sick in Yuma

ol Bombero-JC wrote:

TOOBOLD wrote:

SCVJeff wrote:
Having been to the ENT in the past for suspected Valley Fever, I found out that it's not only extremely hard to identify, BUT one of the only labs equipped to identify it is in Bakersfield, California in the San Jouquin Valley. THAT is the valley that this thing apparently got its name from because it's so common up there.

So hopefully he didn't travel thorough there and pick something up.

Yes, the San Joaquin Valley is a hot bed for Valley Fever but so is Arizona. Valley Fever is not contagious, so I don't understand. Valley Fever is a fungus that is found in the soil and when the soil is disturbed by a dust storm, wind or gardening the fungus is inhaled into the lungs. The leading MD for Valley Fever is in Bakersfield, but any lab can run a Cocci Titer. Valley Fever gets really nasty when it disseminates(spreads) in can cause meningitis, can enter the spinal canal and cause fractures. It resembles the flu, but the cough and the fever persist and usually with substantial weight loss.

There is no cure for Valley Fever the fungus remains in the body and requires a lifetime of monitoring the fungus level in the body.

The Phoenix area *is* a hotbed for Valley Fever.
Valley Fever is definitely *NOT* the flu!..:S

Also, this topic has been on the boards before - search the archives.

1. Friend retired from So.Cal. -to- the Phoenix area. Really healthy guy - but Type II diabetic. Came down with VF which went to Pneumonia. Finally cleared his lungs of the pneumonia, but VF is never really cured.

2. Another So. Cal retiree - up in years, never a smoker. Lived near Blythe. As in #1, VF created more problems - which eventually resulted in his demise.

3. Young guy I worked with is currently dealing with his elderly mother's VF "condition" (in Phoenix) which has spread to her brain - requiring surgery. Outcome doesn't look good.

The OP's friend may be in ICU, which would equate to only family as visitors.

If you have any respiratory problems, or a comprised immune system - VF prone areas are *not* a good place to hang out.

~

BTW - BIL lives in the same San Fernando Valley (Granada Hills, CA) house he had during the Northridge E-quake. Close to all the resultant damage (including his neighborhood).
Lots of his neighbors from the same era are still there also.
Nobody had any problems with Valley Fever.
Must be a Santa Clarita ("SCV") thing..;) ~

The Valley Fever syndrome had nothing to do with local EQ damage. The mtns behind his house (Oat Mtn.) rose 15" in the shake, and produced many fissures in the process.. I was up there and saw them. We had a tower foundation split between these cracks and then blown down by said wind. As I mentioned above, there was a Santa Ana wind several days, or a week (can't remember) later that blew all the matter shaken loose into the San Fernando Valley. If you know the area, Santa Clarita is 5 miles north of Oat. and got none of the contamination.

Also, if you are familiar with the area and have ever been through a Santa Ana event, that one produced winds on Oat in excess of 100MPH and created a dust storm 60 miles south into Orange County.. Not as visible as what PHX has had, but the effect is the same. Granada Hills is on the far east end of Oat, and doesn't get anywhere near the dust blows off the ridge that Northridge, and the areas to the south get.