Woman's Hair Turns to Black Fingernails, Baffling Her Doctors

Shanyna Isom has consulted every possible specialist, including a doctor in the Netherlands, but she still as no idea what is wrong with her.

The 28-year-old beautician and former University of Memphis law student has developed a condition so severe, fingernails grow from the hair follicles all over her body.

"Black scabs were coming out of her skin," said her mother, Kathy Gary. "The nails would grow so long and come out and regrow themselves. They are hard to touch and stick you."

The disease so far has affected not only her skin, but her bones and her vision. Because Isom is unable to walk without a cane, her mother helps her out of bed each day.

Doctors at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, where Isom is being treated, told her family that she is the only person in the world with this unknown condition.

And now she has $500,000 in unpaid medical bills. Isom has state insurance, but it doesn't cover medical care in Maryland. Her mother lost her job as a medical receptionist because she looks after her daughter at home, so savings have dried up.

(Handout/Shanyna Isom)Once a month, mother and daughter travel to Baltimore from Memphis to monitor her treatment.

But now, Isom has put all of her energy into creating the S.A.I. Foundation (so named for her initials) to help others with mystery illnesses.

Bank of America has agreed to take donations at any of their branch offices. Friends have organized fundraisers, and her high school has dedicated a football game to her charity.

Despite her debilitating illness, Isom told ABCNews.com, "I don't know whether to smile or cry. I am very blessed."

On her blog, Pray for Shanyna, she laments: "It has taken all of my hair out and has left my body with scabs all over it, plus I have lost about 200 pounds. Two years ago, I was a healthy woman on my own ... had big dreams and goals that I was following until one day my body completely shut down on me."

Isom was a junior studying criminal justice when the mystery illness first occurred in September 2009, according to WLBT in Memphis, which first reported the story.

She went to an emergency room for an asthma attack and was given a large dose of steroids, which doctors suspected caused an allergic reaction.

After returning home, Isom began itching. Doctors prescribed Benadryl, but it got worse.

"It was uncontrollable and we didn't know what it was," said her mother.

Soon, her legs turned black.

"It looked as if she had been in a house fire and gotten burned," said Gary.

Doctors thought she had eczema or a staph infection and prescribed drugs, but it got worse. Meanwhile, all tests came back negative.

"We could not figure out what was going on," said her mother. "She was just breaking out everywhere. Her body was scabbed all over."

At the same time, Shanyna was losing 10 to 15 pounds a week. A bone marrow biopsy turned up nothing.

It was then her Memphis doctor threw up his hands.

"He said she would be like that for the rest of her life," said Gary. "But I couldn't accept that."

Isom and her family persisted, and in August 2011, Shanyna went to Johns Hopkins.

There, doctors determined that she was producing 12 times the number of skin cells in each hair follicle. Instead of growing hair, the follicles were producing human nails.

Doctors think her skin isn't getting enough oxygen -- she is also lacking sufficient amounts of vitamins A, B, C, D and K, according to her mother.

But with treatment, she is improving.

"Her legs aren't covered in black scabs," said her mother. "They are looking better, and her face just looks like she has a real bad sunburn."

25 Medicines and Still No Cure

Today Isom is on 25 medications, but her insurance only pays for five of them. She is awaiting the results of genetic tests that may give doctors clues to what is wrong.

"The doctors are so caring," said Gary. "It's just amazing how much they have done for her. We really didn't think she was going to make it."

Isom said she slipped into a depression, but now feels uplifted by the support of family and friends.

"I know it's a blessing that I can reach out and touch people's hearts," she said.

She remembers the day at Johns Hopkins when she felt sorry for herself, shuffling through the corridors on a walker.

"I saw a little girl, 4 or 5 years old, and she was walking through the same hall and had the biggest smile on her face," said Isom. "She had braces from [her] hip to her feet and had a walker and held her head up so high. I thought, 'If she can, I can. I had a life. This baby is trying to have a life.' ... I fed off her energy."

Isom said she prayed, "I will never be selfish again."

Gary said their ordeal has been a "nightmare ... to see her whole body shut down."

But she gets her strength from her daughter.

"Shanyna is remarkable," said Gary. "She has been able to hold her head high. I keep telling her we are going to make it, through the grace of God."

Doctors remove spider hiding in woman’s ear canal

Photos of the spider before it was removed from the woman's ear

A woman who went to China's Changsha Central Hospital complaining of itching in the left side of her head was told by doctors that the source of irritation was a spider that had been living inside her ear canal for five days.

Doctors reportedly used a saline solution to flush out the spider in order to avoid having the spider burrow deeper inside the canal or bite her.

The flushing technique was successful and the woman reportedly wept with gratitude after being told the spider was removed. Doctors say they believe the spider entered the woman's home while the home was undergoing renovations, and crawled into her ear while she was sleeping.

A report by CNN states that spiders and other bugs are appearing in greater numbers this summer due to warm weather and drought conditions across the U.S.

"All insects are cold-blooded, so in extreme heat they develop quicker, which results in more generations popping up now compared to previous summers," Jim Fredericks, an entomologist and wildlife ecology expert with the National Pest Management Association, told the network.

Does Sanya Richards-Ross’ long hair slow her down?

Sanya Richards

Slate asked this question earlier in the week and came to the conclusion that the hair shouldn't have an effect:

Still, even the most unruly hair is unlikely to make a major difference. Imagine that you are a 400-meter sprinter who uses 10 percent of your total energy battling air resistance. Imagine, too, that you increased your total surface area by 10 percent (a generous assumption) by letting your hair fly free. Drag and surface area are directly proportional—you can check out the equation—so you would be increasing the force of air resistance by 10 percent by untying your ponytail. [...] You would need to exert 1 percent—10 percent of 10 percent—more effort with your hair down than with your hair up.

Project Runway Recap: A Woman (and a Kooan) on the Go

Elena Slivnyak

In teasing this week's episode on Twitter, Tim Gunn promised "HIGH DRAMA" (yes, in all caps). And when Tim Gunn uses his outdoor voice, you know things are about to get real.

Let's talk about the quitters first. Andrea left in the middle of the night because of last week's runway critique of her and Chrisopher, which she found demeaning. As the designers discuss her reasons for leaving in the workroom, Kooan suddenly announces that he wants to leave, too. The designers' reactions vary — Alicia thinks it's all "kinda lame," Ven says Andrea's decision to leave is a bad example for a teacher to set, Elena announces that "the fashion industry is a shark!" and Christopher tells Kooan he's special and should stay. They all agree that it's unfair for Andrea and Kooan to leave when other designers wanted this opportunity so badly.

Buffi Jashanmal — eliminated

Kooan's departure is easier to take than Andrea's. Maybe it's because he comes off as forgivably naïve. Maybe it's because he seems to have created some sort of interpretive-dance apology video. Or maybe it's because forcing him to stay someplace he doesn't want to be seems like kidnapping an elf from the North Pole. But Andrea claimed she hadn't seen Project Runway and expressed so much surprise at the very predictable unpleasantness of life on the show (long hours, catty fellow designers, critique sessions that don't stop until someone cries). I can't help but blame her for not knowing what she was getting into, so something about her departure feels unduly indignant. One of her tweets asks, "What if everyone was supportive, well rested, and critiqued intelligently?" That sounds nice! But it sure isn't the show she chose to compete on.

But on to the challenge! The designers meet at Michael Kors's flagship store, where they learn that their challenge is NOT to design a look for Michael. Missed opportunity! Instead, Tim and Michael tell them they'll be making a look for "a woman on the go" — something pulled together, versatile, stylish, and comfortable that carries a woman from day to night. Michael tells the designers they'll need to make sure the outfit is true to their own aesthetic, which seems obvious.

Once the designers settle in to work after Kooan's departure, Tim comes into the workroom and says that Raul will be re-joining the competition. Everyone is either happy or indifferent about Raul's return except for Ven, who says all of Raul's work is a mess because he has no point of view.

Sonjia Williams — Winner

As for their designs, Melissa is excited to go back to black (last week's gray was too much for her, I guess) and Dmitry reveals he's doing an entire dress with a single seam. Tim makes an uncharacteristically positive lap around the workroom, although it's not completely clear whether that's because the designs are so strong or because he's desperate to lighten the mood. It's still a little dismal and punctuated by Buffi bickering with Christopher. (Related: I feel like the Runway producers are being very equitable in their division of the Mean Kid edit between Christopher and Gunnar.) And speaking of Christopher, when he sees Fabio's model trying on her much-too-short dress, he gasps, "I can see her fish whistle from here!" Is this really what we're calling it now?

Hayden Panettiere joins the judges along with designer Rachel Roy, who provides a refreshingly specific, detailed critique. The top three are a uniformly strong showing from Christopher, Sonjia, and (at last!) Dmitry, but it's Sonjia's cleverly constructed gray jersey dress that takes it home. I've made no secret of my love for Sonjia, and it's great to see her make good, but these three designs were strong enough for me to think that this could very well be three who'll show at Bryant Park. While the suit Raul made to redeem himself landed him in the bottom three alongside Fabio, it was Buffi who finally went home this week. In her exit, she leaves us with this: "Maybe it's tacky to some people but I do like being unique, and I wouldn't like to dress like anyone else."

Kaduna: Muslims-Christians Unite, As Church Visits Traditional Rulers/Imams, Donates Grains

Photo credit: Daniel Ibrahim, ECWA Church Kaduna

It was a good omen yesterday in the troubled city of Kaduna State as Muslims and Christians embraced one another and reflected on the sour relationship and the need to forge ahead.

The occasion was a visit by the Christians who donated grains and other foodstuff to the Muslims for six mosques in Tudun Nufawa, near Kaduna Polytechnic.

Both sides accused politicians and selfish Nigerians of creating disharmony between them, and of being responsible for the spilling of blood being experienced in Northern Nigeria and other parts of the country. 

According to Daniel Ibrahim, a member of ECWA Church on Lemu Road who was in the Christian delegation to their host community, Reverend Yunusa Sabo Nmadu Jnr. led the visiting delegation, which also included some elders such as Engr. James Bawa Kufana.

Ibrahim who sent pictures and a brief account of the event to SaharaReporters, “We were received by Malam Shuaibu Balarabe, the Sarkin Dutse of Tudun Nufawa. We were many from our Church. Rev Nmadu explained the importance of peace and that it is God in his magnanimity that created the world as it is today. And [that] nobody can change it except if mortals are [accusing] Him of imperfection. He told them that the food stuff are nothing but a symbol of love and peace from Christians.”

The Sarkin Dutse, Malam Shuaibu Balarabe, welcomed the Christians and reiterated that Islam is a religion of peace contrary to the hate campaign, he said is being propagated without reason.

“We are not what is being said, and you know it,” he assured the Christians.  “Have we not lived together peacefully in the past? Why now? Were we not practicing our religions in the said glorious past?”

He further assured the Christians of their safety and described the day as one of the happiest in his life.

The donation from the Christians included bags of sugar, maize, millets and other grains.

It would be recalled that last month, over 50 young Christians visited the Sultan Bello Mosque in the city and broke the Ramadan fast with Muslim youths as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen unity, peace and coexistence between both faiths in the troubled State.

There was also a cooperation accord between both faiths in the city during last year’s election. 

Photo credit: Daniel Ibrahim, ECWA Church Kaduna

Boko Haram: The Beasts of The Earth At Work

Joe-Igbokwe

For more than a year a group of insurgents that call itself Boko Haram have killed more than 1500 Nigerians especially from the Northern part of the country. They have attacked police headquarters, police stations, schools, United Nations, and Churches. They have killed soldiers and some from other Security Agencies.

Till date nobody including Boko Haram can offer any genuine reason why they are shedding innocent blood in Nigeria, killing innocent children, fathers and mothers. Nobody including the Boko Haram murderers can tell the world to justify their attack on even world organizations. Nobody knows what they are bringing on the table to support this blood shed assuming there is a dialogue today.

In a recent attack to Deeper Life Church worshippers in Okene Kogi State, the gunmen told the bewildered worshippers: “WE ARE HERE TO FINISH ALL OF YOU” Survivors said: “they put off the light and started shooting. They were using touch lights to check those who were not dead and then shooting to make sure they were dead”

In Southern Nigeria, we have been burying dead bodies of Youth Corpers, Clergy men, traders, professionals, children, mothers, etc in their hundreds since the insurgent started and it seems the blood thirsty murderers are prepared to kill more in the days to come. Each time they make a successful kill they celebrate it all over the world through social media. The killers are getting bolder and there is this urge to go on. The leaders in the North have lost their followers and they cannot even speak now for fear of their lives. Even IBB who claimed to be a master in the art of violence and the dominator of his environment has developed cold feet and lost his manhood. The Generals in the North who tormented Nigeria for more than 30 years cannot talk now. Even the powerful Emirs in the North have lost their powerful voices. Those who managed to speak including the current Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria says it is poverty that brought about Boko Haram. We agree but can poor people buy bombs and cars? Is there food inside the Churches they are attacking? These guys think we are fools.

Maybe they have forgotten what Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, Kaita and others said when President Jonathan won the 2011 Presidential elections. For those that have forgotten, it was Ciroma and his gang that said that they will make Nigeria ungovernable if Jonathan becomes the president. Ciroma did not stop there. The moment it became obvious that Jonathan is unstoppable he began to arm the youths of the North and the rest now history.

Today, Ciroma’s war has gone full circle. His network of killers has grown beyond his imagination and as I write this he has lost control of his boys. Nobody can now stop the catastrophe and brigandage in the North. The barbarians have in less than one year brought a devastating and colossal damage to the economic and political entity built by the late Alhaji Ahmadu Bello of the blessed memory. They have in less than one year of madness made a mince meat of powerful legacy built by a man of vision, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello. They have systematically taken the North backward by 50 years. By the time this stupidity and madness end the damage will take serious leaders of the North 100years to repair.

The madness is raging on while the elders of the North have lost their voices. Now they are making incursions into South West via Kogi State. If Yoruba people constitute the highest population in Kogi State as it were I think an attack to Kogi State is an attack on the Yoruba nation, and this portends grave danger for Nigeria. Traditional rulers in the South West have risen up to warn that this incursion could be dangerous for the survival of this country. It is not only dangerous encroachment into South West, Nigeria, but an affront to the people of South Nigeria .

It is only a foolish constituency that will think that the South will fold its hand in the face of these provocations. These Boko Haram animals are dragging this country to a civil war but please let somebody tell them that war is no tea party. War does not recognize faces, it does not respect tribes, it does not know Emirs or Obas or Obis or Generals. The truth is that those who think that the South does not have the capacity to put a stop to this incursion are the biggest fools of the 21st century. Those who think they have monopoly of violence miss the point here. Those who ignore the strength of the South do so to their own peril.

When the late General Abacha picked up Chief MKO Abiola in 1994 some people thought he will not survive a day in detention because he loves good life and has good wealth. Chief Abiola survived their onslaught for nearly five years until the idiots decided to stop him with poison. The jokers were proved wrong. Abiola defeated them even in death. Please mess up with the South West and bite your fingers for ever. The history is there! Go back and learn!!

I am not raising alarm but I must warn the people of Southern to begin to put their house in order. I want the South to begin to put structures in place to take on these insurgents. I am warning the people of Southern Nigeria to brace up for these challenges. It will be disastrous to be caught unawares. Leaders of the Southern Nigeria must meet now address the arrogance of a section of the country. The security of the lives and property of our people is being threatened on a daily basis and we need to speak out now. Do not wait further for President Jonathan to act. It is a collective responsibility thing now. The beasts of the earth are seriously at work in Nigeria and they need to be tamed with advanced ideas, advanced method and advanced approach.

Romney May Have No Choice But to Pick Paul Ryan

Romney

Conservative anxiety has stalked Mitt Romney since the outset of his presidential campaign, expressing itself in a series of hopes that a nominee who was not Romney might win, and then, after his nomination became inevitable, as endless caterwauling for Romney himself to act less … Romney-like. Romney’s vice-presidential selection has begun to serve as a stand-in for these demands, and as recently as a week ago, they split between calls for him to pick Paul Ryan and calls for Marco Rubio.

But since then, Romney’s position has steadily eroded, intensifying the conservative panic. And a report by National Review’s Robert Costa that Romney was giving Ryan strong consideration focused all the attention on the dreamy House Budget Committee chairman and unofficial party leader. Suddenly Ryan’s potential nomination has become the sole locus of the conservative movement’s longings.

The reason Ryan had earlier been deemed unlikely was that Romney intended to run a campaign focused entirely on the economy. His reasoning was sound enough. Romney’s status as the challenger during an economic crisis with mass unemployment was a gigantic asset, but it was (aside from his growing Superpac advantage) his only asset. America still hated the Republican Party, hated its Congressional wing, and bitterly opposed the fiscal priorities it championed. Romney understood that he needed to bring together nearly every voter dispirited with the status quo, and not only those also eager to join a crusade to smash the welfare state.

Conservatives had been itching to enlist Romney more openly in just such a crusade, out of the same overweening ideological confidence that drove them to enlist the Republican Congress. And Romney’s campaign plan has begun to look increasingly shaky. Obama has successfully defined him as a self-interested agent of his economic class. Polls have shown that Romney’s perceived advantage in handling the economy, his only advantage, has dwindled to little or nothing. (The latest Fox News poll has Romney’s advantage on the economy dropping from 7 points to 3; in CNN’s poll, just 29 percent agreed that the economy will improve only if Romney wins — this is his entire campaign premise! — while 31 percent said it would improve only if Obama wins.)

The oft-repeated conservative argument for Ryan is that Romney has already endorsed the Ryan plan closely enough to incur its liabilities, so he might as well pick the politician best equipped to defend it. There’s certainly something to this. Ryan gets too little credit for his political skills. He has won consistently in a moderate district. He has managed to build a reputation among the national press corps as a thoughtful, compromise-friendly moderate while hewing to the right wing of his party. The major argument of my profile of Ryan from last spring is that his public persona is a giant scam; but pulling off a scam like that is the mark of a skillful pol.

On the other hand, Ryan’s capacity for national-level wholesale politics has yet to be proven. He has masterfully played the Washington press corps, but it remains largely an inside game. Most Americans have not formed an opinion about him. He has a long record of radical votes and is the functional leader of a wildly unpopular Congressional wing. The one real electoral test of his plan’s political tolerability came in a special election in a Republican district in upstate New York in 2011, in which an underdog Democrat swept to victory by relentlessly pounding Ryan’s plan, and especially its provision to privatize Medicare.

At this point, joining Ryan to the ticket would be a huge gamble. Romney would be tapping into Ryan’s immense political talent, but giving up on his win-by-default strategy that has taken a beating but might look good again if, say, some international disaster craters the recovery between now and November. In any case, the conservative drumbeat for Ryan has grown so overwhelming that it’s no longer even clear that Romney could turn Ryan down for an Incredibly Boring White Guy, even if he wants to. The Republican Party belongs to Ryan.