Deadly Disguise

         This is a story I want to write because this illness is not well known, and if so I never heard of it till I had it about a month or so ago. This illness very nearly destroyed me and from what I know of it this thing can destroy a person's immune system fast. I do not have the proper spelling for this problem but I will spell it as best I can. I even looked in the dictionary for it before I did this and could not find it.
         Candida Paraphsilisis is one of the worst illnesses a person can get. Symptoms vary in each person so that is why it is hard to detect in people. It is a fungal infection that, if not treated fast with antibiotics can spread throughout the bloodstream and damage organs. I was told it can go to the heart muscle first and damage the heart before anything else, but it spreads fast. They say it is supposedly common in hospitals. I wonder, if it is that common, why is it supposedly not well known? The fungus feeds on plastic, and with me I had had a lot of things done over the years that involved plastic. First was a shunt I had put in when I was a child and have had replaced many times that is made of plastic. They can not take that out because it keeps the spinal fluid from building up in my head. So I live in constant fear of still either having it in my system or it hiding in me. But they did take out a port that I had in my shoulder for I.V. use. It had been there for a few years because my veins are getting so bad they can not get a normal I.V. to stay in long. I had a pick line put in a few months ago because they could not get the port in my shoulder to work anymore. It had not been accessed in over a year. You might be wondering why it stayed in that long if not in use? Well, that's got an easy answer. I tried to get the doctors to take it out months ago but no one would do it. Not even the doctor who put it in to start with. He told me that if it was taken out I would bleed to death and I believed him. I believed in it so fiercely that I was scared out of my mind when they took it out because of the Candida, but I was more scared of the fungal infection so I let them take it out.
         When they took it all out {the port and the pick line) they sent it to be tested and found the fungal infection. I had a few more things done during this time but that's another story. The main thing in this is that after all was taken out that they could get out safely I got better and feel better now than I have in years. I was told if I had not been on meds anyway (for another, different reason), that I could have been much worse but I was lucky.
         I write this in hopes that if anyone is sick and the doctors can not find out what is wrong, that they need to be aware of this possibility. If you have been hospitalized and then got sicker after getting home, you keep trying to get others to listen to you because no one can ever tell when you might get this. I do not write this to scare you, I only write it to inform you. I am not one to believe I can save the world, but I do feel people need to be informed about uncommon things in illnesses that have been coming up lately out of the blue. Hope this helps. Angela Michelle Adams.