A Mind Diseased (or overused).

We learn, in medical school, to make connections--to put the puzzle together, so to speak. A patient comes to your office with a sore throat for 3 days and difficulty swallowing. What's wrong with him? Is it just a common cold? Am I going to send him to the local drug store for some Nyquil, or write him a prescrption for some bogus antibiotic? Is it more serious than that? What if he has some sort of necrotizing lung lesion that I miss because I didn't get the right test or ask him the right questions about his life-history? WHAT? You were a pipe-fitter in the Navy for 15 years?! Eureka!!
Find all of the pieces and put them together. That's our job.
The trouble comes when we start putting all kinds of pieces together that may or may not be part of the same puzzle--like mixing the pieces of 'my little pony' and 'kitten in a basket of yarn' and trying to sort them out again. Medical students are FAMOUS for doing this. Case in point: Last night, Shavonne called me after studying kidney diseases all day. She's figured out "what's wrong" with her. She's apparantly got chronic renal disease. All the symptoms fit!--She's got irritability, fatigue, malaise, difficulty concentrating, forgetfulness, nausea, sometimes hiccups, and restless legs. Those symptoms that don't fit are associated with the later-stages of the disease. It's what she's got to look forward to....her mental status should decrease from difficulty concentrating, to confusion, to stupor, to coma, to death.
I tried to talk her out of it, but in the end, I cannot deny that those are all symptoms of renal failure, and she has them all. (Though I've never personally expereinced her irritability). =) But Shavonne, my friend, you will not die alone. I have all of those symptoms too, execpt for the restless legs. Who knew chronic renal failure was contageous?