Mass on lung of my father

[cumberlandreds]

Originally Posted by cincrazy

No cancer! Thank God. It's a fungus on his lung that can be successfully treated with medicine. Never been happier in my life. Thanks so much for all the prayers.

Now you can kid with him and tell him "There is a fungus among us." That's great news! No cancer is the best news anyone could receive.

[reds1869]

Tremendous news, glad to hear it!

[SunDeck]

Glad to know it's not cancer. That has to be an attention getter. Best wishes to your pop!

[medford]

Any chance, and I know I'd butcher the name of the disease so I'll go w/ the layman terms name, the birdpoop fungus? Basically where you somehow come in contact w/ bird poop fumes, that travel thru your lungs then manifest itself into some sort of fungus in the body? My brother-in-law had something similar, it took the doctor's a month or so to finally figure out what it was, but there was a period where I wasn't sure he was going to make it (he has other related medical issues that we thought were somehow related) Anyhoo, once he got the medication, he started feeling better almost instantly. While still a "rare" desease, I guess its most common in the Ohio Valley.

[cincrazy]

Originally Posted by medford

Any chance, and I know I'd butcher the name of the disease so I'll go w/ the layman terms name, the birdpoop fungus? Basically where you somehow come in contact w/ bird poop fumes, that travel thru your lungs then manifest itself into some sort of fungus in the body? My brother-in-law had something similar, it took the doctor's a month or so to finally figure out what it was, but there was a period where I wasn't sure he was going to make it (he has other related medical issues that we thought were somehow related) Anyhoo, once he got the medication, he started feeling better almost instantly. While still a "rare" desease, I guess its most common in the Ohio Valley.

Yes! He has something very similar. I believe the name is histoplasmosis? But I know it's from bird droppings, pigeons and bats. The doctor told him he has a pretty good case of it so he must have come into direct contact with it. The first round of medicine they put him on didn't do much for him, but a new medicine he started a few days ago has finally made his fever go down without Tylenol (first time in over a month).

Thanks so much for the thoughts and prayers everyone. However, while we're ecstatic over the news of our father's health, we found out a dear family friend has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. My dad's taking it pretty hard and has a tremendous feeling of guilt, wondering why her and not him. It's tough for us to watch, coming off the intial glee then getting that news. Just horrible. So pray for her please. Maybe we'll see a miracle.

[medford]

Originally Posted by cincrazy

Yes! He has something very similar. I believe the name is histoplasmosis? But I know it's from bird droppings, pigeons and bats. The doctor told him he has a pretty good case of it so he must have come into direct contact with it. The first round of medicine they put him on didn't do much for him, but a new medicine he started a few days ago has finally made his fever go down without Tylenol (first time in over a month).

Thanks so much for the thoughts and prayers everyone. However, while we're ecstatic over the news of our father's health, we found out a dear family friend has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. My dad's taking it pretty hard and has a tremendous feeling of guilt, wondering why her and not him. It's tough for us to watch, coming off the intial glee then getting that news. Just horrible. So pray for her please. Maybe we'll see a miracle.

Sorry to hear about your friend's father.

About your father, my brother in law started his antibiotics right about a month ago, he was well enough to ride the Beast, Diamondback, etc.. last thursday, so it appears once you start getting the medication you recovery pretty quickly. I don't think his settled in his lungs, I think the fungus spread out elsewhere in his body, don't remember where. My mother in law's friend had it settle up near her eye and it was like she was starting to go blind before they figured out the problem. Sounds like it can be pretty scary stuff when know body knows for sure what it is.

[Larkin Fan]

Ohio is the Histoplasmosis capital of the world, so that's not surprising. Since you said that your dad has been in great health, he most definitely had to come into direct contact with a large amount of inoculum for him to even show any symptoms.

I could randomly pick out 100 Ohioans on any given day and test them for Histo and 90%of them would test positive for it. However, the majority of those people will never know that they are infected with it because it's very rare for a healthy person to show symptoms. When a person starts showing symptoms, it means they have a serious condition in which their immune system is impaired or in the case of your dad, they were exposed to a large amount of the pathogen of one time. It can be nasty to treat, but when they catch it early, like in the case of your father, they can effectively treat it with the right combo of meds. I'm really glad to hear that he's responding to the second treatment and that it wasn't cancer!