B (11:38)

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A (12:26)

In early 2021, about nine months after Andrew first started experiencing these sudden bouts of extreme pain, Caroline took him back to his pediatrician for a follow up. She let Andrew walk ahead of her into the office. She intentionally trailed behind him a little so she could watch his stride. She saw he was dragging his left foot instead of picking it up and actually stepping with it. He'd been doing this this whole past week. It was like his right foot was doing all the walking and his left foot was just along for the ride. At this point, it was another symptom to add to the list. Over the past few months, Andrew had been having headaches and meltdowns again. Besides that, he seemed exhausted all the time. The Motrin still helped somewhat, but Caroline could see him getting more solemn and less playful with each passing day. She knew her baby was in pain, and it had to be due to something other than his narrow palate or the pandemic. Caroline had taken him to several doctors, trying to get some answers. A neurologist had told her that Andrew had migraines, while an ear, nose, and throat doctor still believed her son was having breathing issues while sleeping, and so he likely couldn't fall into a deep, undisturbed sleep, which explained why he was so tired. But to Caroline, none of these doctors were addressing the root problem. She felt like each doctor was focusing on one single symptom, but nobody was taking a step back to see the whole picture. What was the underlying condition or disease that was causing all these symptoms? And until somebody could put all the puzzle pieces together, Andrew would be the one suffering. But no matter how many times she tried to communicate this with all the doctors and specialists, it was like nobody seemed to understand. Caroline felt like she was losing her mind, but all she could do was just keep going to more doctors. And so she'd taken Andrew back to his pediatrician's office, hoping maybe he might finally have a real answer for her. While the pediatrician measured Andrew's height and weight, Caroline went through all of Andrew's symptoms. She expected the doctor to offer some kind of overarching explanation. Instead, he just stood upright and told her there was good news. Andrew had grown a bit since his last appointment. Caroline supposed that was good. But the rest of Andrew's symptoms showed no improvement whatsoever. And on the whole, Andrew wasn't feeling good. He was still in pain. And now there was this lazy foot issue. She wanted to know how they could start actively helping her son instead of just tracking all his symptoms. The Pediatrician suggested that Caroline put her son in physical therapy to correct his foot imbalance. He promised to write a referral. Caroline thanked him, though secretly she felt overwhelmed by how many appointments this would likely add to their already Dr. Heavy calendar. But it just felt like there was nothing else she could do. She had to go through with it. So she smiled and promised the doctor she would get Andrew into therapy soon. Later that week, while Andrew was going through his physical therapy routine, Caroline, who was in the room watching him, felt uneasy. Andrew's therapist, Ms. Ashley, was walking Andrew through an examination. Caroline smiled as Andrew walked around the room with a determined look on his face. Ms. Ashley took notes and told him he was doing a great job. Then Ms. Ashley asked him to sit cross legged on the floor. Andrew tried, but he couldn't quite get his legs to cross over one another. One leg would bend, but he couldn't bend his other leg enough to sit upright. Before long, he got frustrated and told Ms. Ashley he couldn't do it. Ms. Ashley said that was okay. And then they moved on to other activities. After a session was over, Andrew came running over to his mom and Caroline scooped him up. She let him rest his head on her shoulder. And then Ms. Ashley came over and explained that Andrew might have a congenital condition called Chiari malformation. That's when a part of the brain called the cerebellum bulges through an opening at the back of the skull, right where the skull joins the spinal canal. The bulge puts pressure on the cerebellum and the spinal cord. It can cause severe headaches, scoliosis, and sleep apnea, which is when breathing becomes interrupted during sleep. If Andrew did have a Chiari malformation, he could need surgery. The thought sent a shiver through Caroline. She never thought that Andrew might need to be cut open. She hated picturing it, and she had no idea how she was going to explain it to him. The Following Winter, in 2022, Caroline was in Andrew's bedroom helping him into his pajamas. The same pair of red flannel pajamas that he'd been wearing for two years. Now it felt like his sister Robyn outgrew her clothes every few months. But Andrew hadn't needed new pajamas or T shirts since before COVID Andrew was six years old now, but he still looked like he was closer to four. And this evening he was throwing a tantrum like a bonafide toddler. But Caroline didn't blame him. After dinner, she and Brian had taken Andrew out for ice cream and broke the news. Because of what was going on with him. He had to quit his hockey team. The skating was causing too much pain in his knees and back. It was just too much for his underdeveloped body. At first, Caroline just felt heartbroken for making Andrew so sad. But now she was so frustrated, she was becoming angry at all the doctors. She was tired of having to tell Andrew that nobody knew why his body was failing him. The latest theory that Andrew had Chiari malformation wasn't right either. Andrew had tested negative for the condition last year. Since then, Caroline and Brian had taken their son to countless more specialists. A new pediatrician for a second opinion, a pediatric internist, even an adult internist, just in case they found something different. In total, Andrew had seen 17 different doctors over the last three years. But all those doctors were still stuck in a cycle of treating his symptoms individually. Caroline finally got Andrew into bed, though it broke her heart to leave him red faced and tear streaked, his little arms wrapped around his favorite stuffed animal. She went downstairs and started scrolling on her phone just to decompress. A Facebook friend had posted an article that looked interesting about a new artificial intelligence software called ChatGPT. You could ask it any question, no matter how complex, and it would scan the whole Internet in a matter of seconds to generate an answer. People were using it to create marketing plans for their companies, to write blog posts, and to make mashups like fairy tales written in the style of a mafia movie or. Or resignation letters if they were written by famous TV characters. It seemed like a fun way to spend an hour. So Caroline started messing around with ChatGPT. When Brian came into the living room and sat down next to her on the sofa, she read him some of the funniest mashups it had made. Brian laughed and then joked that she should try to use it to diagnose Andrew. Caroline laughed dismissively. But then she wondered. It was a long shot, but why not? Maybe ChatGPT would find some rare, obscure disease that most specialists had never heard of. Or maybe it would unearth some clue, some pivotal question to ask that would help one of his doctors see the whole picture. The worst that could happen was nothing, really. So Caroline started typing all of Andrew's symptoms into Chat GPT. She even went and got her copy of medical notes from an MRI he'd gotten and typed them in line by line. It was a tedious process, especially doing it on her phone. But eventually, when she was done, she hit entertainment and waited. A few moments later, the little text box started suggesting possible answers, but they were all conditions that Andrew had already been tested for. Caroline's heart sank. She felt stupid for thinking this brand new Internet AI chat box could magically diagnose her child. But then she realized she actually had left out one of his symptoms. The fact that he could no longer sit cross legged. She told ChatGPT to redo the search, including that symptom, and within moments, it suggested a condition that she'd never heard of. And none of Andrew's doctors had ever mentioned it either. But as she started reading the symptoms of this condition aloud, Brian sat up straight, his eyes going wide. He ran to get his laptop, and Caroline started researching on her phone. Eventually, she found a Facebook group for families living with and caring for those with this condition. And to her surprise, their stories were nearly identical to Andrew's. A week later, Caroline was bursting with anticipation as she sat next to Andrew in a brand new doctor's office. They were waiting to see Dr. Hannah Gordon, a pediatric neurosurgeon. Caroline had brought a packet of research with her and had it waiting on her lap for when the doctor came in. She hoped that by the end of the appointment, Dr. Gordon would be able to officially diagnose Andrew and that Caroline would finally know what was wrong with her son. When Dr. Gordon finally came into the exam room, Caroline introduced herself and explained that usually she was not one to surf the Internet and self diagnose, but she'd actually found some compelling evidence online. And then she handed over the research packet she'd compiled, and she watched the doctor read over it. When Dr. Gordon laid eyes on Andrew's MRI scans, she smiled and told Caroline that she was fairly certain she did know how to help Andrew. Dr. Gordon explained that Andrew was suffering from a condition called tethered cord syndrome, the same condition that chatgpt had identified. The spinal cord runs like a cable through the bones that make up the spine, from the base of the skull to the tailbone. However, in rare cases, the spinal cord improperly attaches itself to something inside the bones of the spinal column. As a result, the spinal cord's movement is limited. In short, it gets stuck. Andrew's spinal cord was stuck to one of those growing spinal bones, causing him extreme pain and all his other symptoms. It was also why he couldn't sit cross legged, a symptom that's so common among people with tethered cord syndrome that ChatGPT recognized the pattern. Caroline believes that ChatGPT was able to diagnose Andrew because it was doing the very thing she had spent years asking doctors to do. It took a step back and considered all of Andrew's symptoms instead of picking and choosing or focusing on them one by one. Luckily for Andrew, he was able to undergo surgery to detach his spinal cord from where it was stuck. Once the tension was gone, Andrew's symptoms soon disappeared and he went back to his happy go lucky self for real this time From Ballin Studios and wondery this is Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries hosted by me, Mr. Ballin a quick note about our stories. They are all inspired by true events, but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved and a reminder the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. This episode was written by Aaron Lam. Our editor is Heather Dundas. Sound design is by Ryan Potesta. Our senior Managing producer is Nick Ryan and our Coordinating producer is Taylor Sniffin. Our Senior producer is Alex Benedon. Our associate producers and researchers are Sarah Bytak and Teja Pelikonda. Fact checking was done by Sheila Patterson for Ballin Studios. Our Head of Production is Zach Link Levitt. Script editing by Scott Allen and Evan Allen. Our Coordinating producer is Samantha Collins. Production support by Avery Siegel. Executive producers are myself, Mr. Ballin and also Nick Witters for Wondry. Our Head of Sound is Marcelino Villapando. Senior producers are Laura, Donna Palavoda and Dave Schilling. Senior Managing Producer is Ryan Lohr. Our Executive producers are Aaron o' Flaherty and Marshall Louie. For wondering hey prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad free on Amazon Music. 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