Published 5 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3876
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3876

Practice

A Patient’s Journey

Behçet’s syndrome

Michael Hart, patient1, Robert J Moots, professor of rheumatology2

1 Caergeiliog, Anglesey, 2 Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, University Hospital Aintree, Liverpool L9 7AL

Correspondence to: M Hart michaelanddawn@btinternet.com

Finding an effective treatment for Behçet’s syndrome has been a long and painful journey for Michael

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

I was 18 and had just returned from a trip to Australia when lumps started to appear on my legs. The doctors thought it was deep vein thrombosis caused by the long flight and prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs, which seemed to calm things down. However, over the next few months I was very unwell—one week with tonsillitis, the next with an infection in my testicles, then back to tonsillitis, and so on. I also had bad mouth ulcers that sometimes made eating difficult. All of this was accompanied by flu-like symptoms, whereby my bones ached and I had very little energy.

During the two years when I had repeated infections, I was admitted to hospital nine times. My mouth and genitals were ulcerated and lumps kept appearing. During one of these stays, I was taken for tests and found myself in the genitourinary medicine clinic. They suspected AIDS or something similar, . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ