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This is one of the suggestions from the Cushing’s Awareness Challenge post: Our “Official mascot” is the zebra. Our mascot In med school, student doctors are told “When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras“. According to Wikipedia: “Zebra is a medical slang term for a surprising diagnosis. Although rare diseases are, in general, surprising when they are encountered, other diseases can be surprising in a particular person and time, and so “zebra” is the broader concept. The term derives from the aphorism ‘When you hear hoofbeats behind you, don’t expect to see a zebra’, which was coined in a slightly modified form in the late 1940s by Dr. Theodore Woodward, a former professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. Since horses are the most commonly encountered hoofed animal and zebras are very rare, logically you could confidently guess that the animal making the hoofbeats is probably a horse. A zebra cup my DH bought me 🙂 By 1960, the aphorism was widely known in medical circles.” Why? Because those of us who DO have a rare disorder know from personal experience what it feels like to be dismissed by a doctor or in many cases, multiple doctors. Many physicians have completely lost the ability to even imagine that zebras may exist! Cushing’s is too rare – you couldn’t possible have that. Well… rare means some people get it. Why couldn’t it be me? Although one of my signature images has a zebra, many have rainbows or butterflies in them so I guess that I consider those my own personal mascots. I posted this in 2010 in 40 Days of Thankfulness: Days Twenty-Two through Thirty Butterflies are something else again. I like them because I would like to think that my life has evolved like a butterfly’s, from something ugly and unattractive to something a big easier on the eye. My Cushie self was the caterpillar, post-op is more butterfly-ish, if not in looks, in good deeds. From July, 2008
