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The other night I watched part of the Discovery Health Channel’s show “Mystery Diagnosis”.  I had never watched it before, but what struck me about the show was the fact that the cases they reviewed were people whose diagnosis would not have been much of a mystery if the first doctors they saw had done even a minimal diagnostic workup.

For example, in one case, a young boy was experiencing persistent vomiting for MONTHS.  His pediatrician told his parents that he just had a virus.  A week, maybe even two weeks of vomiting I could understand being attributed to a virus, but after that I think a doctor might at least bother to run some tests. 

After a few months, the parents kept a diary of the vomiting events and the foods, activities, etc. that preceeded them and presented the diary to the doctor.  The doctor told them that maybe it was an allergy and told the parents to place the boy on a restricted diet.  Ironically, one of the items that was allowed on the diet was toast.  Since wheat allergies are among the most common of food allergies, that seemed a bit ill-conceived on the doctor’s part, but ultimately it was irrelevant anyway. 

The vomiting continued and finally became bad enough that the parents took the boy to the hospital.  The attending doctor at the hospital ordered an X-ray and found that the boy’s stomach was in his chest cavity - which is not where it is supposed to be.  The boy had a severe diaphragmatic hernia and the stomach and part of the intestines were displaced into and twisted in the chest cavity, producing severe intestinal obstruction.  Ultimately, the stomach or intestines could have ruptured leading to a life-threatening situation.  The good news is that once the diagnosis was made,  the problem was corrected surgically, and the boy is expected to live a normal, healthy life.  Was this diagnosis a mystery?  I think not.  What is a mystery is why the pediatrician didn’t bother to run even the most rudimentary of diagnostic tests to figure out what was wrong. 

The other case on this particular episode of “Mystery Diagnosis”, was a woman with multiple symptoms that included skin discoloration, severe muscle cramping and pain, mood swings, severe depression, problems with mental fogginess and inability to focus, and extreme cravings for salt (she was literally snacking on rock salt!).  To be fair, this woman tried several self-treatment measures and delayed seeking any professional treatment for some time, but eventually she did seek medical care. 

She saw not one, not two, but three different doctors who failed to perform any diagnostic procedures whatsoever, with the exception of one who took her blood pressure and found it to be low (which would usually prompt some further investigation, but did not in this case).  The third doctor she saw told her it was “all in her head” and dismissed her from his office.  Even if he did think her symptoms were psycho-somatic (that’s fancy doctor-talk for “all in your head”), it was completely inappropriate to dismiss her without at least making  a referral to a mental health practitioner - psycho-somatic illnesses are a sign that something is wrong emotionally and should not simply be ignored.  As I was watching this, I was astounded that none of these three doctors had bothered to order a blood test. 

As things continued to deteriorate, this poor woman finally wound up in the emergency room.  Here again, the medical staff tried to simply dismiss her, but upon insistence by the patient’s son that something needed to be done, the attending doctor did agree to order blood work.  It was a very good thing that he did because the first finding was that her potassium level was so high she was in immediate danger of her heart stopping. 

Once the potassium level was brought under control, the doctor performed further testing and found that she had Addison’s disease, a type of adrenal gland failure.  When asked why the other doctors had not diagnosed it, the hospital doctor was very gracious (probably because he would have missed it himself if the woman’s son had not insisted on the blood test) and explained that Addison’s disease is difficult to diagnoses (in actuality, it isn’t that hard to diagnose and some very basic blood work would have at least led to the diagnosis pretty quickly if any of the other doctors had bothered to do it).  Was this a “mystery diagnosis”?  Not really.  Again, the main mystery was why the other three (count them, three!)doctors, and almost the fourth, had not done even a minimal diagnostic workup on this patient. 

Now, I know this blog is supposed to be about natural remedies and natural healing, but beyond that, my goal is to provide you with ways to stay healthy, including within the context of conventional medical care.  What I want you to take away from all of this is that doctors these days are not necessarily looking out for your health the way they should (this includes medical doctors and “alternative” practitioners alike).  Between managed care and the stress and fatigue that occurs from handling patients and staff, many doctors can get burned out or may just be plain lazy or incompetent. 

Because you can’t always rely on your health care providers to watch out for your health, you need to do it.  If you have a health problem that you are concerned about, you need to push your doctors to find out what’s wrong and make sure you get the treatment you need.  If the first health care provider you consult with doesn’t seem interested in investigating the cause(s) of your health complaints, find another one, and continue the process until you get answers. 

In my experience, the vast majority of health problems can be at least detected (if not specifically identified) by means of  one or more of a few relatively simple tests.  If you are suffering from a “mystery illness”, I suggest talking with your doctor about the possible value of the following tests:

A CBC (Complete Blood Count) measures the relative number of the different types of blood cells and amount of hemoglobin in your blood.  This test can be used to diagnose the presence and type of infections, various types of anemia, and  other blood abnormalities.

A blood chemistry screen (this goes by various names and may include somwhat different lists of tests, but the basics tend to be the same) will detect the most common types of organ dysfunction and disease, the presence of certain cancers, electrolyte imbalances, and diabetes.  The screen is usually not specific, but does give an indicator of the general problem and points to what other testing should be done.

An X-ray is a good screening tool for cases of persistent pain.  I believe X-rays are overused in many situations, but any time there is a history of trauma and/or lasting or severe pain, an X-ray can be very useful.

In more extreme cases where X-rays are normal or inconclusive, an MRI, CT scan, and/or Sonogram can be very useful.  MRI is best suited to cases in which soft-tissue or organ problems are suspected.  CT scans are better suited for evaluating bone problems, or for musculoskeletal soft-tissue problems when an MRI cannot be performed (such as when a patient has some type of metal implantation in their body).  Sonograms are well-suited to diagnosing problems in the abdominal cavity and in major blood vessels (blood vessel evaluations may be called Doppler studies). 

Finally, when heart problems are suspected, an EKG and/or Echo Cardio Gram (a sonogram of the heart) are good places to start in diagnosing the problem. 

So now you have a basic set of tests that make excellent starting points in diagnosing the vast majority of health problems.  I don’t necessarily recommend employing these tests immediately in every case, but if you have been having problems for a few weeks and your doctor isn’t pursuing the matter, I highly recommend you have a serious discussion with him or her about finding out what’s wrong.  If your doctor isn’t doing his or her job in a way that is satisfactory to you, it is your right to find another health care provider who is willing to work with you to diagnose the problem and help you find  the best solution. 

Don’t let your condition remain a “mystery diagnosis” simply by way of your doctor neglecting the basics.

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