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Her crippling digestive problems were caused by a ‘zebra’ malady
A primary care doctor’s commitment and the patient’s own tenacity helped ferret out the cause of the zebra, medical slang for a rare ailment.
This teenager would sleep for alarming 20-hour stretches
The condition drastically alters her personality and temporarily shuts down her life. The diagnosis brought relief but also uncertainty.
His seizure sparked terrifying fall that uncovered long-sought answer
The biggest change since surgery has been the absence of fear, which had come to dominate the business executive’s life.
‘This is really weird. Who wakes up and their hand doesn’t work?’
As he underwent nerve surgery to solve the strange ailment, his doctors had to jettison their plans when they found something unexpected.
A tenacious student uncovered the root of an onslaught of broken bones
He spent several weeks digging into his medical records and scrolling through scientific websites before hitting pay dirt.
She was ambushed by searing leg pain that struck without warning
In her search for relief, the woman remembers feeling a creeping sense of desperation about her unrelenting pain and the absence of an explanation.
This woman’s desperate persistence helped spark her lucky break
Her memory was failing, she couldn’t walk without a cane and felt increasingly helpless.
Five simple steps to avoid becoming a medical mystery
There are ways to avoid being trapped by a condition that doctors can’t understand.
Despite a ‘bucketload’ of drugs, his blood pressure was perilously high
His doctors told him again and again he had essential hypertension — high blood pressure with no underlying cause. But it did have a cause.
A family suffered weeks of dizziness and nausea. A doctor’s hunch uncovered the cause.
They would start to feel better but their symptoms always returned.
