Psych !
If you asked my mom to describe me as a child , she would tell you I was an energic , inquisitive troublemaker with a natural curiosity , seeking to uncover all the answers to the world ’ s greatest mysteries . That description still holds today , and it is my investigative nature that drew me to pursue a career as a physician in the first place . I remember what moment made me first think , “ Hey being a doctor would be interesting ” and it was when I was working through my own differential diagnosis during my freshman year of college . Having just started school , student health became one of my most frequented spots on campus . Each month I returned with a worse sinus infection which coincided with me gradually losing my sense of smell and my nose starting to become sensitive to the touch . Growing up , I had frequent sinus infections , so I was very familiar with the classic presentation , but this was different . I kept running through my differential diagnosis in my head trying to understand what could be possibly wrong with me . My quick investigation on Google led me to have a differential ranging from a persistent cold to late-stage cancer . While this may have been a bit extreme , I felt the need to get more information to help me solve the case of the mystery condition .
My next lead to solving the case came during finals week when I came down with a 103 ° F fever , which had never occurred in previous sinus infections . Of course , based on my presentation and time of year , student health administered a flu test , shoving that classic rod up my nose . It was at this time that I achieved a breakthrough in my case when the physician administering the test hit me with this line of questioning , “ Did you know you have a deviated septum ?”
To which I responded with my own inquiry , “ What is a deviated septum ?”
Once she explained to me what the condition was , I felt as if this was the lead I was looking for to solve my cold case . I scheduled an appointment with an ENT to pursue the hot tip . During
24 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE by PHILLIP HARTER , M3 spring break , we gathered more clues with imaging and a scope confirming I did have a deviated septum , but the case was not as straightforward as we originally thought . The curveball we were thrown was the discovery of a mass resting at the base of my skull in my right nasal cavity . My physician assured me that this was most likely a benign polyp and was nothing to worry about , but my partner , Dr . Google , was in my ear and not convinced the case was closed . We executed the surgery after I finished finals in May and in my initial follow-up , there was no forensic report back from pathology regarding the mystery mass . Upon returning for my second follow-up , we finally had our suspect identified with the pathology report stating the lesion had all the characteristics of Olfactory Neuroblastoma . This case had just taken a drastic turn .
With such a rare diagnosis , I was transferred over to another office for further evaluation and care . The road I had to walk after my diagnosis included two more surgeries , leaving college to receive treatment , establishing with three physicians from different specialties , and three months of proton radiation five days a week . While all this was overwhelming for me and my family at the time , I tried to find the silver lining and oddly I realized that this experience was providing me with vital intel on the other major case I was investigating at that time in my life , i . e ., what I was going to do with my life .
During my first year of college , I felt I was at a crossroads , torn between two paths . While now it is obvious which route I chose , entering college I had another career in mind entirely , that of a detective . As a child , my dad and I shared several shows , but my favorite was Psych , which follows Shawn Spencer , son of former detective Henry Spencer . Henry trained Shawn from an early age to be a highly observant and perceptive future detective . While Shawn did become extremely perceptive , he also was a slacker and a deadbeat . To make some money , Shawn started to watch the local news and use the footage of crime scenes to call and solve the cases . However , he was too good at solving the cases and was brought in for questioning , as the police believed he was involved in the crimes . Rather than explaining to the detectives how he solved the cases , he told them he was a psychic and could