what's cooking?

For those of you who have read my musing for a while, you know that I was very sick this summer with both pleurisy and pneumonia brought on by Valley Fever.  It is still affecting my health, I've learned some very scary things about this thing that has invaded my body and thought this might explain just how dangerous it is.

This was posted in a group for Valley Fever and with permission I am posting this so it may educate as many people to what I am living with and that it can affect anyone!

PLEASE NOTE:...

The organism that causes Valley Fever, coccidioides sp., is the most virulent fungal parasite known to man and is also the only one that has ever been on the Select Agent list as a bio-terrorist weapon. There are other horrible fungal diseases such as Blastomycosis, Histoplasmosis and others, but this is considered the most dangerous one as a biological weapon threat. This systemic organism is dimorphic which means it changes form from how it exists in the soil into a parasitic spherule in the body. It is so far removed from the typical fungi that people are familiar with that many find it difficult to wrap their brain around how seriously dangerous this is to just about all life forms. It has even been stockpiled by our government for possible use against other governments. There is no comparison between any other form or type of fungi out there. The bio-safety level for laboratory handling of this organism is a level 3 which is just one step below Ebola.