Jennifer Brea: What happens when you have a disease doctors can't diagnose
ג'ן בראה: מה קורה כשיש לך מחלה שהרופאים לא מצליחים לאבחן
Jennifer Brea was a PhD student at Harvard when, one night, she found she couldn't write her own name. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
to applaud ASL-style, in silence.]
בשפת הסימנים.]
to marry the love of my life.
when we are in good health,
כשאנחנו בריאים,
a fever of 104.7 degrees.
if you have a virus,
some chicken soup,
everything will be fine.
I couldn't leave my house.
שלא יכולתי לצאת מהבית.
just to make it to the bathroom.
רק כדי להגיע לשירותים.
after infection,
nothing wrong.
to explain things like this to yourself,
להסביר לעצמך דברים כאלה,
to be on the other side of 25.
draw the right side of a circle.
את צדו הימני של מעגל.
to speak or move at all.
dermatologists, endocrinologists,
רופאי עור, אנדוקרינולוגים,
"It's clear you're really sick,
what's wrong with you."
diagnosed me with conversion disorder.
כבעלת הפרעת המרה.
the sinus infection,
neurological and cardiac symptoms --
הנוירולוגיות, הקרדיולוגיות --
by some distant emotional trauma
probability theory,
experimental design.
my neurologist's diagnosis.
את האבחנה של הנוירולוג שלי.
that the truth is often counterintuitive,
האמת מנוגדת לאינטואיציה,
by what we want to believe.
על-ידי מה שאנו רוצים להאמין.
that he was right.
from my neurologist's office to my house,
מהמשרד של הנוירולוג לביתי,
almost electric kind of pain.
could have possibly generated all this.
יכולה היתה לייצר את כל זה.
I couldn't touch my chin to my chest,
שלא יכולתי לגעת עם הסנטר בחזה,
in the next room --
of the next two years in bed.
have gotten it so wrong?
all over the world
and weekends in bed,
את הערבים וסופי השבוע במיטה,
the next Monday.
the sound of a human voice
with myalgic encephalomyelitis.
מיילגי'ק אנצפלומיאליטיס (ME).
"chronic fatigue syndrome."
בשם "תסמונת התשישות הכרונית".
as serious as this.
physically, mentally --
פיזית, מנטלית --
he might be sore for a couple of days.
I might be bedridden for a week.
אני עלולה להיות רתוקה למיטה לשבוע.
from my neurologist's office.
people around the world
it's about one million people.
as multiple sclerosis.
שכיחה יותר מטרשת נפוצה.
with the physical function
ברמת תפקוד גופני
are homebound or bedridden,
can't even work part-time.
אפילו במשרה חלקית.
and this devastating
with conversion disorder,
of ideas about women's bodies
by sexual deprivation
would literally dry up
in search of moisture,
for several millennia until the 1880s,
כמה אלפי שנה, עד 1880,
the theory of hysteria.
את תיאוריית ההיסטריה.
could produce physical symptoms
סימפטומים גופניים
mind to handle.
אינה יכולה להתמודד איתם.
into physical symptoms.
לסימפטומים גופניים.
could now get hysteria,
יכולים לסבול מהיסטריה,
the most susceptible.
the history of my own disease,
these ideas still run.
מושרשים חזק.
at the Los Angeles County General Hospital
בביה"ח הכללי של מחוז לוס אנג'לס,
in the neck and back, fevers --
קשיחות בצוואר ובגב, חום --
I had when I first got diagnosed.
כשאובחנתי לראשונה.
it was a new form of polio.
than 70 outbreaks documented
post-infectious disease.
to disproportionately affect women,
פגעו באופן לא פרופרוציונלי בנשים,
the one cause of the disease,
were mass hysteria.
הן היסטריה המונית.
doctors want to help.
הרופאים רוצים לעזור.
what would otherwise be untreatable,
לטפל במה שאחרת היה בלתי ניתן לטיפול,
that have no explanation.
can cause real harm.
named Eliot Slater
who had been diagnosed with hysteria.
שאובחנו עם היסטריה.
and 30 had become disabled.
12 מהם מתו ו-30 הפכו לנכים.
like multiple sclerosis,
כמו טרשת נפוצה,
renamed "conversion disorder."
הוסב באופן רשמי ל"הפרעת המרה".
that diagnosis in 2012,
to receive that diagnosis.
פי 2-10 יותר מגברים.
or psychogenic illness
או מחלה פסיכוגנית,
the absence of evidence,
have held back biological research.
עיכבו את המחקר הביולוגי.
of the least funded diseases.
הכי פחות מתוקצבות.
roughly 2,500 dollars per AIDS patient,
בערך 2,500 דולר לכל חולה איידס,
per ME patient.
has been a choice,
that were supposed to protect us.
sometimes runs in families,
יש ל-ME דפוס משפחתי,
after almost any infection,
to Epstein-Barr virus to Q fever,
ועד קדחת קיו,
at two to three times the rate of men.
פי 2-3 יותר מגברים.
than just my disease.
of a cohort of women in their late 20s
בסוף שנות ה-20,
much trouble we were having
that it was all in her head.
that it was just early menopause.
for years as anxiety.
אובחן בטעות כחרדה.
autoimmune diseases
שיעורן של מחלות אוטו-אימוניות רבות
who are eventually diagnosed
this has everything to do with gender
of autoimmune disease patients are women,
it's as high as 90 percent.
disproportionately affect women,
באופן לא פרופורציונלי,
and ME affects millions of men.
you're exaggerating your symptoms,
שאת מגזימה בסימפטומים שלך,
to be strong, to buck up.
להיות חזק, להתגבר.
a more difficult time getting diagnosed.
קשה יותר גם לקבל אבחנה.
thought of as psychological
their biological mechanisms.
could be forcibly institutionalized
abnormal electrical activity in the brain.
פעילות חשמלית חריגה במוחם.
as hysterical paralysis
discovered brain lesions.
שאולקוסים בקיבה נוצרים רק מלחץ,
were just caused by stress,
that H. pylori was the culprit.
הוא הֶלִיקוֹבַּקְטֶר פִּילוֹרִי.
from the kind of science
to find evidence of autoimmunity,
עדויות אוטו-אימוניות,
are finding abnormalities
away from normal.
are running a phase-3 clinical trial
ניסוי קליני שלב 3
causes complete remission.
שבחלק מהחולים מביאה לנסיגה מלאה.
and our own doctors
והרופאים של עצמנו,
five percent there,
or will I wash my hair today?
או לחפוף היום את השיער?
that I could be treated.
maybe one day I could get better.
אולי יום אחד אוכל להרגיש טוב יותר.
around the world,
with something wonderful,
be able to run again,
that I now only get to do in my dreams.
שהיום אני עושה רק בחלומותי.
for how far I have come.
when I was stuck in that bedroom,
כשהייתי תקועה בחדר השינה,
since I had seen the sun.
had I not been one of the lucky ones,
taken my own life,
we have saved, decades ago,
לפני עשרות שנים,
of my disease is discovered,
our institutions and our culture,
are profoundly human endeavors.
about women's health.
a battleground for equality
to say, "I don't know."
"אני לא יודע".
of all that we do not know,
של כל מה שאנו לא יודעים,
with a sense of wonder.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jennifer Brea - FilmmakerJennifer Brea was a PhD student at Harvard when, one night, she found she couldn't write her own name.
Why you should listen
Over the following months, while doctors insisted her condition was psychosomatic, Brea became bedridden. She started filming herself and the community that she discovered online, collecting the first footage of what would become a feature documentary about myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), often referred to as chronic fatigue syndrome. The film, Unrest, which will premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, tells Jen's story as well as the stories of four other patients living with ME.
Brea is also the founder of #MEAction, an online organizing platform for ME patients around the world, many of whom cannot leave their homes.
Jennifer Brea | Speaker | TED.com