The BBC is reporting on a wirelessly controlled “spider pill” being developed somewhere in Italy. The device supposedly has eight legs and reportedly can crawl through intestines. With an attached video camera, the device might actually become a diagnostic modality for imaging the intestinal tract. The big question is whether it is more unpleasant to have a colonoscope defile you or a robotic gerbil crawl through the insides.
Susie Essman, aka Susie Greene of Larry David’s HBO program, “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” has written a hilarious book (and yes, I actually read it) called What Would Susie Say?: Bullsh*t Wisdom About Love, Life and Comedy. For this week’s CBS Doc Dot Com, I talked to Susie about some of her health issues covered in the book, including menopause, fear of germs, and hypochondria. “So far this month,” she told me, “I’ve had Lyme disease, hysterical blindness, enlarged prostate….”
If any woman could actually have an enlarged prostate – either her own or snatched in a fit of pique from her beleaguered television husband played by Jeff Garlin – it would be Susie Green. But as we discussed her real and imagined symptoms, it became clear that Susie Essman can be easily talked down from her flashes of hypochondriacal thinking. So she doesn’t actually meet the official psychiatric definition of “hypochondriasis,” in which a misinterpretation of symptoms leads to a preoccupation with having a serious illness that interferes with daily functions and lasts at least six months despite reassurances from a doctor. In fact, her belief that she’s a hypochondriac is hypochondriacal. Read more »
My friend and morning ABC anchor, Dave Lucas, is tired of all the false health information that fills his email inbox each day. He’s very relieved that there are physicians, nurses, and patient advocates “swimming against the tide” of pseudoscience and misleading health information online. Today Dave and I discussed how people can find accurate and potentially life-saving health information through peer-reviewed medical blogs, thanks to the health blogger code of ethics (administered by MedPage Today).
Several years ago I was urgently paged by a patient who had discovered a lump at the bottom of his chest. He came straight over to my office, fairly certain he had cancer. The lump turned out to be a normal part of his sternum (breastbone), a small piece of cartilage called the xiphoid. Now that’s the kind of diagnosis I like to make. Read more »
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