Well between my sister, Stephanie and I think we went to close to 30 stores trying to get our hands on a New York Times. I finally was told the magazine actually comes inside the news paper and that you can find the news paper in the boxes outside the stores. Anyway I never did get my hands on one but Stephanie says she bought some for us. We are also going to call Dr Lisa Sanders (the Author of our article) and see if she could send us some. I think I'm going to call some places tomorrow to see if we can get our hands on a couple more. I didn't realize how spread out they are. I thought it was kind of like the Post Dispatch everyone sold them. Anyway it is a GREAT informational piece! Thank you so much Dr. Sanders for helping us get our word out!
Love, Tammy
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
more and more cases
I have had 3 more cases emailed to me this week!! AND did you hear!!?!!? One of Dr Phil's young interns had strep throat and then passed away 1 week later. Kinda of interesting huh! Well I emailed the show 3 times letting them know about Justin and our website and that I heard of the intern that passed and thought maybe he had Lemierre's, but no word back. Justin from ID his mother said they had 5 cases of Lemierre's pop up in the last 6 months!!! They did a news paper interview and gave them our website info for people to go to to learn more about Lemierre's!!! If you get a chance to do any interviews or talk with any people that can get our info out as well please do so. I have soo many ideas running through my head on ways to bring about awareness! I would love to just start contacting all the major city's news papers and talk to them all about doing an article.. Don't forget the New York Times Magazine comes out Sept 14th!!! Also Justin's birthday is Sept 28th in 3 Sundays please, please, please release a balloon to him at 5:00 that evening and wish him a happy 18th birthday! Take pictures and send them to me if you could. It doesn't matter if you live in CA, ID, WI, Canada, Mexico we would love to see everyone that did this for us so take pictures and email them to me @ sunflwz2@yahoo.com The 2 colors we are using to promote everything we do is Green and Blue.
Thank you to everyone that emails me their stories about their Lemierre's battle!
Thank you to everyone that emails me their stories about their Lemierre's battle!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
New pictures & Justin's Birthday
My mom and I added some new pictures to the site during the last week. If anyone has pictures of Justin they would like us to possibly post or would just like to share with my family and I please email them to me. sunflwz2@yahoo.com
Justin's 18th birthday is Sunday Sept 28. My mom would love for everyone to release a balloon on that day in honer of Justin. It doesn't matter where you are CA, FL, CO, Canada, Mexico anywhere if you would like to release a balloon for Justin we would appreciate it. I am going to make up little tags to put on the string of the balloon. You all can copy and paste it onto a note pad or word document and print it out then attach it to the balloon and let them go 5:00 pm your time Sunday Sept 28th. Take pictures if you can and send them to me. We can post them here and let everyone know what part of the country or world you are in. Anyone in St. Louis can come to my mom's and let their balloon off with us if you like. If not you can let them off at your house or park or anywhere you chose! I will post more about this as we get closer to the date. ;0) OH and don't forget Sept 14th pick up a New York Times magazine and check out the article about Lemierre's! It's Justin's story but I don't think they are going to give out his name!
Thank you very much!!!
Luv,
Tammy
Justin's 18th birthday is Sunday Sept 28. My mom would love for everyone to release a balloon on that day in honer of Justin. It doesn't matter where you are CA, FL, CO, Canada, Mexico anywhere if you would like to release a balloon for Justin we would appreciate it. I am going to make up little tags to put on the string of the balloon. You all can copy and paste it onto a note pad or word document and print it out then attach it to the balloon and let them go 5:00 pm your time Sunday Sept 28th. Take pictures if you can and send them to me. We can post them here and let everyone know what part of the country or world you are in. Anyone in St. Louis can come to my mom's and let their balloon off with us if you like. If not you can let them off at your house or park or anywhere you chose! I will post more about this as we get closer to the date. ;0) OH and don't forget Sept 14th pick up a New York Times magazine and check out the article about Lemierre's! It's Justin's story but I don't think they are going to give out his name!
Thank you very much!!!
Luv,
Tammy
Friday, August 22, 2008
Lots of Hits
We have had lots and lots of new people to our website in the last 3 days!!! Over 500 just in the last 3 days!!! We have had over 2,000 in 2 months!
We decided on a name for our nonprofit, Justin E. Rodgers Foundation for Lemierre's Awareness!!!! Our lawyer is working on all the paperwork now.
I have had 4 cases of Lemierre's emailed to me this week that have all occurred over the summer!!! The emails just keep coming from people who have been effected by this disease. And all the stories sound so much a like. Everyone at the end of their email always asks if there is anything they can do to help. I really appreciate that. The only thing I can say in return to that is request a flyer and maybe put it up around your home town. OR Fwd it in a email to everyone in your address book. That's about all we can do right now is talk about it to people and pass the word around more. If you don't know very much about Lemierre's just take the person you are talking to to our website. Once we get our Nonprofit up and going I will be asking for Volunteer's all over the U.S. and then some. I will actually have a website where you can sign up to volunteer. You don't have to be here in St. Louis to help.
Thank you so much to everyone that has helped us get the word out!!!
luv,
Tammy
We decided on a name for our nonprofit, Justin E. Rodgers Foundation for Lemierre's Awareness!!!! Our lawyer is working on all the paperwork now.
I have had 4 cases of Lemierre's emailed to me this week that have all occurred over the summer!!! The emails just keep coming from people who have been effected by this disease. And all the stories sound so much a like. Everyone at the end of their email always asks if there is anything they can do to help. I really appreciate that. The only thing I can say in return to that is request a flyer and maybe put it up around your home town. OR Fwd it in a email to everyone in your address book. That's about all we can do right now is talk about it to people and pass the word around more. If you don't know very much about Lemierre's just take the person you are talking to to our website. Once we get our Nonprofit up and going I will be asking for Volunteer's all over the U.S. and then some. I will actually have a website where you can sign up to volunteer. You don't have to be here in St. Louis to help.
Thank you so much to everyone that has helped us get the word out!!!
luv,
Tammy
Friday, August 15, 2008
New York Times
We have just found out it will be the Sept 14th issue of the New York Times our story will be in. There will be an article on Justin and his Lemierre's Battle. The Author's name is Lisa Sanders and it looks like she has been writing about Diagnoses for at least 7 + years. I do not think they will name Justin as the patient but the important thing is millions of readers will now be more informed on Lemierre's!!!!
I received a packet of info from the State's Attorney General Office on starting a Nonprofit Organization and I have printed out a bunch of info from the Internet too. So my family and I will get together this weekend and start brain storming. First thing first we need to come up with a name. If anyone has any ideas you can email me. I like having Lemierre's in the name so people know what we are fighting but then again I would love to have Justin's name in there too because he is the reason we are fighting SOOO hard! We have lots of work cut out for us but it will be totally worth it!!! I have looked and looked and have not found anyone trying to bring awareness to this disease through a nonprofit. So that is just what we are going to do. We will have fundraisers and all sorts of things going on to promote the awareness of this disease that hurts many many people and families. I don't want to just target it hurting teens because I have heard of 30 - 40 year olds getting it as well. Look at what Dr. Robert Centor wrote on his website this morning! "Finally we had an epidemiologic study which defined the extent of this disease. I have extrapolated the Danish data to the United States. Assuming the same incidence, I estimate that we have approximately 1000 patients with Lemierre’s yearly and 100 deaths. I would put the confidence range of these estimates at 50% greater or less than this estimate." So everyone sitting back thinking this won't happen to me or my kids will not be effected from this or Dr.'s thinking "nah that's not what my patient has" is not going to fly anymore. This thing is getting bigger and bigger and more and more people are being effected as the months go by. Just a few years ago they were saying 120 cases in 100 years now it is 1,000 in 1 year!! We need to start getting scared and making sure if it does happen we (including our Dr.'s) are well educated and it is take care of right away! That's why I am going to put my heart and soul into these awareness efforts!
If you have never been on Dr. Centor's blog site you should check it out! www.medrants.com
Thank you again and go get the NY Times Sept 14th!
Luv,
Tammy
I received a packet of info from the State's Attorney General Office on starting a Nonprofit Organization and I have printed out a bunch of info from the Internet too. So my family and I will get together this weekend and start brain storming. First thing first we need to come up with a name. If anyone has any ideas you can email me. I like having Lemierre's in the name so people know what we are fighting but then again I would love to have Justin's name in there too because he is the reason we are fighting SOOO hard! We have lots of work cut out for us but it will be totally worth it!!! I have looked and looked and have not found anyone trying to bring awareness to this disease through a nonprofit. So that is just what we are going to do. We will have fundraisers and all sorts of things going on to promote the awareness of this disease that hurts many many people and families. I don't want to just target it hurting teens because I have heard of 30 - 40 year olds getting it as well. Look at what Dr. Robert Centor wrote on his website this morning! "Finally we had an epidemiologic study which defined the extent of this disease. I have extrapolated the Danish data to the United States. Assuming the same incidence, I estimate that we have approximately 1000 patients with Lemierre’s yearly and 100 deaths. I would put the confidence range of these estimates at 50% greater or less than this estimate." So everyone sitting back thinking this won't happen to me or my kids will not be effected from this or Dr.'s thinking "nah that's not what my patient has" is not going to fly anymore. This thing is getting bigger and bigger and more and more people are being effected as the months go by. Just a few years ago they were saying 120 cases in 100 years now it is 1,000 in 1 year!! We need to start getting scared and making sure if it does happen we (including our Dr.'s) are well educated and it is take care of right away! That's why I am going to put my heart and soul into these awareness efforts!
If you have never been on Dr. Centor's blog site you should check it out! www.medrants.com
Thank you again and go get the NY Times Sept 14th!
Luv,
Tammy
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Happy Birthday Jamie!!!
Today is my brother Jamie's birthday! We are actually getting mom and dad to go out with us tonight! I can't wait to show Jamie what I made him! I'll tell you all about it in a couple days. I don't want to ruin the surprise! LOL
We had 102 people at the website yesterday!!!!! Another big day!!!
Keep forwarding those emails and the flyers. I have had a few requests for the flyer so please if you don't receive one contact me and I can send it to you. Sunflwz2@yahoo.com It should be real easy to open it is in a word document, it even has Justin's picture on it!!! So people can put a face with the name!
I've had so many people that I know over hear other people they don't know talking about Justin all this promotion is really working!
Someday we will all be able to make sense of this and we will know exactly what our plan on earth was. When Justin signed my wedding picture he put "I wish you many happy years and I will always be with you." And that was exactly to the day 1 year before he passed away. My little brother was taken from us on my 1 year wedding anniversary but I don't mind sharing that day with him. They are both days I WILL NEVER forget! I will always miss and love him but I know I'll see him again and at that time I will thank him for writing that for me and waiting for me the night he passed away!
We love you Justin!! And I promise you we are going to fight this horrible disease with all of our strength!
luv,
Tammy
We had 102 people at the website yesterday!!!!! Another big day!!!
Keep forwarding those emails and the flyers. I have had a few requests for the flyer so please if you don't receive one contact me and I can send it to you. Sunflwz2@yahoo.com It should be real easy to open it is in a word document, it even has Justin's picture on it!!! So people can put a face with the name!
I've had so many people that I know over hear other people they don't know talking about Justin all this promotion is really working!
Someday we will all be able to make sense of this and we will know exactly what our plan on earth was. When Justin signed my wedding picture he put "I wish you many happy years and I will always be with you." And that was exactly to the day 1 year before he passed away. My little brother was taken from us on my 1 year wedding anniversary but I don't mind sharing that day with him. They are both days I WILL NEVER forget! I will always miss and love him but I know I'll see him again and at that time I will thank him for writing that for me and waiting for me the night he passed away!
We love you Justin!! And I promise you we are going to fight this horrible disease with all of our strength!
luv,
Tammy
Friday, August 8, 2008
WOW!!!
The response from the emails have been amazing to say the least!! We have had over 300 people visit our site in 3 days!!! Usually we have anywhere from 10 - 40 people visit a day, yesterday we had 108!!!! Justin is really becoming famous!!
My family and I would love to hear the progress on the 2 in OH and the one in NC that currently have the disease! If you could please email me, sunflwz2@yahoo.com . I know some don't like to share details but we just want to make sure these teens are ok. I was forwarded a great Power point presentation describing a lot of different things about Lemierre's. It's just amazing. From what I gathered from this presentation is that 10% or more sore throats have this bacteria that causes LS. Its when the people are not given the correct antibiotics when Lemierre's starts to develop. I think there are other ways our children are getting this disease but we just are not made aware of it yet.
Every week I get an email or a comment to this website of another patient that currently has or had Lemierre's in the last couple months. If this keeps up that means I will get at least 52 - 104 cases emailed to me each year. And the old research shows 120 cases in 100 years. Justin's website is PROOF they are WRONG saying 120 in 100 years.
Thank you!
Tammy
My family and I would love to hear the progress on the 2 in OH and the one in NC that currently have the disease! If you could please email me, sunflwz2@yahoo.com . I know some don't like to share details but we just want to make sure these teens are ok. I was forwarded a great Power point presentation describing a lot of different things about Lemierre's. It's just amazing. From what I gathered from this presentation is that 10% or more sore throats have this bacteria that causes LS. Its when the people are not given the correct antibiotics when Lemierre's starts to develop. I think there are other ways our children are getting this disease but we just are not made aware of it yet.
Every week I get an email or a comment to this website of another patient that currently has or had Lemierre's in the last couple months. If this keeps up that means I will get at least 52 - 104 cases emailed to me each year. And the old research shows 120 cases in 100 years. Justin's website is PROOF they are WRONG saying 120 in 100 years.
Thank you!
Tammy
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Flyer
One of my family members created a flyer promoting Justin's website and Lemierre"s awareness. I emailed it to everyone in my address book and put this message in the body of the email.
"Hi there! One of my family members created this flyer to pass around to everyone we know. Please open it up, print it and pass it around to everyone you know. Also forward this email onto everyone in your address book. I promise we can save lives! I have had 25 cases of lemierres emailed to me in the last 3 months and I now know of 4 teenagers that did not survive. All of the ones who have survived have some sort of breathing problem now or other major problems. This disease attacks young healthy adolescence ages 13 - 24. It literally attacks their organs and shuts them down. I had a Dr call me the other day about a case and I really feel like the knowledge Justin's website is provided him has saved his patients life! Please pass this on this is not a chain letter this is not a joke. I will be printing this flyer out and putting it in my children's school and placing it everywhere I can Dr's offices, teacher's lounges, dentist offices everywhere! We will soon be doing News interviews and who knows we may end up on Oprah! ;0)
All I'm asking is you click on forward and add everyone in your address book then click on send! It will maybe take a total of 5 min.. If you don't wanna do it for the lives you could save do it for my little brother who's life was cut way too short at the age of 17! This disease took him away from my mom, dad, my sister, my brother myself and my 3 kids.
Thank you!
Luv,
Tammy"
If you would like me to send you this flyer please send an email to: sunflwz2@yahoo.com
We had 87 hits on this website yesterday and I believe it was due to the emails we all sent and forwarded on. THANK YOU!
"Hi there! One of my family members created this flyer to pass around to everyone we know. Please open it up, print it and pass it around to everyone you know. Also forward this email onto everyone in your address book. I promise we can save lives! I have had 25 cases of lemierres emailed to me in the last 3 months and I now know of 4 teenagers that did not survive. All of the ones who have survived have some sort of breathing problem now or other major problems. This disease attacks young healthy adolescence ages 13 - 24. It literally attacks their organs and shuts them down. I had a Dr call me the other day about a case and I really feel like the knowledge Justin's website is provided him has saved his patients life! Please pass this on this is not a chain letter this is not a joke. I will be printing this flyer out and putting it in my children's school and placing it everywhere I can Dr's offices, teacher's lounges, dentist offices everywhere! We will soon be doing News interviews and who knows we may end up on Oprah! ;0)
All I'm asking is you click on forward and add everyone in your address book then click on send! It will maybe take a total of 5 min.. If you don't wanna do it for the lives you could save do it for my little brother who's life was cut way too short at the age of 17! This disease took him away from my mom, dad, my sister, my brother myself and my 3 kids.
Thank you!
Luv,
Tammy"
If you would like me to send you this flyer please send an email to: sunflwz2@yahoo.com
We had 87 hits on this website yesterday and I believe it was due to the emails we all sent and forwarded on. THANK YOU!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
CDC
As I said yesterday I sent an email to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and I received a reply back today from them here is what they said,
"Thank you for your submission CDC-INFO. Your comments on Lemierre's Syndrome have been forwarded to the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases for their information. They will contact you directly if they have any additional questions."
So hopefully we will hear from them again soon. Here is the email I sent to them yesterday,
" It was brought to my attention the # of cases is rising dramatically for Lemierre's Syndrome. Anyhow, my 17 year old brother just passed away 3 months ago from that same disease. 2 months prior there was a 14 year old girl that passed away at the same hospital where my brother was. In the last 2 months I have received a total of 23 stories emailed to me of Lemierre's syndrome. It is the most horrifying disease I have ever seen. It literally attacks and kills the organs in the body. In my brother’s case it attacked his Lungs, Kidneys and they also found signs of it in his brain. Dr. Robert Centor, rcentor@gmail.com. He also has a website www.medrants.com. He has been studying Lemierre’s and sore throats for a long time now. He may be able to help in some way. I have been working really hard to get the word out about Lemierre’s. I asked a dozen Dr’s here in St. Louis and only a few had every heard of it. We are also getting ready to do a news interview to bring more awareness here in St. Louis. I conducted a study on my website and 95% of people that had visited my site and NEVER heard of it. Everyone says it’s a rare disease but you would not believe all the stories that have been emailed to me just in the past 3 months. All the stories I have received took place in the last 3 years. I do believe it is still rare but I also believe it is making a come back and we have to figure out how to stop it or recognize it faster. My brother fought it for 1 month and he lost his battle May 12, 2008 the day after Mother’s day and my 1 year wedding anniversary. I will not give up until someone will conduct another research on this disease and find out why it is coming back and why some people live and some don’t. The last research that was done on this disease was in the 1980’s in Denmark and they said there have only been 120 cases in 100 years. Which is NO LONGER TRUE; I am now studying and figuring out the ins and outs of starting up a foundation or charity to help fund research for this disease. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you like. Thank you for your time, Tammy Valencia"
Hopefully I have caught some one's attention!!!!! Time will only tell!!!
Luv,
Tammy
"Thank you for your submission CDC-INFO. Your comments on Lemierre's Syndrome have been forwarded to the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases for their information. They will contact you directly if they have any additional questions."
So hopefully we will hear from them again soon. Here is the email I sent to them yesterday,
" It was brought to my attention the # of cases is rising dramatically for Lemierre's Syndrome. Anyhow, my 17 year old brother just passed away 3 months ago from that same disease. 2 months prior there was a 14 year old girl that passed away at the same hospital where my brother was. In the last 2 months I have received a total of 23 stories emailed to me of Lemierre's syndrome. It is the most horrifying disease I have ever seen. It literally attacks and kills the organs in the body. In my brother’s case it attacked his Lungs, Kidneys and they also found signs of it in his brain. Dr. Robert Centor, rcentor@gmail.com. He also has a website www.medrants.com. He has been studying Lemierre’s and sore throats for a long time now. He may be able to help in some way. I have been working really hard to get the word out about Lemierre’s. I asked a dozen Dr’s here in St. Louis and only a few had every heard of it. We are also getting ready to do a news interview to bring more awareness here in St. Louis. I conducted a study on my website and 95% of people that had visited my site and NEVER heard of it. Everyone says it’s a rare disease but you would not believe all the stories that have been emailed to me just in the past 3 months. All the stories I have received took place in the last 3 years. I do believe it is still rare but I also believe it is making a come back and we have to figure out how to stop it or recognize it faster. My brother fought it for 1 month and he lost his battle May 12, 2008 the day after Mother’s day and my 1 year wedding anniversary. I will not give up until someone will conduct another research on this disease and find out why it is coming back and why some people live and some don’t. The last research that was done on this disease was in the 1980’s in Denmark and they said there have only been 120 cases in 100 years. Which is NO LONGER TRUE; I am now studying and figuring out the ins and outs of starting up a foundation or charity to help fund research for this disease. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you like. Thank you for your time, Tammy Valencia"
Hopefully I have caught some one's attention!!!!! Time will only tell!!!
Luv,
Tammy
Friday, July 25, 2008
Researches
I have been asked on numerous occasions if there is any research going into Lemierre's Syndrome or charity or research efforts someone can donate to? I don't know the answer to this question I haven't seen any researching efforts online. I know they did research this back in he 90s in Denmark I believe. If anyone reading this knows of something going on like that please email me or post a comment and let us know.
My mom emailed Kay Quinn to let her know we are ready to do an interview when they are, so it is in the works... I will keep you all updated.
Gordie sent me an email and let me know about his battle with Lemierre's, Thank you Gordie!!! And he said he is working with people in his area getting the word out and learning more about this disease.
Thank you to everyone that is helping us get the word out about this disease! My biggest wish is that someone at one of the University Hospitals in the US will do another study on this disease, there is so much that is unknown about this thing! I'm not sure if its unknown or just not talked about or taught to our Dr's ??? And there are so many people now that have had it or will get it. The last study done said only 120 people have had it in 100 years (that was in the 90) that is so out of date. 5 teenagers (that I have heard of) have had it in the St. Louis area alone in the last 3 years. Justin being one of them. I read online at WrongDiagnosis.com that in order for a disease to be considered rare it has to effect less then 200,000 people. so I guess this disease is still considered rare b/c of that. I found 2 women on that website that had this disease as well.
Well I will never give up on this fight on getting the word out and demanding more research. I post this website as much as I can! I even have it set up as my signature so it goes to everyone that receives an email from me. In California we stayed at Residence Inn and I placed this website as their home page when someone opened up the Internet n their 2 computers they had for customer use. I think we had over 120 hits each day on Sat and Sun when I did that. And I will keep doing little things like that until we learn more!
Thanks for listening and helping me.
luv,
Tammy
My mom emailed Kay Quinn to let her know we are ready to do an interview when they are, so it is in the works... I will keep you all updated.
Gordie sent me an email and let me know about his battle with Lemierre's, Thank you Gordie!!! And he said he is working with people in his area getting the word out and learning more about this disease.
Thank you to everyone that is helping us get the word out about this disease! My biggest wish is that someone at one of the University Hospitals in the US will do another study on this disease, there is so much that is unknown about this thing! I'm not sure if its unknown or just not talked about or taught to our Dr's ??? And there are so many people now that have had it or will get it. The last study done said only 120 people have had it in 100 years (that was in the 90) that is so out of date. 5 teenagers (that I have heard of) have had it in the St. Louis area alone in the last 3 years. Justin being one of them. I read online at WrongDiagnosis.com that in order for a disease to be considered rare it has to effect less then 200,000 people. so I guess this disease is still considered rare b/c of that. I found 2 women on that website that had this disease as well.
Well I will never give up on this fight on getting the word out and demanding more research. I post this website as much as I can! I even have it set up as my signature so it goes to everyone that receives an email from me. In California we stayed at Residence Inn and I placed this website as their home page when someone opened up the Internet n their 2 computers they had for customer use. I think we had over 120 hits each day on Sat and Sun when I did that. And I will keep doing little things like that until we learn more!
Thanks for listening and helping me.
luv,
Tammy
Saturday, July 12, 2008
2 months today
Well we lost Justin 2 months ago today to this horrible nasty disease. We still miss and think of you every day little brother! But all the effort we are doing to bring awareness to this thing is really working! This is the only thing that makes me feel better about this whole situation. Everyone gives us kudos for doing this to help save others but honestly I don't know what I would do if I didn't have this website to help me get through everyday. I still think about everything you went through in the hospital, you are the strongest person I know!! You are our Superman!
All I can say to everyone reading this is please don't ever stop talking about Justin, always let people know what took our son, brother, uncle, nephew, cousin, & friend away from us WAY to early.
I talk about him everyday and tell people every chance I get what took my little brother away from me.
Thank you to everyone!
Love, Tammy
All I can say to everyone reading this is please don't ever stop talking about Justin, always let people know what took our son, brother, uncle, nephew, cousin, & friend away from us WAY to early.
I talk about him everyday and tell people every chance I get what took my little brother away from me.
Thank you to everyone!
Love, Tammy
Thursday, July 3, 2008
What is Lemierre's you ask ......
Lemierre's syndrome (or Lemierre's disease) is a disease usually caused by the bacterium Fusobacterium necrophorum, and occasionally by other members of the genus Fusobacterium (F. nucleatum, F. mortiferum and F. varium etc.) and usually affects young, healthy adults. Lemierre syndrome develops most often after a strep sore throat has created a peritonsillar abscess, a crater filled with pus and bacteria near the tonsils. Deep in the abscess, anaerobic bacteria (microbes that do not require oxygen) like Fusobacterium necrophorum can flourish. The bacteria penetrate from the abscess into the neighboring jugular vein in the neck and there they cause an infected clot (thrombosis) to form, from which bacteria are seeded throughout the body by the bloodstream (bacteremia). Pieces of the infected clot break off and travel to the lungs as emboli blocking branches of the pulmonary artery bringing the heart's blood to the lungs. This causes shortness of breath, chest pain and severe pneumonia. Fusobacteria are normal inhabitants of the oropharyngeal flora. This is a very rare disease with only approximately 160 cases in the last 100 years.SymptomsThe first symptoms are a sore throat, extreme lethargy, fever, and general body weakness, but after a week or two these symptoms are followed by a spiked fever, rigors, swollen cervical lymph nodes and septicemia (infection of the blood) which can cause complications in other parts of the body including abscesses of lung, brain, and other organs, kidney failure and also effects on liver and joints if untreated.TreatmentLemierre's syndrome is easily treated with antibiotics, but because sore throats are most commonly caused by viruses, for which antibiotic treatment is unnecessary, such treatment is not usual in the first phase of the disease. Lemierre's disease proves that, rarely, antibiotics are sometimes needed for 'sore throats'. If a persistent sore throat, with the symptoms are found, physicians are cautioned to screen for Lemierre's syndrome. Fusobacterium necrophorum is generally highly susceptible to Beta-lactam antibiotics, metronidazole, clindamycin and third generation cephalosporins while the other fusobacteria have varying degrees of resistance to beta-lactams and clindamycin. The disease can often be un-treatable, especially if other negative factors occur,i.e. various diseases occurring at the same time, such as; meningitis, pneumonia etc.IncidenceLemierre's syndrome is currently a very rare disease, but was quite common in the early 20th century before the discovery of penicillin. The reduced use of routine antibiotics for sore throats by doctors may have increased the risk of this disease, with 19 cases in 1997 and 34 cases in 1999 reported in the UK. The incidence rate is currently 0.8 cases per million in the general population, leading it to be termed the "forgotten disease". The mortality rate was 90% prior to antibiotic therapy, but is now generally quoted as 15% with proper medical treatment, although one series of cases reported mortality as low as 6.4%
Justin has some great friends!
I was thinking today as I was trying to figure out something to write and it dawned on me I haven't said much about Justin's friends!
Justin really does have some great friends. I wish I would have gotten to know you all while Justin was still here. They have treated us so good through all of this. The night Justin passed away they all did a candle light walk to our house chanting J-Rod & Justin's name! There were so many of them! It was amazing! And some even stopped by the house weeks later just to make sure my mom and dad were OK. Patrick and Stephanie were just there Monday! ;0) At Stephanie's Graduation party last week you all sat around us and told stories and just made us feel right at home! Thank you for everything you have done to make us feel better. I know you all are grieving for him too but the fact that you think about my mom and dad and making them feel better is just amazing! While Justin was in the hospital the boys would come over and cut the grass for my dad with out anyone asking them too! He was soooo lucky to have friends like you! Sometimes I get jealous because I know he is around you all more then me right now. Ha-ahaha! I'm trying to post the song's and the poems you all write for him. I'll have to switch them around and repost new ones and take down old after awhile.
Chrissy, Jamie and my family of 5 are headed to LA tomorrow to hang out with our Aunt Sandy and her family. So all of you that can go check in on mom and dad while we are gone please do... I'll try to post while in LA but my crazy kids might be running too crazy for me to do so.
Brent, thank you for sending me the contacts that you did!! I have emailed them both and we'll see what happens. He sent me contact for the TV show Mystery ER and a NY Magazine writer too. Hopefully something comes of it!
Just in case any of you are wondering I put ZZ Top & Lynard Synard in the music on this page b/c my dad said it was Justin and his favorite. I picked the song about sunglasses b/c Justin loved his white sunglasses! ha-ahaha
I am going to re post the symptoms and the definition of Lemierre's Syndrome so that it is not all the way at the bottom of the page. Everyone please have a great 4th of July and please be careful!!!
Love,
Tammy
Justin really does have some great friends. I wish I would have gotten to know you all while Justin was still here. They have treated us so good through all of this. The night Justin passed away they all did a candle light walk to our house chanting J-Rod & Justin's name! There were so many of them! It was amazing! And some even stopped by the house weeks later just to make sure my mom and dad were OK. Patrick and Stephanie were just there Monday! ;0) At Stephanie's Graduation party last week you all sat around us and told stories and just made us feel right at home! Thank you for everything you have done to make us feel better. I know you all are grieving for him too but the fact that you think about my mom and dad and making them feel better is just amazing! While Justin was in the hospital the boys would come over and cut the grass for my dad with out anyone asking them too! He was soooo lucky to have friends like you! Sometimes I get jealous because I know he is around you all more then me right now. Ha-ahaha! I'm trying to post the song's and the poems you all write for him. I'll have to switch them around and repost new ones and take down old after awhile.
Chrissy, Jamie and my family of 5 are headed to LA tomorrow to hang out with our Aunt Sandy and her family. So all of you that can go check in on mom and dad while we are gone please do... I'll try to post while in LA but my crazy kids might be running too crazy for me to do so.
Brent, thank you for sending me the contacts that you did!! I have emailed them both and we'll see what happens. He sent me contact for the TV show Mystery ER and a NY Magazine writer too. Hopefully something comes of it!
Just in case any of you are wondering I put ZZ Top & Lynard Synard in the music on this page b/c my dad said it was Justin and his favorite. I picked the song about sunglasses b/c Justin loved his white sunglasses! ha-ahaha
I am going to re post the symptoms and the definition of Lemierre's Syndrome so that it is not all the way at the bottom of the page. Everyone please have a great 4th of July and please be careful!!!
Love,
Tammy
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
I'm so happy it's working!
Our awareness efforts are really working! Thank you so much!! We are going to be doing an interview with News Channel 5 as soon as Chrissy, Jamie and I get back from Cali. I have had so many other Lemierre stories emailed to me. One person was from the same High School we all went to. Just wanted to send a big thank you to everyone again for helping us and all your kind words! They mean the world to us! I am having a hard time commenting back to the people that leave comments so if anyone that reads this knows how I can comment back to people that leave us a comment please let me know. You can email me @ Sunflwz2@yahoo.com
Thanks again!
Tammy
Thanks again!
Tammy
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