Sandra Boodman

1 month ago | washingtonpost.com | Sandra Boodman

The editors’ proposal sounded intriguing: a monthly column about people beset by baffling illnesses that were ultimately identified — a fraught, often frightening and sometimes life-altering quest that could take years. At the time — 2007 — reality TV shows featuring patients with unexplained conditions that stumped doctors were popular. So was the weekly drama “House,” about a savant physician who heads a hospital team that cracks tough cases.

1 month ago | stuff.co.nz | Sandra Boodman

2 months ago | washingtonpost.com | Sandra Boodman

Constance Meyer’s hacking cough was driving other people crazy. For more than a year, it had been the soundtrack of her life, disrupting the violin lessons she was giving, waking her up at night and irritating family and friends who were baffled by its imperviousness to multiple treatments. “That cough’s going to give me a heart attack!” quipped one father, a doctor who had accompanied his young son to a lesson. Meyer’s own doctors couldn’t agree on a cause.

2 months ago | inquirer.com | Sandra Boodman

The pea-size spot near the tip of his nose seemed so innocuous Ben Murray thought it might have been numb for a while and he simply hadn’t noticed. In March 2020, Murray, a videographer and editor for the Military Times, had other things on his mind. The pandemic was in its frightening initial throes, and Murray’s wife, Rebecca, was pregnant with their first child. For the next few months Murray, then 42, periodically touched the spot, which seemed unchanged.

2 months ago | stuff.co.nz | Sandra Boodman