Teen diagnoses her own disease in science class
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.”
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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. “Granulomas are oftentimes very hard to find and not always even present at all,” Siegel said. “I commend Jessica for her meticulous work.”
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That’s incredible! Well now she knows she can solve all her problems herself.
Uh, I’m hearing stuff like this all the time lately. Not so much the self diagnosis, but doctors missing stuff which happens to get later discovered by accident. Doesn’t give me a lot of faith in them…
“she was looking under the microscope at slides of her own intestinal tissue — slides her pathologist had said were completely normal” Absolutely brilliant stuff, Its surprising that an 18 year old at school could have such ability!
I’m happy to hear this!
It’s terrible that she has such a serious disease, but i’m sure it was a load off her back to at least know what was wrong with her.