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A 56-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital with worsening symptoms. For eight weeks, she had been experiencing “pins and needles” pain that started all over her feet and worked her way up her legs. When he arrived at the hospital, he could not feel his feet on the ground. He often stumbled and grabbed the walls to keep from getting up. But the numbness was moving again in his hands. Then came the neurological symptoms. He told his doctors about short-term memory problems and concentration problems. He was irritable and had no appetite. He was experiencing heart palpitations, too.
According to A case report this week in the New England Journal of Medicinehis doctors looked at his medical history for details, but found nothing immediately obvious. She had high blood pressure, a history of anxiety and depression, and hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid). They noticed that, although he had been on thyroid medication for more than 10 years, four weeks earlier he had been given a very strong dose. But the rate change didn’t immediately raise red flags.
He also had hip problems. Twenty years earlier, he had injured his hip due to an accident ten years before. Although 90 percent of hip replacements are completed within 30 years, the woman began to fail after 19 years.
