Zebra Crossing

"If you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras."

That statement baffles me. Should I be surprised to see a zebra? I'd LOVE to see a zebra!
I rode a pony for the 1st time when I began kindergarten and met the neighbor girls down the road. After school we would saddle their ponies and trail ride through the woods and cornfields. Horses were exciting to me. I dreamed of owning my own horse and living in the West as a cowboy. Oh to be a boy again!

Before I got sick( think ZEBRA), my wife had an opportunity to get a job caring for 3 horses belonging to a local woman who trained and showed warmbloods. Was I jealous. But after some time, the lady offered us an apartment and a shared job fulltime running the stable and property. 9 years, and 11 horses later we had to quit as my health was failing daily.
Why was I sick? In Spring of 2000 I missed 9 weeks of work. My primary doc ran a blood test and it came back positive for Epstein Barr virus( think HORSES).

While that was an obvious answer, there were other symptoms that he could not explain. Frustrating to me was his lack of interest in "why". Every 15 minute appointment was little more than telling me that my blood pressure was up, my fasting glucose was high, my cholesterol was off and my weight was too much.

But "why?" I was eating a light breakfast of Cheerios and milk, lunch was a plain lettuce salad with carrots and tomatoes and dinner was rarely more than chicken or a hamburger.

I know now "why" and "what", but it took alot of digging and research on my own. My pcp was content to increase the dosages of all 7 of the meds that he had prescribed to cover the symptoms.

One symptom that I had shown to him and had been a source of slight embarrassment to me was the purple racing stripes that had spread across my belly and thighs. He had no idea and other than a passing interest in the color, nothing. 15 minutes, in and out.

While sitting at my computer in my underwear( more often than you think ladies! LOL), I Googled "abdominal stretch marks". That was it, that one simple computer search and I had diagnosed my failing health, began a quest for a doctor who was interested in solving the rest of the puzzle, and treatment.

That was in July of 2005. I had pituitary surgery to remove 2 tiny tumors on Oct. 31, 2007. I am on only one prescribed med., down from 7 at surgery.

More baffling to me than the horses/zebra analogy is the lack of interest from doctors. You would think that most would love the chance to have an intriguing case to solve. Where are the Perry Masons? The Sherlock Holmes'?

Instead the easy way out is to prescribe meds to mask the symptoms and hope that the patient feels good enough to not come back for a while.