Mary Keeper’s Aching Head

by
Brent J.F. Hill
Department of Biology
University of Central Arkansas

Oooouuuhh...

Part I—Trouble Sleeping Prompts an Urgent Doctors Appointment

Scenario

This morning at 4 a.m. Mary Keeper woke up with yet another throbbing headache and decided she couldn’t stand it anymore—she needed to see a physician. She took some Tylenol® and then spent the rest of the morning lying on her couch drinking several glasses of water (10 glasses altogether) until the physician’s office opened that morning. She made an urgent appointment to see Dr. Nee.

Patient History

Although Mary is a carrier of the hepatitis B virus, she has been in reasonably good health except for some rheumatoid arthritis in her hip that has developed from a previous sports-related injury. She has been controlling the arthritis using Celebrex® and glucosamine for the past two years.

Physical Examination

Vital Signs

General Appearance

Head and Neck

Lungs

Cardiovascular

Abdominal

Genitourinary

Extremities

Neurological

Physician Comments

There is a slight weight loss (10 lbs.) from her last appointment (10 months ago); however, the patient indicates that she has a good appetite and good nutritional habits. She indicates that she has been having re-occurring headaches this past month, which have led to problems sleeping. A blood chemistry, thyroid, and endocrine test are ordered. A follow-up appointment is arranged for the next week to review the blood lab results.

Objectives for Your Group

  1. Assign people positions/roles for the case study such as group leader, typist, secretary, and editor.
  2. Brainstorm on what you (a) know about the case, and (b) do not know, but would like to know about the case.
  3. Formulate your initial ideas (or hypotheses) about what is wrong with Mary.
  4. Identify and define terms and concepts you do not understand.
  5. Write an approximately one-page group report that includes (a) the roles each person is assigned to, (b) your initial hypothesis and the evidence that led to its formulation, and (c) the terms and concepts that were initially identified as being unknown to you. Make sure you properly cite the source when explaining a concept.
  6. You will be given Part II upon completion of Part I.

Go to Part II—“The Follow-up Visit”

Date Posted: 05/15/06 nas

Image Credit: Illustration copyright © Dawn Hudson.

This file is also available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).  PDF Version

Originally published at http://www.sciencecases.org/aching_head/aching_head.asp

Copyright © 1999–2010 by the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science.  Please see our usage guidelines, which outline our policy concerning permissible reproduction of this work.

Home