>

I mold enough to know where this is going.
I had it in 2004. Lost part of my right lung and spent 28 days in a coma.
Would not recommend. >

Damn!! Sorry to hear, glad you pulled through!! >

Partially anyway >

Great. Linked to wildfires, too. I got "Valley Fever" in Oceanside about 20 years ago, just hanging out on the beach with an offshore wind. Construction and soil disturbance and spread the spores. >

Wow. That seriously sucks, I’m sorry that happened to you! >

Steroids worked; not sure how that functions, but that knocked it right out.  Wish the doctor had tried that sooner. >

Steroids should do the opposite in a fungal infection. They should (do) suppress the immune system. >

Call the doctors and let them know. >

I am a doctor. >

Call the better ones then, whaddaya what? >

“ Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed...” >

but doc, i am a fungus! >

A lot folks are making jokes but Valley Fever is a miserable disease.  Many people who catch it never fully get over it.  If this keeps spreading we are going to need better anti fungal drugs. >

For real. I lived in an area with Valley Fever for a long time and it could infect people AND pets. It's really miserable and can be very dangerous, especially for people with compromised immune systems. >

When we lived in Tucson Arizona our neighbors’ dog contracted Valley Fever, and she suffered terribly with it. It was very debilitating, because she had it in her joints and couldn’t walk well. The sole veterinarian medication they had for it for a long time was only available in Mexico, so people would make trips down there (60 miles from Tucson) and pick up supplies of it. >

My dog had Valley Fever for most of his life. First in his lungs, and eventually got to his spinal cord and started paralyzing him :( My best friend's dog had seizures because of it. Very scary. >

Oh, I am so sorry.  :-(  Where were you living...? >

This was in Phoenix. >

Phoenix has the most construction going on in the state, stirring up the spores out of the soil and putting them up in to the air where they can be breathed. >

There is an interesting radiolab on how 98.6 is the perfect temp to kill fungus, and how we have lower average body’s temps now (97) so we’re going to have trouble with fungus. Snakes would be overrun with fungus if they didn’t sun bathe. >

That’s the one! >

My dad had one that lingered. After getting treated for it the final time, they took a chest X-ray and found his lung cancer by good fortune, which was very small and thankfully treatable and he was cancer free for a few years. 
Before that I had no idea it was even a thing and it’s given me something new to be afraid of. >

Wow, that is lucky! >

my dad had a bad fungal lung infection a few years ago. my mom virtually became an expert on it. it’s becoming increasingly more common it’s very scary. i almost watched my dad die for 2 weeks straight at the age of 17 and id never wish it on anyone. >

How did he get it >

we don’t actually know. many ways have been theorized but our best guess is that he just inhaled it while doing yard work. the fungus he got is commonly found in the dirt and soil, he isn’t imuunocomprized either. in all odds he should have never gotten it, but he did >

Holy shit. It's war of the worlds, and we're the martians! >

My friend is just recovering from it. She’s a homesteader and spends hours in her garden in San Diego county. She thought she had covid then she got a strange rash and swelling on her hands and feet to the point she couldn’t walk. She had trouble breathing and got an X-ray and doctor saw a spot on her lung. They did a biopsy and her lung collapsed, while she was in the hospital with her lung recovery they found it was a fungus in her lung. Finally she was diagnosed with valley fever. >

Scientists have been predicting this for a while.
We know that climate change will cause harmful/deadly fungi to flourish. >

I had coccy pneumonia when I lived in Phoenix, had been working in a community garden in Mesa and that's all you really need to know.  : /
Anyway, both my ear drums burst with blood and pus, the whole works.  It's a crazy high fever as well.  I couldn't hear for quite a few months afterwards and I did recover.  When I was first sick reading google (I didn't have a local doctor, and didn't feel up to wandering the city looking for help) it said, you either recover or you die.  Fortunately, I did recover but it was crazy man - I do not recommend it. >

Wow, I had no idea this had gotten so bad out west, glad to hear you recovered. >

thank you, I'm glad it worked out ok too.  : /   I had no idea it was so dangerous until I couldn't get out of bed.  just working in a garden, who knew ? >

Oh damn - I always say it’s not the heat that’s gonna get us, it’s the fungus. Didn’t think it would be this soon. Fuck. >

It’ll be cordyceps next. >

Prequel to Last of Us >

Also The Girl with All the Gifts >

Friend’s dog got infected with Valley Fever. They had to remove parts of her skull because it was in her bones. Glad I moved out of that area. Having a scorpion tear ass through my kitchen was the final straw. >

Our dog likely had valley fever just recently, and we live in Alberta, Canada.  It is spreading way past its normal areas. >


Our dog likely had valley fever just recently, and we live in Alberta, Canada.

How was it diagnosed? >

Elimination.  Antibiotics wouldnt touch the lung infections, antifungals did.  Nothing came back fungal or bacterial or viral on any swab.  Started off getting lameness and then a splenic lesion now.  He is getting his spleen removed on Wednesday. 
So, right now, its the consensus best guess of the critical care team.  This all started in early August. >

Wow I heard of a client of mines son catching this a few years ago, and he is not the same anymore,went for a healthy active senior to barely functioning.  I didn't know it was a fungus >

Sure. Why the hell not. >

Had multiple family members that got INSANELY sick with this recently (all under 30) after a trip. 
This infection makes COVID look mild. Seriously, this shit is no joke. >

Trip to where? >

Eagle Lake, Canada. 
It was a fishing trip. 3 of my 4 nephews got it.
Long story short. The one that was affected the most is still recovering and his insurance has gotten billed $1.3 million to-date for treatment. 
That's ignoring the permanent lung damage, loss of sensation (which luckily seems to be coming back), etc.... >

I had a “persistent lung infection” for almost two years, coughed constantly, felt like I was coughing up a lung every night. The X-rays showed nothing. Antibiotics didn’t work, neither did prescription cough meds. Finally begged the doctor for some relief and she prescribed Prednisone (steroids). It took two rounds, but it finally kicked it out. God, that was a nightmare, but still thankfully, not cancer. >

Should include Cryptococcus gattii. Been killing people in the pnw for a couple of decades. It has a mortality rate of 13 to 33% and causes an estimated 625,000 deaths globally each year. Where I am it is mostly a risk for immunocompromised and older individuals. >

You think that's bad there was an episode of monsters inside me where an old couple somewhere in vacation hung up their clothes to dry outside and later became infected with parasites. Appearantly they eggs got carried in the wind and stuck to their clothes. Creeped me the heck out can't remember the name though. >

Dam with the rain and all we got dead leaves and colored fungus everywhere…how do you know what to avoid?? >

The Year of the Lung can end any time now, k thx... >

My friend's mom had this infection. It was right as Covid happened in 2020 so initially that was what they thought it was. She was so sick and in an overcrowded ICU. She managed to pull through but hasn't been the same. >

Likely secondary infections from people who's lungs were fucked from covid. Same thing happened in India. >

Yeah, coupled with air pollution, and climate change. Increased frequency of occurrence meets increasingly susceptible population. >

Great. Next up, Cordyceps mutates to infect humans and we’re all fucked. >

And all these landscaping gas blowers are running all day blowing all that shit around. >

We better eradicate this soon, there’s not mushroom for error. >

I’m lichen your puns. >

If you like those, wait till you see what I have hanging from mycelium! >

I tip my cap to you, sir. >

You seem like fungis