Baltimore Health Examiner

Mystery Diagnosis - what doctors do for fun

Do you have a secret TV show obsession?  American Idol, maybe?  Or daytime soaps?

I have one.  I'm obsessed with Mystery Diagnosis on the Discovery Health channel.  This fascinating show dramatically tells the story of some poor soul who has baffling symptoms that stump doctor after doctor.  The real patients re-enact the months or years of ER trips, pain, weird rashes, GI problems, fuzzy vision, colored urine and other wacky symptoms.  We hear of the bumbling doctors who missed the real diagnosis and then see the heroic diagnostician who finally solves the mystery. 

I compulsively watch long after I ought to be asleep. 

I check myself against the clueless doctors that are blowing off the patient's secretly serious symptoms.  Would I have missed that?  Wouldn't I have taken the patient more seriously?  Sometimes I compare favorably but, then there are those other times. 

Today I figured out two of the cases!  In my home office, at midnight, I strutted proudly (figuratively, that is, since I was sitting on the couch).  But I missed the one where the guy had tapeworm eggs in his spleen that caused his face and ears to turn purple.

I don't need to feel guilty, right?  I'm not wasting time watching mindless TV.  I'm studying.  I'm improving my medical knowledge.  I'm becoming a better doctor.

Right?

Check it out: http://health.discovery.com/fansites/mystery-diagnosis/mystery-diagnosis.html
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