"It's weird I had to solve my own medical problem," Terry told CNN affiliate KOMO. "There were just no answers anywhere ... I was always sick."
For years she went from doctor to doctor complaining of vomiting, diarrhea, weight loss and stomach pains. They said she had irritable bowel syndrome. They said she had colitis. They said the slides of her intestinal tissue were fine, but she knew that wasn't right.
Despite the incredible advances of modern medicine, we still seem shockingly far from really providing reasonable healthcare in the United States. When doctors continually misdiagnose a disease and the problem continues for years, an 18 year old girl decides to do her own testing to determine what ails her. You would think that with all the alleged training doctors receive, they would be able to correctly diagnose and treat most diseases. Personally, I lose a lot of confidence in our so-called "specialists" when an 18-year old high school student can perform a better diagnosis.
If only this were a rare case, at least it might be more acceptable, but this sort of thing isn't as rare an occurence as the medical industry would have us believe. Scott Adams, the cartoonist who writes Dilbert, also spent years trying to receive a diagnosis of a rare throat condition that left him unable to speak in certain settings. Eventually, after performing enough research of his own he determined that he had Spasmodic Dysphonia. Even after diagnosing it, the treatments were so unsuccessful that Scott had nearly resigned himself to a lifetime of having a speech impediment until he stumbled across a cure of his own.
The remarkable thing is, despite the quality of care offered by doctors decreasing, the prices continue to skyrocket. Is this really the best America can do? I'm quite disappointed!
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