During a science class, Jessica Terry, 18, discovered a tell-tale granuloma in her own pathology slide.
Posted on 06/11/2009 9:05:50 AM PDT by JoeProBono
For eight years, Jessica Terry suffered from stomach pain so horrible, it brought her to her knees. The pain, along with diarrhea, vomiting and fever, made her so sick, she lost weight and often had to miss school. During a science class, Jessica Terry, 18, discovered a tell-tale granuloma in her own pathology slide. During a science class, Jessica Terry, 18, discovered a tell-tale granuloma in her own pathology slide. Her doctors, no matter how hard they tried, couldn't figure out the cause of Jessica's abdominal distress.
Then one day in January, Terry, 18, figured it out on her own. In her Advanced Placement high school science class, she was looking under the microscope at slides of her own intestinal tissue -- slides her pathologist had said were completely normal -- and spotted an area of inflamed tissue called a granuloma, a clear indication that she had Crohn's disease. "It's weird I had to solve my own medical problem," Terry told CNN affiliate KOMO in Seattle, Washington. "There were just no answers anywhere. ... I was always sick." Terry, who graduated from Eastside Catholic School in Sammamish, Washington, this month, is now being treated for Crohn's, says her science teacher, MaryMargaret Welch.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
During a science class, Jessica Terry, 18, discovered a tell-tale granuloma in her own pathology slide.
Don’t let Obama hear this....Diagnose your own disease sounds like something he would like in his socialized health plans...LOL
Great for her. I hope her Crohn’s is effectively managed and she one day has a rewarding career in science or medicine.
Yes. Under Obama’s plan she would be fined big time!! Possibly imprisoned?
My one question - how does one obtain their own intestinal tissue to look at in a high school science class?
I’m surprised she is not jailed for practicing medicine without a government license.
Shame on her docs. Crohn’s is not a difficult diagnosis.
Sadly this not all good news for Jessica
......Although Terry was relieved to finally get a diagnosis, it was also tough for her to hear that she has such a serious disease.
There are treatments, but there is no cure for Crohn’s, a condition in which the digestive tract becomes inflamed. It can lead to ulcers, malnutrition and other health problems.
“As I get older, the disease can get worse,” Terry told KOMO..........
Prayers to her and her family
Uh, yeah, that was my question.
In all seriousness, it would be a good idea for the private sector to sell more at-home kits for people to diagnose themselves. There are pregnancy test kits, why not other kits?
I’ve diagnosed my children a few times with things the doctors missed. Not using science - only using the internet. So many people are empowered now by the internet. Of course, on the flip side, a hypochondriac might take things too far.
Her doctors, no matter how hard they tried, couldn’t figure out the cause of Jessica’s abdominal distress.
Why not??????
I’d guess she got hold of the slide the pathologist looked at after he/she was done.
)
Ya, they should have strep swaps for parents so they can use them at home ...
Affirmative Action doctors?? Or, they just weren't trying very hard??
Like most doctors, they probably had 10 minutes to spend with her before they had to move onto one of the 30 other paitents waiting in other rooms and thought she was just a complainer like all of the rest of his patients, he was sure it was all in her head no doubt .... Been there done that ....
I hope the family had some very choice words for the doctor who couldn’t find something a highschool student with basic biology lab tools could.
The term "cyberchondriac" has been around for a number of years now....
LOL. Laugh if you want to. You’ll be pleading for at-home surgery kits once Obamacare gets started. ;-)
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