Case History

THE PATIENT: Tara*, a 34-year-old sales rep 

- Sydney Loney

THE SYMPTOMS: Numbness in one leg, abdominal pain and inflammation in a toe 

THE DOCTOR: Dr. Heather Cox, a surgeon at the Northern Alberta Vascular Surgery Centre in Edmonton

IN MARCH 2015, Tara visited the walk-in clinic in her small town in northern Alberta. Her right middle toe had been red and swollen for a week, and now she was worried because her right leg and foot felt numb. The doctor there diagnosed her with a general infection and prescribed an eight-week course of antibiotics. Tara’s sore toe improved, but the numbness didn’t. That sensation evolved into pain that increased over the next three months, making walking difficult. She also had sporadic bouts of stabbing abdominal pain for several seconds at a time.

After nearly four months, pain and numbness left Tara so debilitated that she went to the ER three times in one week. On her third visit, an ultrasound revealed that she’d lost all function in a kidney, but one physician wasn’t convinced that this was the only problem.