"Where are we?" House asked.
"Slight serum CPK elevation and no leukocytosis in Cameron but not Linda," Foreman checked his test results, "So neuroleptic malignant syndrome is out."
"If it is, they'll get better without any help from us," House dismissed, he wanted the next piece of information.
"What about infection," Chase suggested.
"We already did a lumbar puncture," Foreman snapped.
Chase tried to clarify, "She's a biochemist, she works on protein folding disorders like Mad Cow, Prion protein, Kuru..."
"You think she somehow ate one of her experiments?" Foreman tried to suppress a chuckle.
"She could have infected herself by accident," Chase assessed.
"Yeah," Foreman mocked Chase, "She's one of the best biochemists in the field, but she is sloppy enough to expose herself to Mad Cow disease."
Chase fought back, "Or maybe someone she works with or a rival from a competing lab sabotaged her."
"That wouldn't explain Cameron being sick," Foreman pointed out. He continued to shoot down Chase's idea, "It's not contagious, unless you think they have both been eating human brain infected with Kuru."
House figured they could settle this pretty quickly, "Check the protein levels in her CSF, if there is any elevation, abnormally folded protein acts like a rotten apple, it turns all the properly folded proteins into an army of rotten apples, and before you know it..." House decided to bugger the metaphor he wasn't in the mood. "Abnormally folded protein is more stable and at lower energy."
They both stared blankly at him.
House responded testily, "We have a biochemistry lab upstairs. I'm sure one of them can show you how it works."
PAGE BREAK
Chase reported, "CSF was negative for infection, and contained no abnormally folded proteins from any of the protein folding diseases Linda has ever worked on."
"What a surprise," Foreman continued to express his objection to what he considered to be pointless testing.
"Linda was in South Africa right," Chase stated, "Some anti-malarials can cause psychiatric symptoms."
Foreman checked the file, "Larium can cause psychosis in patients with a pre-existing mental illness... which Linda doesn't have." Foreman went back to the file, "According to the report she was prescribed doxycycline, which does have a number of side effects, none of which affect the brain."
House picked the file up off the table, "Don't bother, the trip to South Africa was two months ago, she would've been off anti-malarials for at least a month."
House's brain ticked over, "Doxycycline has side effects of acid reflux, diarrhoea, skin irritation, and most importantly increased sensitivity to the sun."
Chase looked puzzled, but Foreman caught where House was going, "Why would a woman who has a positive history of skin cancer elect to take an anti-malarial that would increase her sun sensitivity?"
"Lots of reasons," Chase interjected, "For one thing doxycycline is contraindicated with the pill and for women who are pregnant or trying to get pregnant."
Foreman went back to Linda's file, "Linda isn't on the pill..." he kept scanning down the page, "According to this, she's never been prescribed the pill."
"Do a pregnancy test," House ordered, "Find out if she's seeing anyone, I want to know why she took the doxy."
