Doctor's Challenge

I enjoy almost every kind of riddles and puzzles; and I have been posting treasure hunt questions and other riddles in this blog every now and then. I enjoy puzzles not only from the solver's point of view, but I also enjoy creating puzzles myself. However, some puzzles and challenges require specific knowledge and expertise.

I happen to know that some of the visitors to this blog are doctors—they are also freak hunters, of course. This particular challenge is mainly directed to them, although some other people might want to try to suggest a solution too.

Over the last 2 weeks, my sister-in-law—she's in her later thirties— has been having abdominal pain. The pain gradually became increasingly unbearable. Apart from the abdominal pain, she also had lower back pain and occasional vaginal bleeding (not menstrual bleeding). As the days passed, the pain on the left side of the pelvic region became more pronounced; and she also suffered pain while having a bowel movement.

Throughout that 2 weeks, she made several visits to a GP doctor who prescribed antibiotics and pain killers, having suspected a bladder infection. The antibiotics had to be changed twice because my sister-in-law was allergic to many types of antibiotics. In spite of that, her condition gradually deteriorated. By the end of the second week, she was unable to rise from the bed.

As a side issue, I have discussed in this blog about efficiency in solving treasure hunt questions. Some people can solve them faster than the rest, so there must be a more efficient way of approaching those questions.

Similarly, in my opinion, doctors are frequently faced with the problem of guessing a medical condition from a given symptom(s). They then run test(s) to confirm their suspicions; all the time racing against time to keep the patient alive while they are looking for the solution(s) to the problem. As in the case of treasure hunts, they have a timeframe to find to solution(s). When time runs out, the patient dies...

I am not a doctor, but in my opinion, the GP doctor whom my sister-in-law consulted did a sloppy job. I think he could have done better—much better than those antibiotics and pain killers. But of course that is easy for me to say—I am just watching from the sideline! But just out of curiosity, what do other doctors think?

1. How would you deal with this patient?

2. What are the possible problems with her?

3. What actions, if any, would you take to confirm your suspicion(s)?

4. From (2) above, and with the limited information given here, make your best guess—what is the problem with this patient?

By the way, the doctors (not the GP) have finally found out what's the problem with my sister-in-law. They have solved it and she's recovering very well right now. So don't worry, docs, I'm not going to get you into trouble because of your casual suggestions in this blog! I just want to find a justification that the matter could have been handled differently by other doctors.

I am leaving this "challenge" open for the moment. Doctors can use nicknames to protect their identities. I am more interested in the approach they would adopt; and of course their respective guesses of the problem. Then later I will tell the rest of the story.