Thigh

Chemical Eric: Dealing with the Disintegration of Central Control

by

Eric Ribbens

Department of Biological Sciences

Western Illinois University

Part I—At Fifteen...

He was, his mother always said, the cutest little boy ever, and she had

always adored him. So strong, so sturdy, confidently charging through

life. At , he joined a Little League baseball team, and made the AllStar team in his first year. It wasn’t until quite some time later that she

realized something was very wrong.

Looking back, probably the first symptom appeared when he was .

Promoted up to the next division in Little League, he mostly sat on the

bench. His coordination was not as good, and he seemed to have lost

his hustle. Of course, it was probably just that he was being expected to

do too much, and it was easy to overlook. And he began to grow.

Soon he began to notice girls, but after an initial girlfriend or two, he

retreated. Too shy, probably. They moved, and moved again, and his

grades slipped. He became more introverted. Troubled teen? Doing

drugs? She found no evidence, but worried. And he grew.

He turned , and he grew. He was getting close to six feet tall now, and was

wearing size  shoes. He was skinny, weighing only  lbs. His right knee

began to swell, and he developed mysterious ulcerated sores on his lower left

leg that refused to heal. He began to complain often of feeling sick, and came

home from school frequently. Never anything seriously wrong, but he just

didn’t feel good.

They revisited the doctor, who picked up on the description of large hands

and feet and decided to check blood levels of some hormones. His thyroid

was down, his cortisone levels low, his testosterone levels low, and his growth

hormone levels high. Taps of his right knee removed up to  cc of fluid, but

no evidence of anything specifically wrong inside his knee, just that it was being

damaged. He looked gaunt and unhealthy. Then he fell and broke his left hip.

Questions

. What hormonal problem...