What Happens When Medicine Doesn't Have an Answer? | Dr. Carrie Niederman

Dr. Carrie Niederman knew something had changed.

An athlete and veterinarian with a background in biochemistry, Carrie became suddenly ill in 2009 after what initially seemed like a viral infection. She never returned to her previous level of health. But as test after test came back normal, finding an explanation became increasingly difficult. Over the next eight years, Carrie moved through a healthcare system that often didn't know what to do with a patient whose symptoms were real but difficult to measure.

Eventually diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), Carrie began confronting not only the realities of chronic illness, but the loss of the life she had known. She even gave her illness a name—“Vivi”—as part of learning to live with it rather than spending the rest of her life chasing the person she had been before.

Her experience also exposed gaps in a medical system she understood from the other side as a clinician: short appointments, fragmented specialty care, diagnostic uncertainty, and biases that can prevent patients from being fully heard. Carrie and Lisa consider what happens when a clinician doesn't have an answer—and why curiosity, continuity, and simply believing that a patient's experience is real can still be meaningful forms of care.

Now Carrie is bringing that perspective to future physicians, sharing her story with medical students in the hope that one encounter might cause someone to approach a complicated patient differently.

Join Dr. Lisa Belisle for this conversation with Dr. Carrie Niederman today on Radio Maine.

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