Symptoms that turned out to belong to something else

The list

A rash that was an allergy to the plaster. A month of Thursday headaches that were a new pair of glasses. Vision changes that an optician took one look at and sent straight on. Cramps that turned out to be a diuretic that had been reduced. Low mood that lifted when a thyroid dose was corrected. Two separate ordinary iron problems. One tooth abscess, blamed for a fortnight on nausea.

And the one that made the room quiet: Minnie's fatigue and hair changes, which she had attributed for five months to the medication and which turned out to be a thyroid that needed adjusting. Five months.

Why it happens

Because a new medication is a very available explanation, and because a lot of us are practised at tolerating things. Hattie, who lives with a fatigue condition, made the sharpest point: people who have spent years being told their symptoms are nothing get extremely good at filing symptoms away, and starting a medication just gives them a better drawer to file them in.

I added the other half. Clinicians do it too. If you walk in with a theory, a busy person may agree with it and stop looking. A timeline is harder to agree with and easier to think about.

Where we left it

With an actual practice, which the room wrote. When something new turns up, write down what else changed in the same month. New glasses, new tablet, a house move, a bereavement, a season. Then take that list rather than a conclusion. Four members are trying it.