Mystery Diagnosis | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Mystery Diagnosis | Previous Challenge Entry
By Kristi Wood
06/19/06
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Vivian straightened her new suit jacket one more time and sighed impatiently. She was excited that her case had been chosen for the famous TV series “Mysterious Diagnosis” but she was impatient to get the interview started. Finally the director came over and motioned her to the sound stage.

“We’re going to ask you a few questions at a time and pause in between so we can cut the footage apart and use it in small pieces or for voiceovers for some areas.” He explained a few other details then the questions started.

Vivian was hardly even aware of the time passing as she told her story and answered the segment producer’s questions. She exited the building to find it was dark outside and the limo driver helped her into his vehicle for the short ride back to the hotel. Tomorrow she would be flying home and then her story would air in a few weeks. She was so excited that she wondered if she would even get any sleep at the hotel.

A large part of her excitement came from knowing that a national audience would be seeing her story on a show with a reputation for helping others with strange symptoms find answers to their own health questions. Vivian hoped she would be able to help a lot of other people by exposing her own struggle to understand her health condition. And she prayed earnestly that many more people would be diagnosed in the coming weeks.

Vivian smiled inwardly as she remembered the battery of tests the producer and his panel of health experts had put her through two days ago ‘to verify’ her health status. At first she had objected. “But I brought you copies of my previous MRI’s and all the lab reports from the blood-work and the lumbar puncture,” she had explained holding out her oversized envelope of MRI films. They said they could spare her the LP but had to repeat the MRI and do their own battery of blood tests.

Then, even knowing the diagnosis before-hand, the panel doctors were still baffled at all the results. They had just never seen anyone in her condition before.

“Well, Ms. Green” began the lead doctor, “as you know we went over your medical history and repeated all the other tests except for the lumbar puncture. Since everything matched up exactly we feel fairly confident that those results would have been the same as your records indicate as well. The blood tests showed that your red and white blood cell counts were good, you don’t appear to have any infectious diseases, and your nutritional profile was excellent.”

“Your MRI showed no masses or tumors of any kind, the hearing and vision tests showed no losses in your sensory perceptions.” He continued, “But the echocardiogram was the most interesting result to us.” He indicated the whole medical team. The cardiologist stepped forward and put the appropriate portion of her MRI films up on the light box and placed her ECG tracing next to it.

“You can see here’” he began excitedly; “that there is no enlargement, no abnormal valves, and your heart rate is extremely healthy. We have rarely seen this kind of an ECG test from someone your age, you know,”

The producer stepped up and steered Vivian away from the crowd of excited experts before they overwhelmed her. “As you know, Ms. Green, ever since we have had the ability to run such complete tests we have seen nothing but death and dying. It’s almost depressing sometimes to realize that everyone has started to die from almost the moment they are born. And then to see such acceleration once they reach adulthood, well we were all understandably skeptical when we heard about your case. But now that we’ve verified your diagnosis we are all anxious to get your segment produced as quickly as possible so we can spread the hope across the country. We want to hear all about your symptoms, the series of doctors and tests performed, how you came to find out about your condition, how the experts think you got this way, and your own theory and feelings about it.”

Vivian held her breath a moment as he echoed her previous doctor’s and the experts own findings.”

The producer spoke again, “You have been diagnosed with a rare but classic case of LIFE!”

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