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Diagnosis on Netflix

zzz

Senior Member
Messages
675
Location
Oregon
For those who enjoyed and were impressed by the long-running fictional medical series House (a fantastic program, IMO, and currently available for free on Amazon Prime), it's useful to note that the cases in House were based on a New York Times series of articles about actual cases that ran in 2002. Diagnosis is a presentation of a number of these same cases, except from a non-fictional point of view.
 

valentinelynx

Senior Member
Messages
1,310
Location
Tucson
written by a neurologist.

It seems that neurologists are often the most quick to jump to the "functional" diagnosis, or the infamous "conversion reaction", which is really a throwback to Freud. Neurologists are taught just enough psychiatry (oddly the same medical board rules over both Neurology and Psychiatry) to cause trouble. It's too bad, because one would think that neurologists would have a natural interest in a disease that so profoundly affects the brain and nervous system.
 

overtheedge

Senior Member
Messages
258
This show reminds me of https://www.secondopinion-tv.org/episodes . second opionion goes much faster and focuses more on the medical aspects of the case. they have one on CFS and in my mind they did it justice, after many years of my mom being ambivalent about my CFS she really seems to believe it's a real thing after seeing the CFS episode. I think all the episodes can be found at that link, some are only transcripts but Ive been using this text to speech reader https://chrome.google.com/webstore/...o-spee/hdhinadidafjejdhmfkjgnolgimiaplp?hl=en to read the whole thing to me and for a lot of other things besides, so far it's the best text to speech ive found, I've set up the keyboard shortcuts so that alt+i begins reading highlighted text, alt+space pauses/plays, ctrl forward mouse or back mouse skips forward or back and alt+o stops things so you can start another one with highlighting text and hitting alt+i instead of that just continuing the last playback. has been very helpful for hearing things while lying flat in bed, should note this works best with a wireless keyboard so you can leave the laptop closed and lie there in the dark and only have to reach over slightly to the wireless keyboard to interact with what's being listened to. Ive used it to read full ebooks to me. Also, found it helps to go into the options section and set the pitch lower than it starts to make the voice sound less like a fake human and more like an articulate robot. slightly adjusting the speed based on preference helps as well.

Also, have found it useful for going back over medical notes for a refresher, have to copy and paste it from offline to some place in online such as an email compose box or where you would write up a post on this site so the reader can access it, although i think there is a way to get it to read offline stuff if you go through the options. it's also helped me when I've wanted to go over articles, ones which aren't brimming with info i need to copy and paste every other sentence which would require more attention and end up having to be set aside for later but rather articles with just one or two important pieces of info that you can keep in your memory and come back to once the thing is done reading where you can get just those useful bits of the article and add them to your notes. saves reading through a lot of junk but is kinda slow so if reading doesn't drain much of your energy it may just get in your way.

Anyway, diagnosis was a good show, gonna add it to my yearly calendar to come back to, hope to see more patients who have things along the line of CFS.
 
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YippeeKi YOW !!

Senior Member
Messages
16,047
Location
Second star to the right ...
@indigokid, @wabi-sabi , @Rufous McKinney
What really stood out is how accurate diagnosis isn’t really a key doctor skill
My dad used to say that a good diagnostician had to have at least as much creativity as a second rate poet. It didnt start making sense to me til I grew up a bit. And had had some experience of Drs and their general ineptness anywhere creative thinking was required.


it is sort of amazing that diagnosis isn't better taught
It's a skill that cant really be learned, altho if the basic ingredients involved are present, can be encouraged and honed and improved. It requires a huge skill-set, most of which are totally absent in a large percentage of practicing Drs.
They're about as effective as drilling a whole in your head to let out the evil spirits
Actually, most of the ancient civilizations that did this form of trepanning of the brain did it to threat genuine illnesses like hydrocephaly. The were amazingly advanced, and medical science didnt reach that level again for well over 1,000 years.


Im in a foreign country right now and the medical folks we have sampled so far are highly competent.
That's truly a pity. Many years ago (not sure about now) the medical school at the University of Mexico was ranked as one of the top three in the world, along with USC and the University of Zurich in Switzerland.


I want to conceptualize disease as something other than a battle, something other than a foe that can be fought and overcome with enough effort. In my experience that mentality is ultimately harmful.
I agree. There are better way to approach chronic illnesses, and, like you, I don;t subscribe to " ....the disease is my enemy ...." school of thought.
 
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Wolfcub

Senior Member
Messages
7,089
Location
SW UK
@indigokid My husband was accused of being "hypochondriac". He was "doctor-shamed", and had a hard time claiming unemployment benefit. The doctor he consulted for a diagnosis, (and kept asking her as the symptoms wouldn't go away ) -accused him of being lazy and a malingerer.

He was always an extremely hard working person all of his life.

His symptoms started in 1997....continued -undiagnosed and untreated -through 1998. He was forced to live on his savings. In 1998 it was discovered he had prostate cancer which had had the time sadly, to spread to his bones....all over. He passed in January 1999.
Once he discovered what was wrong he took legal action against that doctor, and won the case. She had interfered with his medical records...the lot.
 

Rufous McKinney

Senior Member
Messages
13,249
I watched..Episode 3. The man who apparently has Gulf War Syndrome.

It left me feeling very sad. Knowing that we share this cognitive decline, and the implications thereof.

Really sad that our soldiers were and still are treated as expendable commodities, whose lives can be ruined by toxic exposure and profound stress.

I was really sad also, because again the failure to "diagnose" him is just criminal. Its the first thing I thought of when after they described his main symptoms and his Gulf War Veteran status.

The comment in the first episode by Dr. Sanders (?) - that she went to medical school and then was surpised that DIAGNOSIS is required. ?DUH? You cannot treat ANYTHING without first having a diagnosis. Is that ankle sprained or broken?

Something is VERY VERY wrong in the US with how medicine is- applied. And taught, apparently.
 
Messages
3
If you haven’t started watching this yet...it’s fabulous. A doctor/journalist who wants to find the answers to chronic illnesses and uses crowd knowledge to do it (just like we do here).

Warning: you will probably blub at every episode
Where can I find this?? How’s the tittle?? Thx forwards, Carol from Belguim, 🌹🌹🌹🙋♿️🐕