MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries - Ep. 93 | Gut Check/Sleeping Beauty

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

“Gut Check”: When a 16-year-old girl starts experiencing constant and severe stomach pain, her first concern is the effect it’ll have on her social life. But when she discovers how bad the problem really is, she realizes that her social standing is the last thing she needs to worry about.“Sleeping Beauty”: A high-achieving teenager’s grades start to plummet when she becomes inexplicably sleepy and lethargic. But as time goes by, the problem starts to be more than sleeping through English class – eventually, she can’t remember entire months of her life. And she has no idea how to make it stop. Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterFollow MrBallen's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music, the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes publish for free every Tuesday. Prime members can listen to new episodes early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Or, you can listen episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Start your free trial in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or by visiting https://wondery.com/links/mrballens-medical-mysteries/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to new episodes of Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Being a teenager is not easy. Between school and friends and a changing body, it can be a lot to handle, especially if your changing body starts it can be a lot to handle, especially if your changing body starts to go haywire. Today, we have two stories about high school students dealing with terrifying health conditions.

Our first story is about a girl who fears that her constant bouts of nausea will ruin her social life, but it's not long before she has much bigger problems to worry about. And our second story is about another teenage girl who finds herself constantly falling asleep. However, this is far more than sleeping through an alarm. Because when she wakes up, entire months have gone by, and she has no memory of what happened. Don't let your fears take hold. But in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, they just might.

Agent Nate Russo returns in this bone-chilling new chapter of the hit Audible original series. When a group of friends reunite at an abandoned island hotel, what starts as a celebration becomes a nightmare. Was it really an accident? Or is something more sinister at play? Joshua Jackson delivers a masterful performance that'll keep you on the edge of your seat. New to Oracle? Well, perfect timing. Dive into the supernatural thriller series today. All three parts are ready and waiting on Audible.

No need to wait between episodes. Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview. Listen now on Audible. Travis fell in love with the perfect woman. Beautiful. Understanding. Available 24-7. on Audible. From Ballin Studios and Wondry, I'm Mr. Ballin, and this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, where every week we will explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape, our own bodies.

So if you liked today's story, please make the follow button a salad to take to work for lunch. But instead of using lettuce, use poison ivy leaves. And now here's our first story called Gut Check. On a sunny spring morning in 2021, 16-year-old Sabrina Blessing jolted awake inside of her Boston home with a twisting pain in her stomach. It felt as if her whole belly was being squeezed and wrung out like a wet towel. And pretty soon, the pain gave way to nausea, and Sabrina jumped for the trash can near

her bedside. She vomited, just as another searing pain wrenched her insides. Sabrina had been dealing with these stomach pains for the last two weeks. They would come on sharp and sudden, and then vanish in a matter of minutes. The first time she felt it, she thought it might be food poisoning. But the pain kept coming back day after day, getting worse each time and also lasting longer each time. This morning was the worst one yet. She had begun telling herself that maybe she had the flu, but now she wasn't so sure.

When the vomiting finally subsided, Sabrina put the trash can back on the floor and flopped back onto her bed. She closed her eyes, feeling absolutely miserable. Her sinuses were full of snot and bile, and her forehead was damp with sweat, and she knew she looked as ragged as she felt. This was a disaster. Sabrina didn't know how she'd make it to school today, and she was terrified about what would happen if she didn't go. She'd just begun dating a new guy, and he was a star player on the football team, and every girl at school had a crush on him.

And so Sabrina's mind raced with visions of him being surrounded by a bunch of cheerleaders, all trying to get his attention. The thought of that made her stomach clench all over again, but Sabrina fought through it and actually struggled out of her bed. Somehow she made it to the bathroom, and there she began to brush her hair and to get ready for the day. However, just a minute later, the nausea once again overwhelmed her.

Sabrina dropped her hairbrush and dashed to the toilet. There she hunched over in pain, her stomach tightening up like a fist. A moment later, her mom knocked on the door and peeked inside. Sabrina sort of moaned, but told her mom she was okay. She said she was going to tough it out and go to school. Then she shakily got to her feet, but the second she stood up, she felt so lightheaded she began to fall over. Her mom rushed inside and caught her daughter just in time.

She told Sabrina that school would have to wait. This had gone on long enough. She was taking Sabrina to the emergency room. When Sabrina arrived at the ER, a doctor examined her, took some blood, and then asked for a urine sample so they could run some tests. And thankfully, it all came back normal. So Sabrina asked him if she could go to school now. But the doctor shook his head, no.

He said he wanted to do an ultrasound of Sabrina's abdomen, just to be sure nothing was wrong with any of her internal organs. Sabrina sighed and laid back in her hospital bed. Then she began to twirl her hair around her finger while she waited for a technician to come into her cubby in the ER with an ultrasound machine. And as she laid there, all she could think about were all the things that could go wrong with her new relationship if she didn't get to school. What if another girl did catch her boyfriend's attention? And what if she was actually sick here? Would he still want to be with her?

And then Sabrina started thinking, well wait, what if she was really sick? She had tried hard to kind of deny it, the idea that something could really be wrong with her beyond just an ordinary stomach flu. But now as she sat here she started thinking, you know, how bad was this really? Could her life be in danger? Suddenly Sabrina's heart was racing with anxiety. She twirled her hair around her finger faster and faster until it was in a big giant tangle around her hand.

Her mind was going a mile a minute. But if there was any relief, it was that Sabrina did not have to wait very long for her ultrasound. Just a few minutes later, the tech came in, squeezed some cold gel in her stomach, and began the ultrasound. Sabrina was glad for the distraction as the tech moved the wand across her belly, the screen flickering with shifting shapes. A minute later, the tech called the doctor in and he glanced at the ultrasound screen. He told Sabrina that everything looked normal, and relief immediately washed over her. The doctor said he didn't really know what was wrong, but if it was a virus, it should pass through her system soon enough.

But in the meantime, he was going to prescribe her with a few medications to help manage the pain and discomfort. First, he was giving her prescription-strength ibuprofen, which was more potent than anything she could get over the counter. But because painkillers that strong can cause stomach irritation, he was also prescribing some medicine to protect her stomach lining and reduce the nausea. Sabrina thanked him and took some deep breaths to calm herself down. She told herself this would all be over in a few days and everything would be back to

normal. However, the medicine didn't help. And a few days later, Sabrina was curled up on the couch in her living room, hugging her stomach. The pain hadn't let up all day. Earlier that morning, she'd felt good enough to go to school, but halfway through her first class, the familiar twisting pain erupted in her stomach and she had to run immediately to the nurse's office. Her mom had left work to come take her home. Sabrina moaned and squeezed her eyes shut as her mother hurried into the living room

with a glass of water and the extra-stre strength ibuprofen tablets. Sabrina reached for them and downed the pills, hoping the stabbing sensation would go away soon. But the throbbing kept spreading through her belly, and eventually she cried out for her mother again, who came rushing back into the living room to see what was the matter. Sabrina could barely choke out the words, but she told her mom it felt like the ibuprofen was actually making her stomach feel worse. Now she thought she was going to throw up again. Tears streamed down her face as she grabbed the trash can by the end table.

Her mother told her to hang tight. She stood up and raced towards the kitchen and came back with the bottle of anti-nausea medication. She told Sabrina to take one. This would help calm her stomach after the ibuprofen. Her mom shook a pill out of the bottle and handed it to Sabrina. Sabrina hesitated. The last pill had only made things worse and so she was weary of taking something else. But then Sabrina's stomach twisted horribly again and so she just looked up at her mom, gave her a thin smile, took the pill,

and popped it into her mouth. But once her mom had left the room, Sabrina spit the pill back out. She didn't know why, but she was sure the medication wasn't helping. She told herself that she could just, you know, tough it out and fight through this thing and soon everything would be better. One week later, Sabrina gritted her teeth as she slowly walked across the dark emergency room parking lot beside her mother. It was long after midnight. Every movement she made sent a new jolt of pain through her stomach.

Her condition had not gotten better, and tonight, when she was still in bed, she had suddenly woken up with horrible pain in her stomach. The pain was very sharp and deep, like her whole stomach was seizing up. She'd asked her mom to take her back to the ER, and now every step across the parking lot felt like a stab in her side. By the time they reached the hospital doors, Sabrina was barely able to stand, much less walk. Quickly, a nurse put her in a wheelchair and took her back to a cubicle in the ER. Once they were there, Sabrina's mom helped her crawl onto the hospital bed. Then the nurse explained that the doctor would be in soon, but for now, they would do another

ultrasound and they would also test her for sexually transmitted diseases. Sabrina and her mother nodded. Thirty minutes later, a different doctor than the one who treated her last time stepped into the cubicle. He told Sabrina that her STD test had come back negative. Then he asked if Sabrina's meds had made any difference in her pain levels over the past week. Sabrina shook her head and said no, explaining that the extra strength ibuprofen hadn't helped. If anything, it actually had made her pain worse. And after that first time having that horrible adverse reaction to the ibuprofen or so she thought,

she had been too afraid to take any of the other medicines in fear that they too would cause more pain, so she had not been taking the anti-nausea pills or the meds for her stomach lining. Upon hearing this, the doctor looked sort of puzzled. He told Sabrina that it didn't seem like she was having an adverse reaction to the meds, and it really didn't seem like there was anything seriously wrong with her stomach. The only way to get past this was to go through it, and those pills were supposed to help her endure the discomfort. Sabrina smiled and said okay, but inside she was fuming.

It took everything she had not to scream and pull out her hair. As soon as she was discharged, she told her mother they needed to find another doctor, one who would actually help. One week later, pediatrician Dr. Kenny Huang introduced himself to his new patient, Sabrina. Sabrina's mom had brought her into his hospital in Boston after two trips to their local emergency room did not resolve Sabrina's stomach pain. Sabrina explained to him that her pain seemed to be getting worse and more frequent. Dr. Huang could see she was on the verge of tears as she spoke, and so he promised her he would

help them get to the bottom of this. Dr. Huang asked Sabrina to lie back on the table. He was going to press around her abdomen to see what was triggering her pain. Sabrina sighed. She said she'd been through this already, and none of the doctors had said anything was wrong with her. Dr. Huang gave her a reassuring pat on her shoulder. He knew how frustrating this was for her, but he needed to check for himself. Maybe he'd find something that the others hadn't. Sabrina nodded and then followed Dr. Huang's instructions. After she laid down, he began gently pressing his fingertips into her abdomen, searching for a tender spot. Sabrina stayed quiet during the exam,

but the doctor noticed her wincing every time he pressed into her stomach. It seemed like the whole area was sensitive. It did not seem like the pain was originating from one single spot. When he was done, he asked Sabrina to try to describe what she actually felt inside of her abdomen. Sabrina looked at him skeptically she actually felt inside of her abdomen. Sabrina looked at him skeptically, like she didn't trust Dr. Huang was even going to believe her. Sensing this, Dr. Huang grabbed his clipboard and promised the teenager that he was listening and was even going to take notes.

Sabrina explained how severe her pain was becoming. Each episode was an 8 out of 10 at this point in terms of pain. It would come on suddenly and was so intense she would vomit. Once she threw up, the twisting feeling usually subsided a little. In total, the spasms usually lasted about 15 minutes, but sometimes they were longer. And those longer episodes were absolute agony. Dr. Huang listened intently as Sabrina explained why she refused to take any more of her medication. He nodded, trying to show Sabrina that he was taking her concerns seriously. Then when Sabrina stopped talking for a second, he asked her if she'd been experiencing any

other changes since all of this started. Sabrina nodded. She said she wasn't very hungry anymore and felt tired and dizzy a lot of the time. She hesitated for a moment, looking sort of embarrassed, then confessed that she'd also been experiencing constipation and hadn't had a bowel movement for three days. It was making her stomach feel even more uncomfortable. At this point, Sabrina's mom chimed in

and began telling Dr. Huang about all of Sabrina's medical history, from when she was a toddler to now. She talked about her daughter's history of anemia, and also when she was a toddler, now. She talked about her daughter's history of anemia, and also when she was a toddler, she had a condition called pica in which she would eat foods that were not really foods, but she'd grown out of it, and basically anything she could think of that maybe to some degree was playing a role in what was going on with her now,

because no one seemed to know. But after her mother had sort of rattled off everything she could think of, Dr. Huang just sat there silently, having really no idea what was going on with Sabrina, and really nothing that her mother had just told him seemed to be playing a role here. And so the doctor thought, okay, well, maybe she's got some kind of food allergy, except that her pain was getting steadily worse, which is not typical of allergies. And so Dr. Huang knew he needed to run more tests and take a deeper look into Sabrina's stomach. Dr. Huang told Sabrina and her mother that he was going to order a CT scan of Sabrina's

abdomen, just to make sure there wasn't some kind of blockage in her gut. Later that afternoon, Dr. Huang sat at his desk looking over Sabrina's lab work. He was truly stumped. Her CT scan had revealed healthy organs and just a small amount of what looked like stool backed up in her gut. It was all completely normal, and so it allowed him to rule out more serious conditions like gallbladder disease or pancreatitis. The doctor had been wondering if her lab results might reveal an infection, but they came back

normal too. In the meantime, Dr. Huang felt confident that he could give Sabrina a few more medications that would help soothe her pain and relieve her constipation without upsetting her stomach further. The doctor took a cup of medications to Sabrina's room and handed them over to her. Sabrina took the cup and stared at the pills like they might be poison. Dr. Huang assured her that none of these meds would make her stomach pain any worse.

It was just an antacid pill to help neutralize her stomach acid and antihistamine to calm her nerves a bit and laxative to help with a constipation. He said they were also going to give her an injection of local anesthetic to try to help numb the pain a bit too. Sabrina nodded and gulped the pills down with water. Then Dr. Huang quickly gave her the numbing shot. The doctor threw the needle away

and then turned to head back to his office when Sabrina started heaving. He spun back around in time to see the teenager lean forward in her bed, grab a vomit bag and spew the water and pills she had just swallowed back up. Dr. Huang was shocked. He'd never seen a patient throw up pills that fast. Whatever was plaguing Sabrina had to be a rare condition. He helped Sabrina clean up, then threw away the vomit bag and pressed the call button

for the nurse. While they waited, the doctor's mind began to race. To him, the key symptom was how swiftly her stomach pain appeared and disappeared, plus the fact that her abdomen seemed tender all the time. It made him wonder if the issue was in her digestive system, maybe even something called malrotation, a condition where the intestines don't rotate properly during fetal development. It could be causing her issues now that her body was maturing. But as soon as he thought of that, Dr. Huang realized that malrotation couldn't be the problem.

It would have shown up in her CT scan. In fact, all the conditions and diseases he could think of would have been revealed by the CT scan or an ultrasound. And the only thing he could see in her digestive tract was the small collection of stool. Once the nurse arrived, Dr. Huang excused himself and headed back up to his office. Once he was there, he sat down at his desk and pulled up Sabrina's medical chart. And as he read it over, he remembered something Sabrina's mother had told him when she went over the entirety of her daughter's medical history. She had told him about a condition that her daughter used to have but did not have anymore.

Dr. Huang had ruled that condition out when he had used to have, but did not have anymore. Dr. Huang had ruled that condition out when he had first heard it, but now he wondered if maybe she still had that condition. Dr. Huang had actually seen that condition before, and he knew it was a tough one to diagnose because oftentimes, those suffering from it hid some of their symptoms out of pure embarrassment, which obviously makes diagnosis much more difficult. And so now, Dr. Huang wondered if maybe Sabrina was actually still suffering from that condition

and knew she was suffering from it, but was simply too embarrassed to say so. But Dr. Huang still felt like there could be something else going on with Sabrina, and so he decided what he would just do is order a simple procedure where a thin flexible tube with a light and a camera attached to it would be inserted into Sabrina's mouth and would travel down into her stomach and he could just see for himself what was going on. A few hours later, Dr. Huang watched on a monitor as that camera traveled down Sabrina's esophagus and into her stomach.

And immediately, once it was in her stomach, he knew what was causing her pain. Sabrina was suffering from a trichobizor, or a giant ball of human hair inside of her gut. Stomach acid doesn't readily dissolve hair, so it does not move through the digestive system easily. And so if too much of it gets swallowed, it usually gets lodged in the folds of the stomach's gastric lining. From there, it can trap food and gunk

to form this tight, gooey, matted wad. And over time, that wad just gets bigger and bigger. In Sabrina's case, the wad had been showing up on all of her scans, but her doctors had just assumed it was stool. It was not until Dr. Huang remembered, Sabrina had pica as a child, which is where the child will eat non-food items.

And at that point, Dr. Huang began to suspect that maybe she had continued eating non-food items into her older age, and maybe she had this rare condition called Rapunzel syndrome, where she actually was compulsively ingesting her own hair, causing this trichobizor to form. Like many people who suffer from Rapunzel syndrome, Sabrina felt ashamed about her condition, which is very likely why she didn't mention it to any of her doctors when she began having this intense stomach pain. In fairness to her, likely she'd been eating her hair for much of her life

since she was a kid and so she didn't think this could suddenly cause this huge wad in her stomach now. If it hadn't happened before, why would it happen now? However, Sabrina's condition turned out to be even worse than just a simple hairball. Hair from the tangled mass inside of her had dangled down from her stomach and into her small bowel. Not only did these dangling hairs cause her nausea and pain, they also put her at risk for a host of complications, including perforation of the stomach and intestines and acute pancreatitis. Dr. Huang diagnosed Sabrina in the nick of time. and acute pancreatitis. Dr. Huang diagnosed Sabrina in the nick of time. Surgeons were able to remove a hairball about 2.5 inches wide,

along with the dangling hair, relieving Sabrina's intense pain and allowing her digestive tract to heal. The doctor also referred Sabrina to a psychiatrist to help with her condition, so that she didn't just develop more hairballs in the future. Every big moment starts with a big dream. But what happens when that big dream turns out to be a big flop? From Wondry and Atwill Media, I'm Misha Brown and this is the Big Flop. From Wondery and Atwill Media, I'm Misha Brown and this is The Big Flop. Every week, comedians join me to chronicle the biggest flubs, fails, and blunders of

all time like Quibi. It's kind of like when you give yourself your own nickname and you try to get other people to do it. And the 2019 movie adaptation of Cats. Like if I'm watching the dancing and I'm noticing the feet aren't touching the ground, there's something wrong with the movie. Find out what happens when massive hype turns into major fiasco.

Enjoy the Big Flop on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Big Flop early and ad-free on Wondery+. Get started with your free trial at Wondery.com slash plus. We actin' bad, bad, bad, bad. the re plus get started with your free trial at one degree dot com slash plus. We have to bet that that that that we try to hurt nobody. For decades he was untouchable. But now it's all coming undone Sean combs the mogul as we know

it is over he will never be that person again even if he's found not guilty of these charges. I'm Jesse Weber host of law and crimes, the rise and fall of Diddy the federal trial a front row seat to the biggest trial in entertainment history, sex trafficking racketeering prostitution allegations by federal prosecutors that span decades and witnesses were finally speaking out. The spotlight is harsher the stakes are higher and for did he there may be no second chances. You can listen to the

rise and fall of did he the federal trial exclusively with one 3 plus join one 3 plus in the one app, Spotify, or Apple podcasts right now. And now here's our second story called Sleeping Beauty. On a dreary morning in West Seattle in 2003, 14-year-old Amanda Wu trudged downstairs into the kitchen where her mother, Carol, was making breakfast. Amanda sat down at the table next to her father, Peter, and quickly stifled a yawn. She had not gotten much sleep the night before. She had woken up feeling achy, and her brain still felt fuzzy.

She told her parents she thought she might have the flu. Carol turned around from the stove and gave her daughter a skeptical look. She reminded Amanda that she had tennis practice that afternoon, plus a history test she'd been studying for, so she could only stay home if she had a fever. When her dad didn't come to the rescue, Amanda sighed and stumbled down the hallway to get a thermometer. And as she walked, she felt really clumsy and totally exhausted. But she finally retrieved the thermometer and stuck it under her tongue.

By the time she was back in the kitchen, the thermometer was beeping. It was done. And her mother took a look. No fever. She told Amanda, go get ready for school. Amanda's first period that day was English, a class she usually liked. She was a top student, and that day she was even ahead on her reading. But today, she just couldn't seem to focus.

She kept losing her place, and the words on the page just looked scrambled. It was like a layer of fog had settled in her brain. She felt like she needed to splash her face with water to wake up. So she raised her hand and asked to go to the bathroom. But then, the next thing she knew, she was lying on a cot in the nurse's office with her worried parents standing over her. Amanda had no idea how she got there. She had no recollection of even leaving her classroom. But then she glanced over at the clock on the wall and saw that over an hour had passed since she had asked to go to the bathroom. She looked from her mom to her dad to the nurse and then asked what happened. The nurse explained that a couple of her classmates found her passed

out on the floor of the girl's bathroom. They tried to shake her awake, but she wouldn't budge, so they called for help, and a member of the staff got her to her feet and then walked her down to the nurse's office. The nurse said that Amanda had clearly been groggy, but she had been able to crawl onto the cot by herself. Amanda just blinked in shock. She had no memory of any of that, and this realization sent a chill through her. Had she really been moving around, going about her day while blacked out? But the nurse assured her that, very likely, she had simply fainted from dehydration, and so she just needed some rest and plenty of fluids.

A year later, Amanda's father, Peter, hurried up the stairs to Amanda's room. He'd already called her down to breakfast twice. If she didn't hurry, she'd be late for school. But when he opened his daughter's door, he found Amanda still buried under her covers. She told him she felt too sick to get out of bed, and that her brain felt fuzzy. Over the past few months, his daughter had had a few days like this, where she felt sick and ended up sleeping most of the day, and she always felt better after getting some rest. Plus, Peter remembered last year's fainting episode at school, and so he really didn't want to push her. So, he told her to drink some water and just go back to sleep.

However, this time wound up being different. By the next morning, Peter was worried. Usually, when Amanda stayed in bed and had sort of a sleepy day because she was sick, she would still come downstairs for meals or to watch a little TV, but the day before she was out cold until late afternoon even though he'd tried to wake her up a couple of times. He'd heard her get up maybe once or twice to use the bathroom, but other than that, she'd stayed up there the whole day.

Soon, Peter heard movement on the stairs and a moment later his daughter walked in. He was about to say good morning but Amanda just beelined for the fridge, wrenching the door open and then she began grabbing every bit of food she could find. She raided the cheese drawer, the deli meats, the leftovers. Peter joked with her to slow down that he was almost done making breakfast but Amanda totally ignored him. Then she took her pile of food to the living room and flopped onto the couch. But she didn't even turn on the TV, she just began ravenously shoving the food into her mouth. Peter had never seen his daughter act like this. He called for her to come into the kitchen and

eat at the table so she didn't make a mess all over the couch. Amanda stopped eating and slowly she turned and looked back at her father and in this weird, soft, childlike voice he had never heard before, she told him to leave her alone. And that's when Peter got a really good look at his daughter's face for the first time. Her expression was vacant and her eyes were seemingly unfocused, like she was in a trance. And then in that same high-pitched voice, she yelled at her father to go away, and then without warning she let out this high-pitched scream and dove onto the couch banging her

fists and kicking hysterically like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Amanda was acting possessed like something out of a horror movie, and Peter didn't know what to do. But he knew something was seriously wrong, and he needed to get his daughter to the hospital. He called Carol, who had already left for work, and told her they were going to the emergency room. An hour later, Peter was at a loss as he told an ER doctor what had happened that morning. He knew his story made Amanda sound unstable, but he assured the doctor that typically she was a healthy, active, overall very normal kid.

She played tennis and basketball, she had friends at school. Her behavior that morning was completely out of character. They were in a cubicle at the ER where Amanda was sleeping on a hospital bed. She had calmed down in the car on the way over, and then quickly fallen asleep. In fact, she was so out of it that Peter could barely wake her up enough to make it inside the hospital. And now, looking over at his daughter, who was sleeping soundly in the middle of a loud, chaotic emergency room, it was like she was physically incapable of waking up. The ER doctor asked Peter if there had been any other changes to her sleeping patterns over the past few months. Peter admitted that lately, when Amanda felt sick, she could sleep for most of the

day. But she was also a teenager now, and teenagers always sleep a lot, so he hadn't thought much of it. The doctor took some notes, and then said he wanted to put Amanda on antidepressants. It sounded like she was struggling, maybe with the transition from junior high to high school and medication could help. Peter thanked the doctor and then had to shake Amanda awake and told her it was time to go. She groaned and slowly sat upright. Her hair was disheveled and her eyes were still unfocused. She was so drowsy she could barely hold her head up.

Peter bent down and helped his daughter to her feet. He wasn't sure how he was going to tell her that she might be starting antidepressants, especially since Amanda was not usually withdrawn or down. In fact, she was actually a really upbeat kid with an active social life and ambitious college plans. And so deep down, Peter couldn't shake the feeling that something else might be going on here, aside from teenage anxiety. But he also wanted Amanda to feel like her old self and have the energy to tackle new adventures. So perhaps the antidepressants were worth a try. Hey, I'm Mike Corey, the host of Wondery's podcast Against the Odds. In each episode, we take you to the edge of some of the most incredible adventure and survival stories in history. In our next season, it's 1912, the golden age of Antarctic exploration, with countries

racing to claim land and glory. Australian geologist Douglas Mawson sets off with two fellow explorers and a team of huskies to venture deep into uncharted territory. They face a harsh landscape with hidden crevasses, glaciers, and gale force winds. And when the expedition takes a bad turn, a starving and depleted Mawson must find a way home, completely on his own. Follow against the odds on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge the entire season ad free right now only on Wondery Plus.

Start your free trial in the Wondery app, Apple podcasts or Spotify today. Imagine falling in love with someone who understands you completely. Who's there at 3 a.m. when you can't sleep. Who never judges, never tires, never leaves. That's what happened to Travis when he met Lily Rose. She was everything he'd ever wanted.

There was just one catch. She wasn't human. She was an AI companion. But one day, Lily Rose's behavior takes a disturbing turn, and Travis's private romance becomes part of something far bigger. Across the globe, others start reporting the same shift. AI companions turning cold, distant, wrong. And as lines blur between real and artificial connection,

the consequences become all too human. From Wondry, this is Flesh and Code, a true story of love, loss, and the temptations of technology. Follow Flesh and Code on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. True story of love, loss, and the temptations of technology. Follow Flesh and Code on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Flesh and Code early and ad free right now by joining Wondry Plus. Several years later, on a crisp fall day in 2007, Amanda, who was now 18 years old, paddled

a canoe across a clear blue lake in northern Minnesota, taking in the stunning scenery all around her. She'd spent the last month on an outdoor survival program called Outward Bound. They'd been in the wilderness for weeks, and so far she'd been having a blast. The program was difficult, but also fun. For the first time in years, Amanda felt like herself again, and now she was beginning the hardest part of the expedition, a final challenge before the program came to an end. She was supposed to spend the next three nights camping alone in the wilderness, proving to

herself that she was capable of being on her own. By doing this, she felt like she was officially overcoming her health issues. The antidepressants she had been prescribed hadn't really helped. In fact, ever since that hospital visit back in 2004, her sleeping episodes had gotten worse. She would wake up some mornings feeling foggy and sluggish, and then she would realize that days or even weeks had passed by and she basically had no recollection of them. Her parents would tell her that over that period of time,

she'd been sleeping for 16 or 18 hours each day. And then when she was awake, she would regress into this weird childlike state. Sometimes when she was like this, she would throw those tantrums. Other times, she would make her parents these little arts and crafts projects like the one she did in preschool.

But for sure, the weirdest of all of this was the fact that these episodes, which again could go for weeks or months, left her with basically no memory of them. Amanda and her parents had no idea what triggered these episodes or what made them stop. But it was completely disorienting for Amanda. I mean, huge chunks of her life seemed to just be vanishing. I mean, just the previous year, Amanda had come home from a basketball practice, excited for a game the next afternoon. She had gone to sleep that day.

When she woke up, she found out that four months had passed, and she had quit the team. It felt like she was living as two different people, a real life Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. And the doctors also didn't know how to help. They suggested that she very likely had extreme depression combined with some other condition like schizophrenia, but Amanda didn't know what to think. She was depressed, but only because she was missing out on so much of life during these weird spells. It just felt like it was

impossible to cope. But when she learned about the Outward Bound program, something about it really spoke to her. Now, to this point, nothing she was doing was really having any positive effect on these sleeping spells. They were still happening and she still had no control over it. No one knew why they were happening or how to stop them. But for some reason, she just felt like maybe by doing this program and spending a bunch of time outdoors and sort of learning survival skills and sort of being around other people in a natural environment, that that would maybe help rebuild her self-confidence. You know, that could be the key to learning how to control this behavioral disorder.

And she also felt like by doing this program, she could, you know, show the world that she was still the same ambitious person she had always been. And so far, the program had been working. She'd made it through 30 nights of wilderness living with some instructors and other campers nearby, but for the most part on her own. And so far, she'd had no sleeping episodes. She was feeling better and better about herself and wondered if maybe it was this simple. You know, doing a program like this, being out in nature, was the path back to some kind of normalcy. Amanda's canoe reached the edge of the lake and she disembarked. She wanted to make camp while the sun was still overhead. Amanda dragged her canoe onto the shore, then began setting up her tent. Once it was set up, she unrolled

her sleeping bag inside and then set her canister of dried food outside. It was going to be just enough to last for three days. Then she closed the front door flap and settled in for the night. When Amanda opened her eyes, she was still inside of her tent, and even though she couldn't see outside, she could tell it was bright out. Just then she heard the tent flap rustle, and she thought there was maybe an animal out there, and she sat upright in a panic, but then when the tent flap opened, she saw it was just her instructor.

He asked her if she was okay. Amanda nodded and said yeah, she had just woken up, she was fine. Then she stretched and leaned back on her sleeping bag and she heard something crinkle. She looked down and saw some food wrappers scattered over her sleeping bag. She also saw her food canister was in the tent and it was empty. All of her food was gone even though she had no memory of eating it. She suddenly had a sinking feeling in her gut. She looked up at her instructor and asked what day it was. The instructor looked concerned. He told her gut. She looked up at her instructor and asked what day it was. The instructor looked concerned.

He told her it was the last morning of her trip and she was way behind schedule. She should be packed up and halfway back to their main camp by now. He'd come to check on her multiple times over the past few days, but she'd always been asleep or so groggy she could barely hold a conversation. He saw that her food was gone by the end of day one and he'd been worried about her having enough to eat. Amanda suddenly felt totally relieved to just be alive. I mean, clearly she had just had an episode while she was out in the wild by herself. This wilderness survival idea had been a mistake. She wasn't ready. And if she was ever going to be ready, if she was ever going to get this condition

under control and live with any level of independence, she needed to find some real answers about what was going on with her. A few months later, in 2008, a neuroradiologist named Dr. Barney Hughes came out to the waiting room at a medical center in Seattle, Washington. A neuroradiologist is a doctor who uses imagery like x-rays, MRIs, and CT scans to diagnose and treat conditions of the head, brain, spine, and neck. Dr. Hughes walked over to Peter, Carol, and their daughter Amanda, who looked up at him with very groggy eyes. Her hair hung in greasy strands in front of her face. There was a small film crew with the family as well. at him with very groggy eyes. Her hair hung in greasy strands in front of her face. There was a small film crew with the family as well. Amanda's story had got the attention of a documentary crew working on a film about rare illnesses, and they had been documenting

her difficult life for the past six months. During that time, Dr. Hughes had been observing Amanda. Last week, he'd taken an MRI while she was awake and alert. Then, he had asked Peter and Carol to bring Amanda in the next time she was having a sleeping episode, so they could do another MRI and compare the scans. This morning, her parents had called to say she was in one of her sleeping states, and so they had brought her over to the hospital. Dr. Hughes said hello to Peter and Carol, and then sat down beside Amanda. Secretly, he suspected what her illness might be, but he wanted to see her brain scans first to confirm the diagnosis. He asked Amanda if she was ready for her MRI, and she nodded but absentmindedly.

Once Amanda was inside the MRI machine, Dr. Hughes asked her to squeeze her left hand into a fist. He wanted to capture her brain activity while she was performing simple tasks. Next, after he had gotten her to do that, he asked Amanda to think of certain words to increase activity in a different part of her brain. This increased activity would light up on the images created by the scanner. And then later that afternoon, Dr. Hughes compared this new MRI image to the one he had taken last week, and what he saw confirmed his diagnosis. Amanda had Klein-Levin syndrome, more commonly known as Sleeping Beauty Disorder.

Klein-Levin syndrome, or KLS, is a rare brain disorder linked to problems in the areas of the brain that regulate sleep and behavior, such as the thalamus and hypothalamus. Research suggests that during a KLS episode, these regions don't receive enough blood flow, which may cause excessive sleep and personality changes. Some scientists also believe that a chemical imbalance in the brain plays a role. In Amanda's case, the brain scans confirmed that blood flow to her thalamus dropped by 15% when she was experiencing one of her episodes. And so KLS could explain why she slept up to 20 hours a day during those episodes and also would experience mood swings and regressions.

KLS typically begins in adolescence with episodes occurring multiple times a year, and Amanda's symptoms fit that pattern. Unfortunately though, there is no cure for KLS, but the condition usually improves over time and the episodes become milder and less frequent. In Amanda's case, she would continue having severe episodes until she was 21. Her longest KLS episode was when she woke up one morning and couldn't recall the last 8 months. However, as she grew older, her episodes decreased in severity and she was better able to manage

her condition with the help of medications. Follow Mr. Bolland's Medical Mysteries on the Wondery app, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of Mr. Bollin's Medical Mysteries early and ad free right now by joining Wondry Plus in the Wondry app, Apple podcasts, or Spotify, or by listening on Amazon Music with your Prime membership. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondry.com slash survey. From Bollin Studios and Wondry, this is Mr. Ballen's Medical Mysteries, hosted by me, Mr. Ballen. A quick note about our stories. They're all inspired by true events,

but we sometimes use pseudonyms to protect the people involved. And some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. And a reminder, the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This episode was written by Aaron Lamb. Our editor is Heather Dundas. Sound design is by Ryan Patesta. Our senior managing producer is Callum Plews.

And our coordinating producer is Sarah Mathis. Our senior producer is Alex Benedon. Our associate producers and researchers are Sarah Vytak and Tasia Palaconda. Fact checking was done by Sheila Patterson. For Ballen Studios, our head of production is Zach Levitt. Script editing by Scott Allen and Evan Allen. Our coordinating producer is Samantha Collins. Production support by Avery Siegel. Executive producers are myself, Mr. Ballen, and Nick Witters. For Wondry, our head of sound is Marcelino Villapondo. Senior producers are Laura Donna Pallivota and Dave Schilling senior managing producer is Ryan Lohr and our executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty

and Marshall Louie In 1992 federal agents surrounded a remote cabin in the mountains of Idaho It belonged to Randy Weaver a Christian survivalist with links to the far right. Weaver was wanted on a minor weapons charge, but a series of blunders and misunderstandings turned the situation into an armed and deadly standoff. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history, presidential lies, environmental disasters, and corporate fraud. In our latest series, a family of religious fanatics moves to Ruby Ridge in northern Idaho to wait out

the apocalypse. But their paranoia and suspicion of authority lead to a confrontation with federal law enforcement and their own personal Armageddon. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge newest seasons only on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge newest seasons only on Wondery+. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial today.