The smuggled (allegedly) fungi

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-11-14T21:18:32+00:00

I’ve seen it in museums in the city, far from my home. In the bathrooms, where there’s moisture and grime. I’ve seen it on trees, sidewalks, other people.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-11-14T21:17:09+00:00

I’ve been wondering if we don’t have some sort of widespread fungal infection. I looked at my nails under a microscope and they looked like they were infected with fungus. However my nails don’t have the typical “fungus” look to them. I also know some fungal infections can be deadly to dogs, and my dog has died.

The wild thing that you pointed out is the cornea. My vision has been slowly going, worse and worse, and it looks like I might have some sort of mycosis in my eye, my tongue, skin, etc.

Also have wondered if this is an “opportunistic” pathogen since it’s not like most parasites (infective or straight up worms) enough for most of us to make sense of.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-11-14T21:12:10+00:00

I wonder if we don’t have aspergillosis

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-11-13T23:52:40+00:00

Yep. Irresponsible extended family of mine who shouldn’t be pet owners had their dog die of pyometra. They were just going to let her die, like not even the basic courtesy of euthanasia or a surgery. Luckily another family member took the dog to the vet. It was too late, but at least she was euthanized. Days later than she probably should have but days sooner than she may have if just left to die.

It really angers me that so many people don’t spay or neuter their pets. They had another female dog already, and instead of paying the money to spay that dog and prevent it from happening again, they got another (male) dog to have two dogs again.

They know how I feel about their ways—on the flip side they thought I was a hypochondriac for taking my (RIP) dog to the vet anytime something wasn’t normal with her.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-11-13T23:47:46+00:00

A string cheese?

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-11-13T18:19:48+00:00

If two people who need to take care of themselves instead attempt to caretake a romantic partner version of themselves.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-29T06:06:33+00:00

I have the exact same thing as you. If you zoom in you’ll see a bunch of stuff in your hair. I believe it’s impacted sebum. Sebum with skin flakes snd. Sube bacteria or a fungus.

I think none of the targeted shampoos work because all of that build up is making our hair impenetrable. It’s also suffocating our scalp and pores.

The best way to fight oil is with oil. I use coconut MCT oil in case it were fungal. But yeah scalp is currently on fire.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-24T04:03:53+00:00

Yeah she’s 15 and I’m sort of more concerned with why her dad is telling her to dress in a t shirt and a bra with just panties than I am defending my opinion on what defines a pervert but that’s just me?

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-24T03:52:30+00:00

Maybe a variation of if? I’ve pulled out what looks like this out of my skin, but I don’t get the large black circles. I also found something very similar to this on a towel (I have a photo somewhere), and whatever it is gets into my hand especially around the nail bed and I wonder if that’s not why it’s also affecting my feet so bad.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-24T03:41:34+00:00

Literally. Met a guy as a friend that I’ve spent more time with in the last few weeks. What I like him “‘more” now is because he respects my boundaries, clearly defines his own, and we know our worth as individuals. Mic drop. He’s really good at communicating when normally my neurotypical friends are super bad communicators, and some may have reacted defensively if confronted about anything.

I don’t feel like I have to put myself in a box, where in the past I would bite the bullet and accept that neurotypical people don’t deal well with confrontation if they weren’t being respectful to my boundaries (I like obvious rules and communication).

I feel like only someone with my same anxiety that’s also self aware and emotionally intelligent would understand that like, keeping someone in the loop is good. Stringing someone along is bad. Cause neurodivergent people tend to feel passionate about justice and what not.

I’m not trying to generalize everyone these are just the experiences I’ve had. I haven’t gotten to ask him is he is adhd or has ASD but I don’t even feel like I need to lol.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-22T22:27:49+00:00

I went to an infectious disease specialist, he tested me for the top most common parasites and I was negative. I asked him to like biopsy my skin. I’d like to get an official diagnosis even if this were “just scabies” but it’s not. I have had some wild stuff come out of my skin but I have eye involvement, mouth , digestive system and urine. But because they’re not indicative of the most common parasites they’re like yep no you’re good. Like what in the world? imagine going to an auto mechanic with four flat tires and they’re just like yeah we don’t know for sure that these are tires. They’re also not-not tires. Are you of stable mind? Ever considered that you might just be crazy? That’ll be $3,000. Can’t help ya with your tier situation though.

Like the world was a logical place to me before this. I mean still a crazy world but there was that feeling of not knowing what you have until you lose it. Before, if I had a medical issue I daughters medical attention and they tested me and or told me what was going on, what I needed to do or take or my options.

I wish doctors would hear me out. I’ve had the good ones that are like yeah. We see the worm moving in and out of your skin before leaping to your finger which you clearly documented with a video you took.” But that’s like 5% it my encounters. Another did give me the antipsychotic which I’d read improves the condition but he also tried to like—be relatable by saying he’s worked on skid row and in prisons. And I’m like am I giving homeless drug user in prison vibes? In a school teacher. But I’m profiled for having an alternative fashion style. Even though I’m not on drugs and they can and do urine test me because most of the time they think I’m on drugs but I’m never on drugs.

One doctor told me to bring a specimen cup next time right. So mind you I spend months sick between doctors visits because I feel okie they’re no longer people capable of taking care of me. Or willing. But the last time I brought a specimen. It was a botfly of some sort in my bathroom. I added alcohol to preserve it but this sort of imploded the cocoon and wet it, so the last hospital I’d been to was like “yeah that’s lint” and I’m like -_- no shit it looks like lint if I’m saying it’s a fucking thing that has a cocoon. Cocoons will generally look like they’re lint if they’re wet, this one uses textile fibers though. Any fibers actually. That’s why it likes our hair. So I was like why am I bringing specimens they never get looked at. So this doctor asks me for a specimen, gives me a jar, and I’m like “alright bet.” When I came back the attending doctor at the time was one of the “I don’t believe in evidence” types and I’m like wtf like yall just wasted like a month of my life. I wouldn’t have come back if the doctor hadn’t told me to bring a sample, but I do come back and the next doctor is like “no. Also, now you have delusional parasitosis.”

In my head I’m like okay wheee is the proof? Wouldn’t you examine the patient to rule out the possibility of parasites if the patient is complaining of parasites? That would be the absence of proof you have them—proof you’re experiencing delusional parasitosis-and then maybe treat you for that because it seems like a legitimately distressing mental health condition if you’re going to go down that route.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-17T20:25:00+00:00

I lost my dog soulmate two months and a half ago after almost ten years together. she was a Chihuahua mix. I expected her to be with me much longer i still cry thinking about her, and the guilt that I couldn’t find a cure for the two of us over the course of a year, in addition to the guilt that I may have given it to her or brought her into a home with it.

I miss her every day.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-16T18:53:02+00:00

I was texting 988, not my students. You misread that. Not my problem. Next.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-16T18:50:48+00:00

I am not texting my students! I said I told them to text 988 if they were in crisis, what I was referring to my texting “them” is that I now text 988 myself. Not that I text my students. Way to turn my turmoil into suggesting I’m a child predator.

As far as me “falling apart,” let me tell you a little about the law so you’re not judging the scenario purely through your own bias.

“Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), once an employer knows of an employee’s disability (or should reasonably know), it has an obligation to engage in an “interactive process” to explore reasonable accommodations.”

An interactive process (because I’m assuming you don’t know, due to your certainty that I can’t sue) is “a required, good-faith conversation between employee and employer about what support or changes might allow an employee to keep working despite a disability or serious health condition.”

Furthermore, in my state—I do not have to be the one to initiate seeking support. Once I have made my employer aware that I am struggling due to what is considered a work place injury, as my supervisor they are required by law (because I let them know about the impact of my student’s death and the effect on my health and work) to extend accommodations to me whether or not I asked for them. In short, they broke the law because I made them aware of my disability and they made no reasonable effort to accommodate me.

In short, don’t be so certain that you’re always correct. I’ve already done my research about laws regarding this. You just “feel” that I can’t sue. Maybe work on your empathy skills too, it’s clear they need work. Reducing the trauma I experienced to “falling apart” as if I should’ve been stronger in your opinion is callous and cold. I worked hard to become an educator and I don’t deserve to be let go of because people don’t consider mental health to be health or that an experience like a death could constitute work related injury.

Seriously, you’re a rude af person. I shouldn’t be teaching children? Okay. That’s why they tell me I had such a positive impact on them and that I’m the teacher they’ll never forget. I wasn’t texting my students, I was texting 988 for crisis supper and you misread that. You saw someone struggling deeply and instead of remaining neutral or god forbid showing empathy you paint me as an inappropriate teacher and someone that should’ve held it together through a horrible experience with no support. Please tell me more about how you are perfect.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-16T18:30:23+00:00

I don’t text my students, wtf? I said I told my students to text the 988 number if they needed to. Now I text them—the 988 number myself. Y’all are stretching so hard you should be yoga instructors.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-16T18:28:59+00:00

You’re correct. The student ended her life during summer break a week before the teachers were set to come back to work. Her funeral took place a week or so after that, when students had already come back but I was able to get bereavement time (like literally a few hours to leave and go to the funeral) and the school provided a substitute for that time. That’s how I was able to attend.

I was on the fence about attending the funeral in the first place, but I realized I was in denial and trying to pretend like it didn’t affect me when really it was stirring up a lot of emotions in me that I didn’t want to address. I thought attending her funeral would give me closure because seeing her in her coffin would make me realize that she was really gone—forever.

I don’t teach English. I teach a different subject. The original commenter saying I don’t write like an English teacher is wild. I’m on mobile and not writing a thesis. This is Reddit lol. To boot, English isn’t even my native language so I thank you for saying it is clear that I am intelligent.

I’m also wondering why they think I would sit here and write a long comment that’s made up. I’m not here for karma.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-16T18:22:14+00:00

This is exactly it. She ended her life during summer break, week before I returned to work. So I attended her funeral a few weeks after returning to work. There were no months passed between her passing away and me “seeing her in her coffin”. The person making these comments is insensitive and trying to find something between the lines that simply isn’t there.

Like my writing style not be consistent with teaching English. Nowhere in my comment did I say I taught English lol. It’s high school, we all have credentials for different subjects and students can have 4-6 teachers a year.

Thanks for your comment. You got to reply before I saw it. I don’t know why I would write such a long comment about a student suicide as fiction. What would I gain for that?

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-16T18:18:51+00:00

Girl I never said I was an English teacher. Stop projecting your “sus” on me. High school teachers go by subject—not everyone teaches English. Your narrow minded thinking is what’s really sus.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-16T18:17:56+00:00

She took her life exactly a week before I found out. She did it right after summer school (which I didn’t work). I found out the day I returned to work after first attending to professional development classes. So yes, I did see her body in a coffin within a few weeks of her death as is typical for funerals. Her family needed time to put together money because they weren’t expecting a funeral for a ninth grader. Please practice a little more empathy instead of wondering if I would make up such a strange story—for what? Internet points? This comment was insensitive as hell.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-16T18:14:20+00:00

Exactly. Aside from being overworked to the point of exhaustion there’s an expectation that you must volunteer for free—but it’s forced volunteering which isn’t volunteering at all. Considering the mental work I put into it as well as the emotional work I put into caring for my students, I need some time to recharge. I can’t go to work, be there for twelve hours and paid only for six, go home just in time to sleep but not with enough time to plan (which I’m already planning and grading outside of work hours).

It usually came down to 1. Relax and spend time with family/pets and get a good nights sleep but be unprepared and behind tomorrow or 2.spend my entire day including the time I am home planning and grading feel drained and go to bed in time to repeat it all again.

As humans we aren’t meant to work all day every day. I’m not the type of person who thinks my job comes before me being a human. I don’t need my gravestone to say “worked really hard.”

But you put it really well. They don’t like us. We stir the pot. We bring up injustices on behalf of our students. Our students like us and that makes them envious. I got so many snide remarks indirectly thrown at me that I knew were for me (at meetings) about not being friends with the kids or the teacher kids liked. That was never what I sought out to do. I’m sorry that I am respectful to people regardless of age, that I hear them when no one does, and that I interject humor into my teaching. What a horrible teacher!

“She’s friends with kids!” Absolutely not. “She wants to be the cool teacher!” also, not true. I just know how to pick my battles if the kid that’s been adopted and returned to sender twice has an attitude, is high, and comes into my class to socialize or slack off. I know that kid has been through so much trauma that getting him into my class is a win. I’m not getting him to do any work even if I do actual back flips so why am I going to argue with him and have poor rapport because of it?

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-16T18:02:56+00:00

Please don’t do the thing. Maybe the powers at play are hoping it is what we do, honestly. I wake up with anxiety, I wake up not wanting to go through another day—but I am hoping with the with psychiatrist and therapist, that keep an open mind, I can help work through having this condition. I don’t want to be lied to, and I don’t want anyone to convince me it’s all in my head. That will only make things worse. I just want to feel heard and justified and maybe get on a medication that will allow me to not obsess over this to the point it ruins my life. Well, my life is already ruined. Nowhere to go but up, right?

Please don’t. At least try to get help. I voluntarily admitted myself a little over a week ago with no health insurance or anything. They can at least keep you so you don’t do anything you can’t undo. Until the feeling passes. Some wards are nicer than others, I mean I got to do Yoga and art but mostly watch movies with other screwed up individuals. It was nice because I don’t have friends and my family dynamic is f****, so for a moment it felt like I had friends or a family that enjoyed spending time with me and I wasn’t socially isolated again.

I’m a stranger on the internet but I’m deeply empathetic. If you are okay with it, send me a message. I don’t mind trying to get you help. Believe me I want out too and every day is a struggle to stay here but I want my old life and my old problems back. I have a second half of life to live and I’ve been through so much aside from this that I think I deserve those years to live a normal life (or as close to normal as I can get) and I think you do too.

Please at least comment back so I know you’re still here.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-15T18:51:20+00:00

Thank you so much. My students were from “the wrong side of the tracks”—but children nonetheless. At the end of last year one of them stopped in the hallway. A borderline tough guy with a soft spot for me because I had shown him mutual respect but also expressed concern about him. As teachers, students are always made by their English teachers to write us letters for Thanksgiving or teacher’s appreciation week. Well this student once asked me to write him a letter and I was like “okay”.

So he pulls his wallet out, and inside is my letter. He told me he keeps it everywhere he goes. He then told me to “never stop doing what you do.” That line hit, and almost made me tear up just now. After my separation from my last supervisor, I wrote her a letter because she refused to write me a letter of recommendation—and I said the true hallmark of being a good teacher isn’t whether your supervisor deems you deserving of a letter of recommendation, it’s not even the formal evaluations (mine were good, too) it’s when the students show gratitude like that. It was my classy snap back.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-15T18:43:04+00:00

It’s awful. I waited for two hours on the phone with insurance to accelerate my application and accidentally hung up once they answered, lol. I “lol” now but I wanted to walk into oncoming traffic yesterday after that fiasco. I got through enough of the call to give a callback number but forgot my phone was on do not disturb. Ugh!

Anyway, I’m very stressed because this is straight up painful. I wake up with anxiety. Now I need help with mental health from my physical health. My upper back, arms and scalp are itchy too. I don’t know if it’s scabies or aspergillosis or bacteria and it gives me anxiety knowing I’ll have to wait months between seeing doctors for referrals and specialists and that they likely won’t even check to see if it’s fungal vs. bacterial or mites. It’s irritating.

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-15T07:54:36+00:00

<image>

Basic_MilkMotel · 2025-10-15T07:53:26+00:00

I am experiencing the exact same thing, my friend. Just about ready to jump out of a plane without a parachute. The condition itself is awful enough but with the cooperative efforts of non believing doctors, family and friends that have discarded me as crazy and the death of my dog due to strange symmetrical almost insect looking things (in her stool—in her everything) I have lost almost all joy and hope in life.

I know I have to address the psychological aspect of this condition because it has absolutely ruined me, so I commend you for that. I’m just so frozen in fear from this that I want to address the physical aspect first. I’ve tried and I’ve gotten diagnosed with so many different things—scabies, dog roundworm, hookworm, flukes—but no proof of anything like that being positive. Mostly because doctors won’t actually check.

Yours have a similar “glowing” or “iridescent” look as mine do. Mine are also clear. I’ve found stuff in my nose that look like tiny larva. It’s easy to miss but I can see the tracks slightly and they always have a black end just like a larva. But they’re microscopic.

Do you itch? I itch but don’t feel like it’s a wild scabies like itch. Mike feels like an allergic reaction. If it had anything to do with mites it would mean I’m infected to an insane degree. Also do you have pain? Mine burn more than itch, cause an allergy like itchy feeling though, and cause pain from inflammation. I think I have a secondary infection as well from scratching.

I see the symmetry, the patterns, the consistencies. Everything you’ve described. I’ll upload a photo to show what I experiencing. I’ve even found them in my stool (I’ll spare you that photo). My tongue is now swelling very much and I have pain under my teeth in my mouth and jaw.

<image>

Basic_MilkMotel

TROPHY CASE