Help Me Write A Quantum Leap Episode About ME

[DigitalDrifter]

I recently read that they are rebooting a favourite show of mine (Quantum Leap) that I use to watch in the 1990's. I thought we could have a go at writing our own episode not just for entertainment but for advocacy.

I want the protagonist to leap in to the brother of an ME patient who in the original time line gets sectioned/committed and ends up committing suicide due to having their symptoms permanently worsened. The protagonist has to convince the family and their doctor that ME is real and that the symptoms are consequential in order to prevent the suicide and also have the patient treated with consideration in order to prevent the condition from deteriorating.

 

[NelliePledge]

Very interesting idea. I love that series. I hope you can take it forward.

 

[Hoopoe]

The protagonist has to convince the family and their doctor that ME is real and that the symptoms are consequential in order to prevent the suicide and also have the patient treated with consideration in order to prevent the condition from deteriorating.

... then the protagonist discovers this is impossible and has to invent a cure instead, which turns out to be easier.

 

[MountainRose]

... then the protagonist discovers this is impossible and has to invent a cure instead, which turns out to be easier.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

then the protagonist discovers this is impossible and has to invent a cure instead, which turns out to be easier.

From what I remember each leap only lasts about a week so it's not realistic to find a cure that quick.

 

[Wonko]

Quantum leap has never really been overly concerned with things being realistic lol

 

[Peter T]

From what I remember each leap only lasts about a week so it's not realistic to find a cure that quick.

You could find someone who already has a cure or set a team of scientists working on the right track in this time scale.

 

[NelliePledge]

it could actually be ‘something in the blood’ for which there just happens to be an existing drug

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

The protagonist has to convince the family and their doctor that ME is real and that the symptoms are consequential

That MEpedia page doesn't make any sense to me as a physician. Consequential means as a consequence of, that is all. In ME nobody knows what the causal pathways are so nobody knows what is consequential on what. Correlation isn't enough to make something consequential.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

That MEpedia page doesn't make any sense to me as a physician. Consequential means as a consequence of, that is all.

It's to differentiate between some body who for example has 4/10 pain and 4/10 fatigue who can go for a jog and still have the same symptoms after vs some body who's symptoms are exacerbated by exercise. It includes PEM but also other forms of symptom exacerbation such as PERI as well.

If you're having a debate with a psychologist or skeptic and they try to use the old "We're not saying your symptoms aren't real" line you can swiftly counter with "You are implying the symptoms are inconsequential".

I agree that the article needs improving but it is a helpful term. Perhaps some body should start a thread about it.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

It's to differentiate between some body who for example has 4/10 pain and 4/10 fatigue who can go for a jog and still have the same symptoms after vs some body who's symptoms are exacerbated by exercise.

MEpedia may think that but it is not a medical usage.

"You are implying the symptoms are inconsequential".

I don't know if anyone who would say that other than to mean 'unimportant'.
'Inconsequential' means 'having no consequences' so if 'consequential' means anything it ought to mean having consequences, which is the opposite of being the consequence of something, which is what MEpedia seems to think it means.

I just don't think this is what the word is used for, unless maybe it is in the USA in some context that I am aware of.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

I don't know if anyone who would say that other than to mean 'unimportant'.

It doesn't have the same meaning as it's every day English definition, think of the medical term "Benign" which originally prefixed ME.

so if 'consequential' means anything it ought to mean having consequences, which is the opposite of being the consequence of something, which is what MEpedia seems to think it means.

What in the name...
For me the consequence of exercise is making my illness progress, what's difficult to understand about that? Some body who doesn't believe in that consequence thinks my symptoms are inconsequential.

Let me ask you this, can you come up with a better term for "Consequential symptoms", and if so why not make your own MEpedia article? We can then vote for which is the better term.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

It doesn't have the same meaning as it's every day English definition, think of the medical term "Benign" which originally prefixed ME.

I have been a physician for fifty plus years and never come across this usage!

For me the consequence of exercise is making my illness progress, what's difficult to understand about that? Some body who doesn't believe in that consequence thinks my symptoms are inconsequential.

Nothing difficult, but it's backwards. You are talking about a symptom being consequential or inconsequential. But it is the exercise that has the consequence of the symptom, not the other way around. The symptom does not cause exercise (and inconsequential means not causing anything important).

I offered to be involved as an advisor to MEpedia early on but the people writing it made it clear that they didn't want my help. Otherwise I would have been helping writing these pages for several years.

What I think you mean by consequential symptoms are in medical terms just the symptoms of the disease itself - caused by the disease - rather than coexistent symptoms.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

I offered to be involved as an advisor to MEpedia early upon but the people writing it made it clear that they didn't want my help.

My challenge still stands to all members - come up with a better term for consequential symptoms. I'm sure we will have volunteers to make an MEpedia page if the term is good enough.