Woman's Mysterious Burning Feet Traced to Worms in Her Brain

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A 30-year-old woman in the United States was told by doctors she had parasites in her brain after presenting to the hospital with a burning sensation in her feet.

The worms seem to have been unlucky souvenirs the woman unknowingly picked up while traveling in Thailand, Japan, and Hawaii.

Embedded in her central nervous system, the quiet invaders didn't 'make a peep' until 12 days after the woman had returned home. Only then did their presence cause an intense immune responsethat took a further week to diagnose.

Over several days, hot pain in the woman's feet crawled up her legs, trunk, and arms, before erupting in a splitting headache that even frequent doses of pain relief medication couldn't alleviate.

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Testing her blood, her doctors found no sign of parasites, and a CT scan of her head showed no red flags beneath her skull. Yet when medical staff performed a lumbar puncture, they found the patient's cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which bathes the brain and spinal cord, contained markers of eosinophilic meningitis – a rare form of brain infection that can be caused by parasites.

Based on the patient's recent travel and her symptoms, her doctors agreed she met the criteria for a presumptive diagnosis of angiostrongyliasis.

This insidious disease is also known as rat lungworm because it is caused by the parasite Angiostrongylus cantonensis, which starts its life cycle in the lungs of a rodent before spreading to slugs and snails.

Most people aren't eating uncooked slugs or snails, but if we bite into a fresh, leafy vegetable that one of these creatures has slimed, the parasite's larvae can end up in our bodies without us knowing it.

That's one of the reasons why washing green produce is so important when staying in parts of the world where rat lungworm spreads, including Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Australia. Undercooked crab or prawns can also be a vector, as these animals eat slugs and snails, too.
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[Maryn]

Yikes!

 

[RedRajah]

*been plagued by a weird burning sensation in my left foot for a couple of years now*
*immediately gets paranoid even though I've never visited ANY of the areas rat lungworm is at*

 

[CMBright]

*been plagued by a weird burning sensation in my left foot for a couple of years now*
*immediately gets paranoid even though I've never visited ANY of the areas rat lungworm is at*

Get tested for neuropathy. Not a doctor, but my bet would be some form of neuropathy.

 

[Maryn]

Get tested for neuropathy. Not a doctor, but my bet would be some form of neuropathy.

That or Morton's neuroma, depending on exact location of the burning sensation.

Come on, it's been a couple years. See your doctor, okay?

 

[RedRajah]

Funny/sad thing is, I did. Back in December and she just sent me to a podiatrist. Who, even after I brought up possible nerve damage (me, I was unaware of neuropathy), didn't really do anything. :-/

 

[Maryn]

Sheesh. But pain for two years... I'd certainly consider a different doctor and a fresh start.

I don't give medical advice, of course, and wouldn't ask anyone to share their medical history anyway, but do you have any other health stuff going on that might result in sensory neuropathy? Just to ask yourself in private, not announce here.

In here we'll just announce that it's probably not a brain worm.

 

[RedRajah]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's not that particular brainworm

 

[halloweeencat]

This topic is a case of NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE for me.

 

[Brigid Barry]

There's an entire show called Monsters Inside of Me that 90% of the time was some kind of parasite and at least half of that was from unwashed leafy greens. Almost all was from slugs and snails.

There was an episode about mold, one about a bristle from a grill brush, and one about a button battery, but we were mostly there for the slug lettuce parasites.

 

[Bitterboots]

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Oh, man. That sadly brings up a memory of a story I read a few years ago about a boy who died from this after eating a snail as a dare. Very scary that you can get it from eating salad on a holiday.