Post # 1 of the end of my horror

[Guest guest]

This is an e-mail that I sent to two pastors at my church on May 9th- one being

a PHD of Psychology:

Something happened to me at the end of February that has shaken me to my core

and I need help because of it. I have tried to journal it but will try to

summarize it here.

I am an accountant and was in the midst of a very stressful tax season, along

with lots of stressful family situations.

I woke up one morning with things crawling all over me. It felt like an army of

insects had come over the head of my bed and were swarming my body. I couldn't

see them and I couldn't bathe them off. From that point on there was nowhere I

could lay down in my house. I couldn't take a nap when I was exhausted and that

took it's toll emotionally.

I called three different exterminators. The first two told me it sounded like

bird mites and wanted me to sign a contract so they could start extermination. I

resisted because I needed more information so I googled Bird Mites and found the

site BirdMites.org. There is a link to find an expert in the field. I applied.

The one who came out basically told me " it's all in your head " . At least that's

what I heard at the time. He used his 30x magnifier on " samples " I'd trapped but

couldn't see anything so he gave me an address to send the samples to the

Entomology Dept at the U of FL in Gainesville. I " trapped " some more from my

body on glue boards and sent them off. The results were that they saw nothing.

He also referred me to a woman in Winter Park whose whole family had been

suffering similarly. I called her but her case was quite different than mine.

The whole family was affected and they gave up, disposed of all their

belongings, sold their home and moved.

My husband has been working with the folks at DIY Pest Control in Oviedo, where

we have spent a fortune on different treatments. It seems like mites, all kinds,

are rampant and mostly untreatable. The curious thing is that my husband is not

bothered by them. The info on the internet says that frequently they will pick a

host, usually a female, and not bother anyone else in the household. In fear, I

have isolated myself from my family - the worst thing is from my

great-grandchildren who need me to care for them, often. I am in such fear of

infecting others that I have not been to church but once or twice in the first

days since this hit me. If I run to the store and see a friend who wants to hug

I get sick. I avoid anyone I know like the plague.

I made it through tax season but I could barely work with things crawling on me

every moment. It was horrible trying to talk to a client professionally but

feeling like a crazy person feeling things crawling on my neck and face and

wondering if they could see them.

Where did these mites come from? Did I pick them up from somebody? Did I bring

them in with something I bought? Are they from some animal or something in the

yard? They find me wherever I am. I moved from my bed to the sofa bed. I slept

outside in my van a few nights. I bought an air mattress that I moved from room

to room. We even stayed in a hotel for four nights. Each night their presence on

me was increased so much so that on the fourth night I laid in bed feeling them

going into my mouth, nose and ears and asking the Lord to just take my life.

Nothing kept them off me and I rarely got more than two hours sleep a night. I

cannot sleep in my bed which we have sprayed and wrapped in three layers of

painters plastic drop cloth and sealed with packing tape. There were many

occasions at night that I laid there feeling as if they were coming out of my

body because they were just " appearing " without having crawled to get wherever

they were. I have considered suicide on more than one occasion. I began to

believe someone had put a curse on me.

I have been to my primary care physician 2 times and felt like she didn't

believe me so I changed doctors. She did however give me 2 prescriptions.

Methylprednisone (for 6 days) and Hydroxyzine (to take at bedtime each night).

Can you imagine! The purpose of that medicine is to calm me down enough so that

I can sleep when things crawl on me!

The first appointment I can get with my new primary care is May 23rd.

I have been to a walk-in clinic twice. The doctor there seems more concerned

than anyone else I've been to. However, her treatments for Scabies brought no

relief. I guess if you don't know what it is treat for anything. She referred me

to a Dermatologist who travels worldwide on mission trips and has seen things we

don't see here in the US. I have not yet made an effort to see him.

I've been to a doctor outside my plan and paid $75 out of pocket to be told to

order some skin cream off the internet. I guess she thought my rough skin was

the cause. I've been bathing in Epsom Salts, Clorox, Lysol, 20 Mule Team Borax,

Dawn Dish Detergent and Arm & Hammer Washing Detergent. Many of these things

were recommended by a person at DIY Pest Control and some of the like sufferers

on a forum I found.

I've been to two different acupuncturists a total of three times and have some

of the worst tasting concoctions anyone could ever imagine. One is treating for

parasites and the other says it's my circulation and nervous system. he gave me

some " relax " herbal pills.

One Saturday morning, after many days of less than two hours sleep on any night

and taking several baths each day and using lice shampoo (sometmes 3x in one day

alone) to get them off my scalp, my husband took me to the ER at 5AM. They gave

me an IV with Ativan and I got about four hours sleep there. They gave me a

prescription for some over the counter allergy pills which I already had in the

cabinet.

Let me add that prior to this I had no health issues and am on no meds. I resist

drugs and believe in the healthy way. To get relief from this I RAN to the

doctor(s), etc begging for help and swallowed everything they suggested and

more.

My husband has been praying for me. Friends I have told have been praying for

me. And, I've been calling out to God, begging, pleading for help. April 21st I

put an anonymous prayer request on the church prayer request link.

We paid for a week at the hotel but the fourth night was so horrible we checked

out and returned home. At this time suicide was first and foremost in my mind.

Knowing that we need more help than I've been able to get I called the

exterminator who came out at the beginning of this. He had news for me. He is a

Christian and told me that first and foremost I need to have my church praying

for me. So here I am. Then he told me he has been in this business for many

years, over thirty I believe, and his experience has been that if you can't see

something it isn't there. Then he added " there is always the possibility that

the government has created something to use in warfare, but as yet we don't know

that " . I didn't think that strange because in my search on the internet I had

already seen that as a theory. Then he told me of someone who had called him. A

retired police officer, swat team member. Intelligent, educated, sharp and

analytical. All the qualities associated with someone in that field. His malady

came on the same as mine, in that it struck in one day. Just as for me, no

treatment worked. He was so stricken that he considered burning his house down.

So have I. The end of that story is that he had experienced an emotional

breakdown and St Wort healed him. Other than that, I have no information. I

hope the exterminator will put us together so I can get more info.

St Wort is one of the things I didn't have on my counter so I ran to Whole

Foods and bought what appears to be the best St Wort on their shelf and

began taking it immediately. I don't doubt that I had an emotional breakdown

because of all the pressure on me at that time. It all makes sense now but I

rejected that theory until yesterday.

I also went to Home Depot and bought wide double sided tape. I came home and

cleaned the top of my mattress, already wrapped in three layers of painter's

drop cloth and sealed with packing tape, vacuumed both the mattress and the air

mattress, sprayed them both down with Lysol and then made a border on both with

the very sticky double sided tape. I washed my pillow in Arm & Hammer laundry

soap and a little Ammonia. It was dry at 1:30 AM and everything was ready

Nothing was going to crawl on me that night! I went to bed crying because I

could no longer sleep in my nice fluffy bed with crisp sheets and a down

comforter. Now, my bed is a vinyl air mattress with no sheet and very sticky

double sided tape around it. I sleep covered with a Queen size flat sheet folded

in half crosswise and am always fearful that it will droop off the side and

allow the mites to crawl up that way. Last night there was no chance at all of

that happening because I was double protected by the tape on the air mattress

and the outside border of the mattress on my bed.

At 4:30 I woke up with things crawling all over me from the soles of my feet to

my scalp. I quickly jumped up and ran to get the black light the exterminator

had told me to use. Shining it in the dark will reveal anything that is there. I

checked the vinyl air mattress from top to bottom, I saw lots of white specks

but none of them were moving. I used a very big magnifier that I use for my

sewing and crafts to see better. Nothing moving. Then I took the light and

looked into my 10x mirror in my bathroom, at spots on my face, chest and body

that I felt the crawling. Nothing! Then I knew that the exterminator had to be

right. I can't tell you how much that calmed me, really calmed me. I went back

to bed and right to sleep and slept till 9AM when the phone woke me up.

I know it's far from over and I need help to get over this and make sure it

never happens again. I feel that crawling all day and night and I have been

reluctant to call for help because I believed I was infested with mites and was

fearful of infecting people with whom I came in contact. I don't know what help

to ask for other than prayer. If there really is something then our home needs

to be anointed and prayed over. Since the first day only a little over two

months ago, this has cost us close to $3,000 in co-pays, out of network doctors

and meds, etc, every kind of herbal thing from Leaves & Roots you could ever

imagine, cleaning supplies I don't ordinarily use, pesticides and equipment and

on and on and on. And the work has been beyond exhausting. Spraying, scrubbing,

cleaning, steaming, washing every item that I touched even one time. I really

want my life back.

Sharon

I will post what followed tomorrow.