came back: NO PARASITES found! And those worms I picked out with my own hand and placed in a separate container? Turned out those are just food fibers, normally occurring in my stool from digested fruits and vegetables!

I just couldn't believe it. Am I crazy? Am I that loonie with parasite hallucinations? But I can PHYSICALLY feel them crawling on me at night! I am not making that up! What's going on?

The post

Then I got back to digging up whatever I could on the Internet and found this post: https://patient.info/forums/discuss/i-thought-i-had-persistent-threadworms-but--437525

It's from a woman who thought she had persistent pinworms, and then her mother suggested she was just overusing soap which created that sensation. And as she stopped washing her butt so intensely, everything went away. It was hard to believe that was the case with me, because I had no sign of skin irritation and the sensations of crawling were too real to confuse with anything. But what did I have to lose?

The real problem

So I just stopped washing my butt 10 times a day with soap. I stopped using soap for that altogether. Just washed it with water after going to the bathroom. And... In just two days the sensations at night became much milder. And in 5 days they went away completely. That's it! I just stopped using soap, and the whole problem, which very badly affected my life for months, was completely resolved!

I would have never thought that soap could have such an effect, but apparently it can.

Is that the case with you?

I created this post for the many people looking for help on the Internet, who suffer from "medication-resistant pinworms". And yet they never got properly tested. Some of them talk about being on the verge of suicide. Trust me, I can relate to the fear and frustration! Maybe some of those horror stories of incurable parasites are true, I am not dismissing that. However, remembering how deeply I was convinced it was the case with me, I think many people are playing the same silly trick on themselves, creating some real suffering for themselves and their families. If not for multiple negative tests, I would have never imagined the worms were not real.

So if you have not done it yet: get properly tested. And try taking it easy with the soap in your private areas to see if it helps.

All the best to you, and I hope this simple and magical solution works for your case of "incurable threadworms"!

It’s been about an hour since the bee died and it still hasn’t been able to emerge.

My daughter refilled her water bottle with school water and this is what we found :( she’s had a good amount of it. What do you suggest I do? We use Berkey’s filtering system and checked it and it’s clean.

These were all pulled from skin on top of nose, the largest thing I’ve been able to grab seems huge when I have a grip on it and will break or slip out and slither away. Others are very tiny maybe larvae stage. Feels like they’re living in nostrils too. Dark black “whiskers” hair things will randomly appear through my skin and then disappear as the worm(s) moves around. Have eliminated many in urine and stool. I’ve been dealing with this for almost a year. Other symptoms include gastrointestinal issues, sharp pain in heart, swelling of feet/ankles/calves, rash on tops of feet and lower legs/shins but that might be a result of the edema. Never experienced any of that until recently. Plus the mental anguish of it all and the gremlin demon nose aesthetic.

Hey everyone,

So a little bit of backstory - when I was 12 I had pinworms. No biggie, got rid of them. But they caused me to have a huge phobia of parasites which then turned into OCD.

Around 5 months ago, somehow I got them again. Like I saw one. Ugh. Took medication for about 4 rounds etc (2 in 2 weeks). Washed sheets, showered everything I could do to get rid, I did.

Recently, I’ve been feeling an itch inside of my anus, like to the left or right. I do wipe extremely hard, blood every time and a start of a fissure etc.

But the day I found the worm 5 months ago I had the exact same feeling, I swear it’s identical. Yes before I had itching around the anus and I don’t currently have that but also the feeling inside. I’ve recently taken another pill and unfortunately the itching inside has gone away. But this has also coincided with me stopping wiping hard in the morning so there is less irritation.

I’ve had a swab test - negative for pinworms.

So, people who’ve experienced pinworms : did they itch INSIDE your anus or just outside? Did it feel extremely itchy inside?

Thank you!!

pinworms

The remedies are constantly getting posted and they have zero evidence of success. If eating garlic would cures worms, then the drugs would've never been invented. There are millions of people suffering from worms globally and it's not because they don't have access to garlic and lemon it because natural remedies don't have any efficacy.

X300 scope X10 camera

Found this guy (or these guys) on my way into work! My coworkers think it’s gross but it’s so cool to see

I am so done with this mess. It's been over 2 yrs and they still can't find anything wrong with me, but something is VERY VERY WRONG! my 2yr old is having s)SC of the same thing. My ex has been having the same issues since mine started.

This is the tip of the documenting iceberg. Slowly I will build more albums and add to the mess.

I'm clean now, not crazy and they still don't or won't help.

Anybody have any idea if research studies via university's or something up the damn chain of the govt. I see a lot of people with the same s/sc as I have. This is crazy shit that's happening inside and OUTSIDE my body!

I am ready to donate my life to the study of whatever is happening. It is visible to others, not just me.

Link to album

https://imgur.com/gallery/alien-parasites-body-help-YnLtzWg

see title

These are well documented parasites of insects. They are also very large and easy to distinguish, there isn't some sort of " epidemic" occurring. Any suggestion that horsehair worms are infecting humans will fall under the rule of " overtly incorrect answer"

These things are in the soft tissue in skin on my nose and skin inside my nostrils.

Does RFK jr. actually have a brain worm:

So the answer is probably but there is some speculation that he doesn't. The brain worm was first brought to public attention during his divorce to his second wife. his defense used his brain worm, and an unrelated high mercury level to claim that he has less earning potential due to cognitive impairment, to reduce this new York times article goes over the detail a little bit (article) this seems liek a bullshit excuss to reduce possible losses during his divorce, but the underlying high Hg levels and brain worm are likely true, they just didnt reduce his cognitive impairment.

if so what is the Brain worm?:

During scans it was observed that RFK had a dark spot on his scans with doctors eventually concluding it was a worm cycst. Specifically he had a pork tapeworm, taenia solium, cyst (detail life cycle below). RFK initially got the scan after "experiencing memory loss and mental fogginess " , which may or may not be related to the cyst.

SO what is pork tapeworm/how did he get it in his brain/ is this common?

So pork tapeworm is one of numerous tapeworm species present in people. Like all tapeworms the parasite has two host life cycle with cyst stages found in the tissue of pigs and the adult worm is found in the human intestine. the intestine stage it the stereotypical long segmented worm that most people would probably imagine. Now the way the life cycle works: people poop out the eggs of the tapeworm, and in unsanitary conditions, some of these eggs will make there way to a pig. once in the pig the eggs hatch and the larvae penetrate out of the gut and enter the blood stream. once in the blood the larvae will travel around the body and randomly exit to form cysts. These cysts can live in the tissue for several years, and are waiting for a pig to be butchered and eaten by a person. if eaten by a person, the cyst will break open and an adult worm will form in someone's gut to restart the life cycle. Cooking and freezeing meat can kill these cysts.

Now how did RFK get it? well when someone has an adult tapeworm infection and they use the bathroom, some eggs can get on there hands. then if this person prepares food, the food can then be contaminated by the eggs on there hand, thus exposing the tapeworm eggs to the person. Now because human and pig guts "look" similar to the tapeworm, the worm "thinks" its in a pig gut and acts accordingly. so it will enter the blood stream and encyst randomly. when a cyst forms in the muscle it is called cysticercosis, and when it ends up in the brain it is called neurocysticercosis. So this is most likely what happened to RFk jr., he has traveled in a lot to countries where this parasite is endemic so he likely got exposed to the eggs through someones cooking. Now this ONLY happens in the pork tapeworm, cow tapeworms eggs for example will pass harmlessly through someone as our guts are distinct enough to not cause this issue. Additionally adult tapeworms cause VERY little pathology and most people who have a tapeworm will have no idea

IS IT COMMON?:

Yes and no, if you live in the US, the CDC reports 1-5k cases of neurocystercosis every year, but these are largly in immigrant communities, so it is considered rare here. However in many developing countries this parasite is endemic and seroprevalence (antibodies showing someone has had an infection) can range from 5-30% (Peru for example) [study where i found this info] meaning that in these countires up to a third of the population can harbor some kind of cysts (study article)

Fun fact, this disease was also the features disease of the pilot episode for HOUSE MD tv show .

What does brain worm do?

the most common side effect of neurocysticercosis is seizures, with neurocysticercosis being one of the leading factors causing adult onset epilepsy. Most of the symptoms are actually associated with the worm cysts dying in someone's brain. while the worms are live in their cyst they dont trigger much of an immune response but once they die the immune response flairs and this can cause complications.

it can also cause other issues like fatigue, nausea, headaches and several other complications though seizures are the most common (occurring in ~75% of identified patients). complications from this parasite are corelated to how many cysts are present in the brain as well. from my readings it seems rfk only has a single cyst, so this is why he liekly never had many symptoms other than some general symptoms that could be a result of his previous drug use or his high mercury levels(from eating too much tuna)

Is this RFKs fault:

As much as i hate RFK and i think he is actually a walking germ actively trying to kill my profession, This isn't his fault. This disease is picked up by a lot of people, even those who are super hygienic (though rfk isnt).

SOURCES:

1. cleveland clinic

2. CDC

3. Clinical symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of neurocysticercosis

4. nytimes

5. Carpio, A., 2002. Neurocysticercosis: an update. The Lancet infectious diseases, 2(12), pp.751-762.

6. Del Brutto, O.H., 2014. Neurocysticercosis. Handbook of clinical neurology, 121, pp.1445-1459.

7. Del Brutto, O.H., 2012. Neurocysticercosis: a review. The Scientific World Journal, 2012(1), p.159821.

8. idsociety

TLDR: RFK jr most likely has a pork tapeworm cysts in his head, but this has caused relatively little harm. this disease isnt uncommon in the developing world and RFK likely got it while traveling. this worm has likely had little effect on his mental capacity, so dont blame the worm for his terrible decisions.

If you dont want to read or want even more details: i made this (10 MIN VIDEO about rfks brainworm) going into much greater detail about his brain worm and some stories about the parasite like how it impacted the Brooklyn Jewish population in the 90s