The Diagnosis Detectives

[Skerryberry]

What an interesting programme. Has anyone else watched it?

Michael Mosley challenges 12 of the UK's leading medical experts to make a diagnosis for patients whose debilitating symptoms have baffled other doctors.

Last night's patient with the skin condition was shocking. The poor man, I hope his condition improved with the diagnosis.

Yes! It's really good. So great for those patients to have a diagnosis and a plan and understand how their condition might progress. And to be finally taken seriously must in itself make all the difference. I hope they all make improvements now.
Neil was particularly sad given it appeared he wouldn't have ended up like that had he had proper treatment in the first place.

Dr Sharon Wong is my new girl crush

Yes! Watched the 2nd ep last night and catching up on the 1st today. Completely fascinating. We need to do more of this to help understand patients with chronic problems who get pushed from pillar to post (I’m a doctor)

I find this programme very depressing, as these people are all being failed so badly by the system. I would have said that all the diagnoses so far could and should have been made by their own specialists, so what went wrong?

Really enjoy this programme but it makes me think of all of the people not in the show who are suffering with undiagnosed illness and who don’t get the opportunity to get the focused attention of a multi-disciplinary group of experts - particularly now, given the impact of Covid on waiting lists etc. I so felt for Neil - watching him itch made me think about how hard it must be for him to sleep. Really hope that he’s continued to improve.

Also felt massively for Katie who was still working despite obviously feeling awful - hope she got some good support too.

For those enjoying this I highly recommend Diagnosis on Netflix - a US series which was presumably the inspiration for the BBC one.

I would love to get my daughter onto this new show, she has been through hell for over 2 years and doctors cant work out what's wrong with her, what's sad is theres so many others in the same situation too

It is awful. The woman in the second episode was really bad, I knew she’d be diagnosed with a connective tissue disorder and I’m not in health care, just have my own pain issues misdiagnosed for a few years. She’s been hugely let down and already had significant intervention. The man with eczema seemed to be cared for by the US armed forces and must be much worse than the NHS to only see a Dr once every six months. Poor guy.

The NHS is very siloed. Its definitely why many struggle so long. GPs can’t know everything but we depend on their judgement. Plus they are reluctant to refer, presumably in part financially motivated and not wanting to put patients through unnecessary tests.

What did everyone think of last night's episode? As a chronic Lyme disease sufferer, I was interested to see how they would diagnose Lotte who was suffering from severe headaches and vision loss, following a camping trip to the Lake District.

I was shocked that someone with obvious PCOS on last night’s episode needed to go to a whole panel of specialists to get that diagnosis. My DD. was diagnosed quite quickly through her own GP and local hospital, it isn’t a rare condition.

Yes, I agree with you @Evenstar I'm by no means an expert, but within about a minute, I had guessed that she had PCOS.

I also felt so sorry for Lotte being dismissed with a psychosomatic illness, despite having gone blind in one eye. How can that be psychosomatic?! Lyme disease tests are notoriously unreliable too, and this didn't seem to be taken into consideration by the Infectious Diseases doctor. I really hope she's feeling better now.

The week before though I immediately thought EDS as a possible cause when the patient talked about her joint pain. I’ve got two friends with EDS. How had she seen multiple doctors with her symptoms without anyone investigating it as a possibility? It’s not that obscure a condition.

It is entirely possible to have psychosomatic blindness or indeed paralysis. All the clues were there in her case. In particular the normal visual evoked potentials and normal MRI mean that beyond much doubt her eyes and brain are normal.
She was completely emotionally flat and detached which is classic. The symptoms came on right before her mocks. She and her mum looked to have an odd enmeshed relationship.
She urgently needs psychological help and pursuing a diagnosis that isn't there is entrenching her symptoms and actively harming her.
I hope she can get some help soon instead of more investigations.

Yes I've lived this program it's facinating!

I'm suffering as a result of hypermobility myself so I was interested in episode 2. I thought last night's was very interesting with the blindness... I wondered if some of it was psychological as the doctors seemed to be angling towards this from the start.

Ps love Dr Sharon Wong, she's beautiful

Loved it, not lived it 🙄

Big girl crush on Sharon Wong too
Gorgeous clothes. She looks so stylish and she seems really clever and caring too.

Also a bit shocked that the woman with EDS and PCOS didn't get a diagnosis before this. I said 'I wonder if its EDS' as soon as they described her symptoms and I am neither a sufferer nor a medic. I can see why the conditions this week weren't diagnosed before now, though.

Agree about the PCOS. I said exactly the same to DH and I too have zero specialist knowledge and don't have PCOS - but I've read enough about the symptoms to see red flags being hoisted very quickly. It's very worrying indeed that women with these not-uncommon conditions can't get diagnosed for years.

(And I say that as a woman with endometriosis who spent decades being told that my agonising periods were 'totally normal' and I just had to put up with them)