That Can't be True

In medical school, the weirdest most esoteric diseases and ailments were always referred to as “interesting cases”.  We soon discovered that this was code for “You best kiss your behind goodbye if you have any of these because you’re a goner.” I vowed then and there that if I could go through life and never be an “interesting case” I would be a happy camper.

That being said, I have come across some rather fascinating medical issues that most of you will think I made up, but I assure they are real. And yes, you don’t want any of them. Trichophagia, or Rapunzel syndrome, is where a person (mostly women) compulsively eat their hair.  We all remember the weird girl in middle school who constantly chewed on her pigtail.  This is not her.  Someone with trichophagia actually pulls the hair out and makes the equivalent of a BLT and chows down.  If they do it a lot, and who wouldn’t, they can actually get a bezoar.  This is better known as a hairball, most commonly found in the family cat.  A horrible result of a bezoar can be an infection, intestinal blockage, and even death.  Needless to say, this is primarily a psychiatric diagnosis and requires aggressive treatment.

Hirschsprung’s disease, or toxic megacolon, is a largely a childhood disease where the colon’s ability to empty is severely limited.  As you might imagine this results in a blockage even the Barbary Pirates couldn’t breach.  This is more common in males (finally, something nasty more common in males!) and can manifest with a swollen belly, vomiting, including vomiting a green or brown substance(am I painting enough of a picture here?)  constipation, gas, or diarrhea.  Basically, anything horrible related to the bowels is generated by this problem.  

Witness a report out of China that tells of a man who had part of his colon resected which contained 30 pounds of poop. That’s more poop than a cadre of revelers at a Miralax convention.   While not a disease, there are numerous examples of medical wrongdoing that just hurts to think about.  While operating on the wrong leg or taking out a left kidney when the right kidney was the problem sounds horrible, it’s not as horrible as what happened to a man in Pennsylvania recently.  He went into surgery to have his left testicle removed and the surgeon instead removed the right testicle. Oops!  

All’s well that ends well as the injured party received a hefty settlement and tickets to La Cage aux Folles. Hematohidrosis is a rare disease steeped in history.  Those familiar with the Bible know the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He was in such anguish that, according to the Gospel of Luke,  he “being in anguish he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” Since this, many who experienced “sweating blood” were labeled as stigmata, with religious as well as medical interest.

A recent article lists almost 300 cases documented in the literature.  As for me, I just prefer to sweat bullets! As an aside, not only do I never want to be an interesting case, I never want a disease named after me.  Imagine how Dr. Alzheimer feels.  Think of the horror when Dr. Bardet–Biedl’s grandkids see picture of the poor children with the syndrome named after him (webbed toes, obesity, tiny scrotum, multiple digits).  

Sometimes being anonymous has its place.