Worms in the Face

Infections
1

Hi All,  I dont know if anyone has come across this.  I have a worm infestation in my face.  They travel around under the skin leaving tracks and bursting holes into my skin.  they create glass like balls that split the skin open and move around my skin with ease. 

I first reported it 3 months ago and the doctors totally ignored me treating me for a secondary infection that was caused by open wounds in my face.  They have given me 4 courses of antibiotics treating the wrong infect but totally ignored waht I was telling ithem about the worms. 

The worms whatever they are are very sharp and whereever they travel through in my face the skin collapses, leaving it like plastercine and it causes tiny splinters that are as sharp as anything that inbed themselves in the inside and outside of my skin right down to the lowest skin level. My skin is also producing a clear sticky substance which feels like little shards of glass if I touch it.  All in all, it really couldnt be much worse except for the fact they have made a hole around my mouth which they can look out of.  I am totally sane!

I am in pieces.  I've been telling the doctors what it is and they have totally ignored me.  Even refusing to refer after an A & E i visited confirmed I needed to be referred as the lesions had been on my face for so long.   

I discovered I had private medical care through my company which now thank god means I've seen my first dermatologist.  He's referred me to another dermatlogist that apparently knows more about things in the skin who I'm yet to see.  Even though he's now put me in the right direction, I'm not convinced he was sure it is worms.  I can pull 1/2 inch worms out of my skin bit by bit.  They look like thread worms and never come out intact, you pull little bits off of them.  It leaves worm shape dents in my face and they feel like little match sticks under the skin.  Nobody is taking me seriously as people dont really get worms in the face. 

They have totally destroyed me skin and I have bad scaring.  I have never had acne and had no scaring.   This has all been caused in the last 3 months.  I dread to think how many are alive in there now they'v been left so long.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like this?

2

Why not post a picture or video?

3

Hey,

If you could send me some pics or a video I can show my boss. I work for a dermatologist & plastic surgeon.

Xxx

4

I can show you the damage.  The worms dont come out and wriggle on the skin they go to an area.  Destroy the skin as they move through it.  Its like when they first split my lip open in the December photo, it blew a hole in the side of my mouth and bang in the middle of it was one of the worm type things peering out.  Just like a fat white dot.  The strange thing is no blood come out of it at all and that seems to be the norm the area where they are damaging doesnt bleed which is strange.  They do come out partially, I've seen 2 move in the last 2 weeks which confirmed that I always thought that they were worms in my skin.The doctors in my doctors surgery kept telling me worms couldnt move around my body but these were very much moving around under the skin.  I never felt them moving I could just see the tracks and my skin collapsing  as they passed through.  From the very beginning i was telling them about white spikey things moving around and destroying my face, they would change the subject and if really pressed on it would say it was probably a burst cyst.  I've had a burst cyst before and its nothing like it.  That is why its 3 months on and I still have it and now they can come in and out.  It was just this week there was one that was about 1/2 and hard to the touch under my skin, I've never felt that before, I wasnt able to define a worm shape just by touching the skin.  When I pulled it out I was left with the perfect worm shape indentation in my chin.  When pulling them out they just come appart in bits so its not like I can get one and take it into the doctors.  You can follow the routes they've travelled with the scaring.  The round marks on my chin where the skin is all collapsed there were quite litterally wrapped around the scab in a circular shape.  They have spikes so like the one I saw this week, the biggest ever to come near the surface, when i touched my face it hurt.   The infection started on my chin area then travelled upwards and stayed in that area spiking off in all directions for a while.  Then burst a hole up by my ears and from there travelled down my jaw line bursting out on the chin again, and branched off downwards left and right.  They tend to stop at a junction of any sort and head downwards to go right into the lower layer of skin which really hurts,  you cant squeeze them out because they are totally embedded like part of your skin and keep travelling.  I do think the spikey things like little tiny painful splinters is their defence mechanism when I touch the area and the clear substance that seems to come out around the same time as the defence spikes I thought was my body trying to fight something off.. but I dont know, it is like shards of glass.  Maybe it is my defense but it gets mixed up with their tiny tiny spikes.  My skin just collapses where they've been.  I do dread to think how many I have since I've been ignored.  First I thought I was getting spotty so didnt go to the doctors for about 3 weeks.  The first pic taken on the 21st December when the doctors were refusing to refer me even though my skin had been like that for 2 months.  Even the hospital said I needed to be referred as they just werent healing.  The skin doesnt heal at all when these things are in it.  Its a lot of damage in 3 months.  I'm discusted with the treatment i've received from my doctors.

5

Sorry this is the December one.

6

Hey!

The only thing she could think of that fits the Bill would be mucocutaneous leishmaniasis. If you Google the symptoms you will scare yourself so just don't. Just know if it is this you need to get it treated asap!

The worms first show symptoms by making ulcer like sores on your face... And can move around. They don't grow very big but the damage they do can be catastrophic.

I would also put in a formal complaint about your doctor once you face a formal diagnosis.

Xxxx

7

Thanks Gracie, I will ask the dermatologist about that kind of worm on Tuesday.  I defo wont google it, i'm freaked out enough as it is.

I do intend to put a formal complaint against the doctors surgery.. hopefully the dermatologist takes it seriously on Tuesday because my skin is looking clearer than normal.  They are defo still in there.

I started crystalice cream yesterday and the sore by my mouth is looking a bit better.

 

8

by the way, where do the worms you mentioned come from?

9

I thought leishmaniasis was caused by a sandfly? Another thing it could be is a pin worm they have a sharp back end.  I don't know if they get under the skin in ones face or not though.

10

What a nightmare it's been since I last posted. Went to Northwick Park Hospital for tests and to see a consultant in the Infectious Diseases department. The guy in A & E thought since the department deal with unusual illnesses and do tests others don't it was my best hope.

I was optimistic about it but my god I couldn't have received any worste treatment than I received there. At first it was ok when I saw Dr L Jones, he was pleasant enough and just wrote down what I was saying, then his senior come in, a youngish Indian woman early 30's and my god was she rude, really serious attitude problem. I was answering her questions, a conversation about worms in the face is hard enough without sounding mad, and she was being sarcastic about my responses. I'd reply, she'd kind of smirk at me then come out with her next silly, non relevant question.

ill give you an example: they tested me for all std's including hiv and I was clean. She asked how long is been with my boyfriend, I said 8 years and she wanted to know if I slept with anyone else while with him. The blood results were about 3 weeks after my initial appointment and were clean. Maybe adult can cause worms lol.

I'm trying to talk about worms in the face, she was just changing the subject and talking about me to other people in the room while looking at me like she thinks I'm mad.

She finally got around to telling me she thought I had mental problems and that she was writing to my doctors to tell them this. She blatantly said I didn't have worms in the face and to stop picking my skin.

I was furious when I left the hospital. I was livid.

Anyway, they wrote to my doctors, I attended an appointment there, just to prove I didn't have mental illness and the doctor read the letter to me.

They wrote the doctors needed to see me urgently and that I had psychosis and in my psychotic state, people like me can self harm. Also that I was agitated while at the appointment! At least they got one thing right lol.

Anyway, today I had an appointment with a dermatologist at Holly Head who confirmed I did have the parasite infection in my face and I'm starting a 3 month course of antibiotics to clear it up.

It's terrible it's taken this long to find it, and its down to small minded people like her.

I have so much scaring, all because the people I've spoken to refused to acknowledge you can get worms in the face. You can imagine how I was feeling, I nearly didn't attend my appointment today because I was so deflated about the situation.

Thank god my doctors knew I was sane. I'm still going to seek legal advice.

11

The worms

12

This was taken the day i attended Northwick Park for the results.

13

Thank God that at last you are getting the right treatment at Holly Head

14

You poor thing, one does wonder about the ability of some of our medical profession. I do hope your dermatologist sorts things out for you. 

15

Thanks all,  finally light at the end of the tunnel.  I'm very happy :o)

16

Hi Nicolamc - I am really sorry to hear about the problems you are having with your skin and the very unprofessional way you have been treated by the medical community.  Reading your explanation of the way it feels and from your pictures makes me think you have Morgellons Syndrome. The way you have been treated is so similar to the way many of us have been treated by physicians.  I have had this problem for 7 years and it leaves huge lesions in my skin.  Some so large that I have had to have surgery with free flabps and skin grafts to fill in the holes and cover the area.  I have taken an enotmous amount of antibiotics and even fungal medications to no avail.  Some of my doctors have also summarized my problem as delusions of parasitosis in my records and claim I am doing this to myself.  I am curious and also hopeful about your treatment regimen and how it has worked.  Please le me know...

17

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3034193/

Antibiotics fight infection and hence reduce inflammation caused by it.  Parasites are treated by a drug group called Anthelmintics. This kills the worms, but has to be staged to break the cycle.

Tiny worms can be destroyed by the correct dosage of anthelmintic at correct intervals.  Ivermectin is a common veterinary treatment for skin mites (which are superfical) but also people.  See the link above.

Some of the tropical infestations suggested here seem unlikely. 

Leptospirosis  however,

can be transfered from dogs. It should be ruled out as can affect the eyes. 

I hope you find the right medicine.

 

18

Hi nicolamc, i am a 30 yr old female from Australia and you are not crazy...exactly the same thing is happening to me..my facial skin has holes everywhere and when you touch them even to dab lotion on them, they feel like they have glass bits in them...so painful to touch. And they take forever to heal leaving really bad scaring...i can actually feel the worms moving about in my face/skin. And no doctor believes me. I know it is really happening so i just wanted to share that with you.

19

Aww thanks Robby.  Its awful isnt it, when you are at the mercy of doctors and nobody is listening.  It just shows how vulnerable we are.  I do hope you get it sorted.  You should tell your doctor about my case, say its the same and see if they can treat you with the same antibiotics.  I have a month left still, I'm hoping after that i'll be 100% cured.  I'd say I'm 75% but its like you can just get a breakout out of the blue.. The dermatologist that gave them to me is quite well known apparently.  Obviously not in Australia but they might take you seriously you never know.

20

That sounds so right, the antibiotics just stop your face from looking dreadful.  The cream i have is fucadin H, which I believe is an antibiotic and low level dose of acid.  I still havent worked out the pattern of the cycle.  Picking them defo seems to produce more of them fast.  Any cuts does and easily infects your hands.  If i'm not fully healed by the time i finish this course, I'll suggest to the dermatologist your recommendation.  I have a feeling that fucadin H isnt going to get rid of them.   Whilst i'm not seeing worms, the bacteria is still there for sure, so they are.  Spots that arent quite spots and take ages to heal and little black dots that appear where they are.

Thanks for the info Sue.