Teen diagnoses her own disease in science class

She must have been in excruciating pain. I've I were her, I would have broken the slide after they took their first look, so they'd have to look for it again or I'd sue. Then I would keep finding it, just to break the slides over and over to frustrate and confuse them.

Seriously. Kudos to that girl.

Wow, good for her. I have two friends with Crohn's Disease who were lucky enough to be diagnosed early. I can't imagine what it must've been like to live until 17 with the symptoms and have no answer.

Way to go! Aren't doctors supposed to save our lives? Protect us from disease? I diagnosed my adrenal fatigue after 12 years of malpractice because of a pathology class. It seems doctors need to make some changes. Pushing them to exhaustion and expecting real healthcare seems to be counter-productive. But then again my issue was because they convieniently forgot about the glands and didn't follow protocal. I think doctors are so busy they are quick to judgement because they have no real time to think and process the information they are given and they are led to believe the pharma companies will lead them to their salvation ie paying off school loans and putting them in a mansion so they become 2nd hand pharmacists instead of healers.

I think she needs a new doctor.

Remarkable though that she found this herself.

Physician Heal Thyself

To know you are sick and know no one can help and then find out what it is is a relief, and to do so yourself is wonderful. It was nice that her doctor/pathologist let her use the slides. Most health care workers are into furthering education.
What's completes this story is she's written a book of her situaton which can help kids with the disease.
Now that's fantastic.
Way to go, Terry!
Thanks, Delia, for this story!

I agree with chasingame or at the very least whoever paid the bills should get every single cent back for incompetent "medical specialists."

Its great that she found out about it on her own and had that biomedical class, which I never had in high school.
Can't believe her doctor didn't catch it, with all the 8 years of schooling, must be hella embarassed. Always get a second opinion. Anyways, she needs to get her money back ASAP. Our healthcare system is a hot mess and we are the victims.

-And how the hell did she get a slide of her own stomach tissue?

Excellent story. Although this girl discovered she has a serious disease the story is also happy one. First, she now solved her health problem mystery and can get treatment. Second, she must feel proud of herself and encouraged to proceed in her studies and maybe become a great doctor who one day may find a cure for Crohn's Disease. This story also incouraging everyone to be their own doctor in a way. We need to do our own research and never undermind ourselves. The sad statistics is that doctor spends in average 1 minute listening to the patient. I wonder what do they think about the rest of the time during the consultation we are paing for?

To "02" and others who are saying that this is the fault of "doctors who don't care", and "the insurance companies", you don't know what you're talking about.

There are some doctors who are careless or even callous in their care, but they are NOT that common. But others may miss a diagnosis, which is why is it wise to seek multiple opinions. If you didn't know that before, you do now.

You can and should also do your own research. If you have a high-school diploma and two working braincells you should be able to find a website such as wrongdiagnosis.com and check your symptoms, then see if you can help a doctor get close.

Read carefully what the article says:
"Crohn's disease is often misdiagnosed or diagnosed very late, says Dr. Corey Siegel, director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire."

It is EASY to misdiagnose the disease. If you think you're so flipping smart, study medicine and try to be perfect.

As for COST, let me set you straight.
A Doctor studies for an additional 12 years AFTER highschool, and usually has about 200,000 to 300,000 in debts. Once they start their practice, they often work a minimum of 60 to 80 hours per week.

You say, "yeah, but they earn a lot of money". Not necessarily. Between 30% and 45% of their money goes to taxes. Another 30% goes to malpractice insurance, because every loser out there who has even the slightest disagreement about his diagnosis gets a parachute lawyer on the case.

Doctors who NEVER get sued STILL pay high premiums to cover the ones that get sued multiple times.

So let's say the doctor earned $300,000, he probably only brought home around $100,000, and studied 12 years to get to that point PLUS he worked another 60+ hours per week.

Socialized medicine will NOT fix this problem.

In fact, the plan promoted by Obama, is being criticized by both major Medical associations because it will have serious damaging effects on healthcare. The AMA came out yesterday with their analysis.

Now, for the young girl with Chrones disease:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124389153780873939.html

The medical miracles we've come to expect over the past twenty years may come to an end very soon. Socialized medicine will KILL the innovation that could give us cures for Alzheimer's, Cancers, Aids, and yes, even Chrone's disease.

Did you know a pharma company has to invest nearly 1 BILLION to get ONE drug through the FDA approval process? And that does NOT include what it costs to get it past the Medicare approval process. And then, trial lawyers cost the industry $350 BILLION per year, much of that on frivolous lawsuits.

All of this is what drives your costs up. Cut the taxes, enact torte reform, streamline the process to provide care without as much bureaucratic nonsense, and you could cut the cost of medicine by about 25%.

This drivel about one-payer crap makes me sick. The British medical system is NOT very good! People, there are long waits for treatment, a bureaucratic board determines what patients get what treatment based upon a math forumula (factoring their age, expected years to live, and cost of the procedure), and then they decline you. So your gramps with a heart condition will just have to accept that he can't have open heart surgery. Your granny with a bad hip won't get it replaced.

wow, this goes to show how horrible our healthcare is
:) thanks america!

Evidently she had the same slide that the pathologist looked at and deemed to be normal. It's not like she did a biopsy of her own stomach or something, but it is interesting that she even had access to the slide. Most doctors treat the medical information they have on a patient as if the patient should be kept from it at all costs....Pardon the pun!

Why is it that the medical community is always covering up for each others inconsistencies, apathy, narcissism and eventual incompetence?

If they did their job better, cared more for the actual people & took their patients seriously there just might be less sick folks out there. The healthcare industry needs a bitch-slap, right after the FDA gets a few.

good work girly ! yet another washington state student that has impressed the hell out of me. gives me hope for the future.

OK it's confirmed, our healthcare system is CRAP.
All doctors she went to should be embarassed for not taking the time that her benefits paid her to spend on her case.

What's the point of having healthcare if even having it is CRAP?

Time to move to another country :-)

wow. is this girl like a super genius or were the doctors incompetent?

wow that is a weird feeling...You go to class one day just to discover that you have a disease.

hell, may as well have fuckin socialized healthcare.

Good for her. I hope she sends her bill to the hospital.....err....Insurance Co? Who should pay her for doing their job?

We have doctors who don't care much - after all, it's not them! Why should they try?
Some doctors are good people.
But a w-h-o-l-e lot are just scammers for money.

They caught that disease when the insurance companies got in there and raised the rates, making a bunch of people rich and enslaving the rest of us into paying health insurance just to be able to see a doctor at all.

We need to dump the insurance business in health-care.
I went to the emergency once. The guy took a quick, disinterested look, gave me on off-the-self single antibiotic tablet, saying to go to a regular doctor to get more - and they charged me $1800.

That kind of rip-off is what they are charging everybody - if your insurance pays, don't think you got away with it, we all paid anyway.
We pay whether you have insurance or whether an uninsured goes on the dole.

But when you don't buy insurance - and you don't go on the dole, you have to pay right out of your pocket.
The BIG FAT problem is, it shows you exactly how much the doctors and hospitals and the insurance companies are ripping you and everybody else off.

When they charge $1800 for a nothing service, with no time nor effort from their professionals -

Then it's gone hay-wire. Talk about a bubble!

I'd like to see pay limits for wall street, CEOs and doctors and hospitals.

They say, "well, if we can't rip everybody off, maybe we'll not be there when you need it"

Maybe somebody else should be doctors. People who take the Hippocratic with some humility.

I am glad that this young lady was able to figure out what her doctors should have been able to find and I am saddened by the nature of her illness and that fact that health care has degraded in our country to the point she had to figure it out on her own.

This story is certainly as multi-layered one.

Its ironic when Doctors can't figure out what is wrong with a patient and the patient discovers what is wrong instead.

These days with webMD and similiar sites, people wrongly diagnose themselves, most being hypochrondiacs, with a million different deficiencies and medical problems.

But this 18yr old HS Student was able to do what her doctors couldn't in her science class. Simply Amazing.

Thanks to everyone who shared their own experiences with Crohn's Disease. My uncle suffers from it as well. Here are a few links to resources and foundations in case anyone is looking for information, support, forums or even feels like donating to research.

http://www.ccfa.org/

http://www.nacc.org.uk/content/home.asp

http://www.webmd.com/ibd-crohns-disease/crohns-disease/tc/crohns-disease-other-p...

Thats amazing, very meticulous is right...but I don't miscredit pathologist that "misdiagnosed" her, they know so much their knowledge bank is vast while her's is a bit more simplified. So, the doctors probably thought she had something else, i guess...I knew some one who had a sort of severe intestinal problems where he had massive, uncontrollabe diarrea and appetite problems. He was also a genius and diagnosed himself and found out that he had something that wouldn't let him live longer than 30 something...well he didn't make it past his first semester of his freshman year at UGA, he commited suicide. Jumped out of a bathroom window in his dorm. Only if he was strong willed as this young lady (RIP Robel Solomon )

This is awesome, it might not be curable, but at least she can have the proper diet now that she knows what shes dealing with.

There must be some plant waiting to be found that can
cure this.

Figuring out what is the cause of one's illness is overwhelming and a relief all at the same time. I was diagnosed with Chrohn's Disease four years ago, after living with the symptoms for six years - diarrhea, vomiting, fever, weight loss [unable to eat/digest food], blood loss, depression, severe pain - and was shocked to learn the cause, but was optimistic to learn about the treatments for the chronic illness.

Jessica, with the advancements of medicine today for treatment of Chrohn's Disease, should be able to overcome the symptoms of the disease and live life relatively normally. There are many people out there just like her and the support and understanding of those people can be just as healing as the medical treatments.

If I were her I'd be asking for all the damn money spent on tests and appointments back...

and the student becomes the teacher

Hypochondriacs UNITE! It CAN happen to you!!

Okay - kidding aside, this is pretty awesome. And I'd be pissed at my docs too. And seriously, the docs should be mighty shamed.

I'm sure there's some relief for her knowing now what the problem is, but also new stress because of it.

This is both awesome and annoying. It is great that she's learning these skills in high school, I didn't do that in college. And it is awesome that she caught it! Now she can get treatment and feel better, even though there's no cure for Chrone's Disease. It is sad/annoying when people don't see these things, or don't care to look hard enough. We are human's and we do make mistakes, but it is frustrating when you're sick and no one (a doctor!) can seem to find a problem or suggest another method to get to the bottom of it. I have a friend who has unexplained medical issues that have been going on for months! Why the doctor doesn't care more is beyond me!?!? I sent her this article and told her to get a microscope, LOL.

I have diverticulosis which is painful when it flairs up and is then called diverticulitis. Stomach issues can kill! Listen to your bodies folks! Great post Delia...I am glad to have friends like you here to help bring the news! Can't find it all by ones lonesome!

How did she get the slide of her own tissue is what i want to know. My doctors never send me home with parting gifts like that.

"Excuse me doctor, could i take that fecal sample home? I have my own microscope!"

This is one of the reason why i want to study medicine even though i don't wnat to be a doctor.

Good for her.

Doctors are the wagging tail of the sickness dog. They make more money if they don't get it right. Check it.

surprising her doctors couldn't figure it out considering all the doctors here in the NW use crohn's as a shoot from the hip diagnosis all the time if you come in with stomach pains

While I'd be happy to finally have the mystery solved, I think I'd be mighty pissed that I discovered something in frikken science class that my doctors had missed time and time again. Getting a second opinion or having the doctor peer review the work as they suggested is definitely a good idea.

Very nifty story, it's pretty cool when something that humans have been pondered by for years is cracked from the most unlikely of sources.

Great story!! I hope they find a treatment for this disorder. I think a friend of mine might have this; I need to talk him into getting tested for it.

Our healthcare is teh suck

Individuals should take interest in their own health, I commend her for taking the initiative.

The idea that we place the welfare and knowledge of our health on someone else's shoulders has always perplexed me.

I understand full well that one cannot learn the complexities of the human body on their spare time, but simple indicators such as understanding the functionality of your urine and bm's [as awesome a subject as it is] is just as important as learning math problems.

Empowerment is a two way street.