“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”—Sharon Begley.
Introduction
(Programming note: As you scroll down, more blog entries will appear.)
“When you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras.” That aphorism from Theodore Woodward in the 1940s is well known to the medical community. Basically, it says when presented with a case, doctors should consider the most common causes before considering the less common or rare disorders. But what do you do if the sound you hear is one you never previously encountered. What if it’s a sound no physician anywhere has ever encountered? I believe the following case history is such a case. It’s a case about me. Got your interest piqued?
Before I get started, I want to prepare you for what this story is not. If you are familiar with the American sci-fi anthology series The Twilight Zone, some or even most of the words of my story will sound like it came straight out of the show.
But in the universe where the show existed, the laws of physics were somewhat different than our own, and that’s what allowed the Twilight Zone to be. While a lot of what I describe is not only super rare and may appear inconsistent with our knowledge of biology and medicine and therefore will sound strange, particularly if you are in the medical field, nothing you read you defies the known laws of the universe. Even for the stuff that can’t be explained doesn’t require we rethink the universe. Yes, some of the biology/medicine that we think we know turns out to be actually wrong, but all the physical laws are safe.