1984 – Bartley is 22years old. He is my BIG BROTHER.
He is a junior butcher at a national grocer. He has a mild outbreak of scaly, cracked, and peeling skin on his hands. It is a painful period that lasts for 3months. During this skin outbreak he does not seek medical advice and keeps working as a butcher with hands gloved.
His diet is heavy in red meat and pasta. He drinks socially and uses recreational drugs on a routine social basis. He does not take over the counter medication regularly and is sensitive to coffee, black tea and sugary foods though he indulges regularly in chocolate bars.
1994 – Bartley is 32years old.
HE is employed as a trained and licensed butcher. At the time his job description is to manually lift, haul, and hook all meat stock then manually butchering the meat and maintaining a pristine environment. He travels routinely between the meat freezer and the customer counter. He also manages staff and the entire meat department. Bart’s hands are in direct contact to the meat, knives, cash, meat wrapping paper, and dozens of hand washes every day. He has his first hand outbreak in 1994.
Both his hands and his feet swell with 6-8cm in diameter blisters.
These are filled with bright green puss.
The infection rapidly progressed over 4 days until hospitalization. The blisters were not punctured
But left to see how they would progress or regress on their own. Discontent with the situation
Bart pricked all the blistered and let them weep onto the bedding. The contents were bright
green and had a fowl odor. The skin under the blisters was fresh and tender and unable to
with stand pressure for several days. During the green blister outbreak all the toe nails and
finger nails fell out. His hands and feet had had to be protected as the new set of toe and finger
nails re-grew.
The patient discharged himself and no further follow-up ensued.
1994 – 2006 – Bart’s hands and feet are dry but not scaly. He has mild outbreaks of cracking, peeling, skin sores. He improves mildly but maintains a painful, dry skin on hands, feet, knees and elbows. His scalp, upper and lower torso are not affected. During this time he exhausted all medical treatments including:
- Dermatologists
- Infectious Disease Specialists
- Neurologists
- Topical Medicated moisturizers
- Oral anti-fungals
- Topical corticosteroid creams
- Topical anti-fungal creams
Bart’s diet has shifted somewhat. He is sensitive to food additives and enjoys home cooking. He prepares most of his meals himself often preparing soups and sauces in advance then freezing several batch