Teen diagnoses her own disease in science class

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.

Our healthcare is teh suck

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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!"

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!

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.

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.

and the student becomes the teacher

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

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.

Pff Fucking Doctors....

Grats to the girl though...

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.

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 )

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...

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.

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.

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.

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

hell, may as well have fuckin socialized healthcare.

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