[ad_1]
After reviewing the exams and eliminating other possibilities, the cancer was the most likely explanation for the unusual symptoms that Rachel Palma experienced from January 2018.
"I had involuntary movements of the right hand, so I dropped objects," said the resident of Middletown, New York. "The worst symptoms were obviously hallucinations, and I was not always oriented to time and place."
Once, Palma is locked out of her house and another time, her bank account.
"I was no longer able to deal with the fact that a key opens the door." The computer screen was completely different – it was almost alien, said the young man 42 years old. "What I perceived was different and the way I answered was different: if someone asked for a pen, I would give him, for example, a key."
Sometimes she had happy days without symptoms. Without warning, falling things, hallucinations, disorientation would come back.
Brain injury found on a scanner
After January, her symptoms "have progressed quite rapidly," she said, having visited the emergency department at least 10 times. "But as soon as they discarded a cerebral bleeding, I was discharged.Although I was a danger to myself and probably to others, they still unloaded me." "she said.
She understands why, since nobody could identify what was happening to her. They said: "If you do not bleed the brain, it's not an emergency," he said. she said. A convulsive disorder was also the subject of an investigation and was quickly fired.
"We decided that it would probably be in her best interest to do a biopsy of this lesion," Rasouli said, basing herself on the fact that she was healthy and young and had symptoms that she was experiencing. it could directly correlate with the location of the lesion. In addition, she had no risk factor for anything that could explain the presence of a brain injury. Rasouli carefully explained the possibilities to his patient.
"It was said that it was most likely a malignant tumor requiring radiation therapy and chemotherapy even after the operation," Palma said.
The surgery would be risky because the location of his "tumor" was very close to the area of the brain that controls the speech.
Rasouli told CNN: "Her fiancé had just made her request and they were trying to move in. All of a sudden, she had a brain tumor diagnosis, can you imagine?"
Palma, however, thought the risk was worth it, "since it was supposed to be a malignant tumor, I still think the risk was worth it."
His first operation, essentially a "planning operation," Rasouli explained, took place on September 2, 2018. A second operation to remove the suspected tumor took place on September 12.
"We did a small dissection of the brain tissue and found that it was a very well encapsulated, firm and ovoid lesion," Rasouli said. "It looked like a quail egg: same size, same look, same firmness."
"Wait a second, it's clearly not a brain tumor," he recalls at the time.
When he was asked what a brain tumor looked like, he laughed, "It does not look like a quail egg, most brain tumors are very soft, very pasty, they are not very well defined, are infiltrating and it's hard to get around them. "
Rasouli quickly removed the lesion extracted from the operative field, placed it under a surgical microscope and opened it.
"And there came a baby worm solitary," he said.
How did he get there?
Those most at risk are those who travel to countries where this pork tapeworm is endemic and eat contaminated food – usually raw fruit, raw vegetables or uncooked pork.
Rasouli said that the tapeworm found in his brain "is not uncommon, it is quite unusual.Maybe once every two years you will see something like this, if even that . "
"There is absolutely no explanation for how I contracted it," Palma said. She has never traveled to the outside of the country and she does not eat raw food or raw meat, at least not intentionally, she said. How long it has been housed in her brain is another mystery, she says.
"We are still wondering how she developed this," Rasouli said. "If we had reason to think that it might have been exposed to pork tapeworm or if we thought it was potentially a parasite, we would have ideally treated it with antibiotics rather than the to operate. "
Today, Palma has no symptoms and feels good. She is grateful to Rasouli and Mount Sinai medical staff for saving her life. If the tapeworm had not been removed (or destroyed with antibiotics), it could have caused a stroke or even death.
With all the attention – "for whatever reason, my story is fascinating to people" – Palma now has an important message to deliver: "This is not a topic of widespread panic. "It happened is extremely rare – it's not the norm – for someone who has not been abroad to contract that."
While many people ask her for medical advice, she gives her the only possible advice: "If you have symptoms that you can not explain or worry about, see a doctor and see a good doctor.
"All headaches are not necessarily parasites."
[ad_2]
Source link