“Almost All Of It Is Guesswork”: 21 Things Doctors Still Don’t Understand About The Human Body

4.

“Autoimmune anything. I used to think it was pretty straightforward; then I was diagnosed with a disorder. Everything is so hit-or-miss and open to interpretation, even bloodwork. I went from seropositive to seronegative at one point, how??? Do antibodies, rheumatoid factor, and antinuclear antibody just disappear? Or fluctuate? Depends on the rheumatologist you ask. Symptoms all overlap for so many similar things, and the treatments all work differently for different people, until sometimes they randomly don’t or do for a while, then quit.”

“Maybe you have lupus, maybe you have arthritis? Can’t be sure, so take this malaria drug about it and let me know if you get mouth sores, your liver swells up, or it does nothing for no reason. Could be the meds, could be a flair. Either way, it’s going to affect parts of your body you never knew interacted. How is your relationship with gluten and dairy, because it’s about to get weird. Which came first, the depression or the inflammation? No idea, but here’s another four pills about it. You’re hypermobile, ever heard of Ehlers-Danlos or POTS? Similar but different, but who knows…why did you come in again? Fatigue.”

—Routine_Order_7813