Discover has a column called "Vital Signs", which features "medical detective stories". In a (macadamia) nutshell, mine is about a 3-year-old with delayed development who appeared autistic. One day she came into my office with every indication that she'd had a stroke, which in fact she had. It was caused by a rare metabolic condition, homocystinuria, in which a very high level of an amino acid called homocysteine makes the blood clot more easily than normal. The high homocysteine levels also damaged her brain and caused her developmental problems. A new medication has lowered the blood homocysteine levels, and, while she is still delayed because of the damage already done to her developing brain, the autistic symptoms have improved.

I've wanted to be a writer ever since high school, so this is really exciting for me!

Aloha,
Mark