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Scott Donahue, from rural Park Rapids, was diagnosed with blastomycosis in March and is recovering again.
The fungus grows in a moist environment and is often found near rivers or lakes, according to the Minnesota Department of Health's website, entering the lungs during spore-inspired spores.
Donahue's son Max had a yellow laboratory on the property, Buck, who had been diagnosed with blastomycosis in the summer of 2018.
"He was put on antifungal Itraconazole, but he died about two months after the diagnosis," said Donahue.
The disease has progressed rapidly.
"He was only about a year old and had gone from 90 pounds, very strong and fit, to a fat cough, vomiting a clear, white foamy liquid and convulsing," said Donahue.
"The dog was often outside, chasing squirrels and rushing to my dock. I have lake shore and river. The river flows from Island Lake to Eagle Lake and from Eagle Lake to Potato Lake. I live on about five acres surrounded by trees and water, but there has been no disturbance or excavation. I do not have a garden, but a lot of wood. "
From diagnosis to hospitalization
Donahue said he had severe coughing spells at the end of March.
"I did not have a high fever, just a few degrees, but on the third day, I coughed so hard that I started to throw up," he said. "After about three or four days, I went to the Essentia walk-in clinic. I'm a little stubborn, so I'm slow to go to the doctor as long as I can. They did a chest x-ray. A few days later, the doctor sent me a letter telling me that I had liquids in both lungs. They therefore assumed that it was pneumonia and even offered me one of these Z-Pack medications (antibiotics). "
After five days of antibiotics, Donahue did not feel better.
"I was in bed and I was miserable," he said. A day or two later, my son called the ambulance. "
Donahue was taken to CHI St. Joseph's Health and transferred to Essentia Health in Fargo once the pneumonia was eliminated. A specialist from Essentia diagnosed blastomycosis.
Donahue said he did not understand how he contracted the disease at the end of March, the ground being frozen and snow-covered for months.
"I do not know where I contracted it," he said. "I work in a parts store and I'm not close to the floor. I did not stay long on my dock because of the snow and I stopped sailing in September. "
He said his immune system may not have been able to fight the disease because he was diabetic.
'Lucky to be here & # 39;
"I was under a fan three times because I could not breathe," Donahue said. "I also underwent a tracheostomy, a kidney biopsy and a feeding tube and I was hospitalized for three months. They told my children that on my second visit to the fan, they would have to reunite my family because I was probably not going to get there. It's really serious and I'm lucky to be here. "
He said that he took several medications to manage the pain and symptoms of the disease, with a lot of connected tubes. At one point, a breathing tube was inserted so that he could not even speak. Turning on the left side made him cough uncontrollably.
"I was literally in the same position in my hospital bed for almost three months," he said. "I still have back pain. I lost 40 pounds. I had the habit of weighing 175 and having arm muscles pretty good size. I'm using a walker and a cane, looks like a twig and has almost no muscle tone. I had 50 years in the hospital.
His twins, Max and Mason, took responsibility for making decisions about his care.
A long recovery
Donahue said that he had begun to feel better by mid-June and had been released from the hospital on July 2.
His sons left Iowa to be able to look after their father.
"They gave me an anti-fungal drug that I'm supposed to take for a year," he said.
A physiotherapist helped him regain his strength, but he still has some way to go.
Her type 2 diabetes has gone from insulin pill. "I do not know what the link is," he said. "They say that blastomycosis affects the nervous system, and I have tingling in my little fingers."
Donahue said that he was in a motorcycle wreck in 2006, suffering from a fractured skull and a broken ankle.
"It took a long time to recover because of traumatic brain injury," he said. "I can not choose my fights, but I would take this motorcycle wreckage again during this blastomycosis, as far as the pain."
Concerns for the future
Donahue said he received a phone call from the Centers for Disease Control asking where he could have been exposed.
Malia Ireland, an epidemiologist at the Department of Health, said that there have been 45 cases of human blastomycosis this year in this state, an increase of 28% over the 31 cases of the disease. 39, last year.
"There have been 145 cases of blastomycosis in animals in the state this year, an increase of 35% over the 95 cases reported at the same time last year," she said. declared. "In Hubbard County, last year, we showed one human case and eight cases in dogs. This year, one human case and six dog cases have already been reported. "
Ireland said that there was no soil analysis for blastomycosis. "A professor at the University of Manitoba is working on developing one, but it's a slow process," she said. "The fungus does not grow well in the laboratory, which makes testing very difficult. The CDC is not able to do any testing at this stage either. "
Donahue fears that her son will contract the fungus, as well as her new yellow lab, Duke, and her son's dog.
"My boys are determined to stay here," he said. "They like to canoe and be on the water. We are all a little worried because me and the dog had it. It's a little scary.
Ireland said: "Other people, such as his sons, could potentially come into contact with the fungus. But many exposed people do not get sick. However, if they develop pneumonia or other infections that do not respond to antibiotics, they should tell their doctor about their father's and the dog's illness. "
Donahue said that he shared his story in the hope that it would raise awareness about the disease. He added that if the antifungal treatment starts earlier, the results could be better for the patients.
"The medicine I'm on seems to work, but I'm still weak, my body is constantly hurting and my back is killing me," he said. "My doctor's response has been that I have been sick for a very long time and that it will take a long time to heal. I can not even lift a bag of 50 kilos dog food and take it out of the truck; my children do that for me. I am so, so weak. Go from being active and strong enough to being frail and almost helpless is really bad. "
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