In the summer of 2000, my friend—we'll call her C.—was living the life.
She was working at Microsoft, writing code, working on the latest software. Tech in the valley was booming, and we felt like we were building the future.
Free catered dinners, office kitchens fully stocked with snacks, soft drinks, and fresh juices.
C. was pretty disciplined about her health—she ate well, exercised regularly, and watched her weight.
Long hours were the norm but weekends were for yourself so life balance was cool.
Then the mystery started.
The Beginning of the End
It began during a trip to Las Vegas for a friend's wedding. Instead of celebrating, she felt awful—feverish and run down. Back home, she was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. The first antibiotic didn't work.
She ended up in Stanford's ER in the middle of a nurses' strike. She apologized as she crossed the picket line. The wait stretched over seven hours as temporary staff fumbled through unfamiliar systems. Eventually, she was prescribed Cipro and sent home.
The infection cleared. But C. didn't bounce back.
The Mystery Deepens
She felt tired all the time. Weird. Headachy. A constant nausea clung to her. Usually energetic, she had no idea what could be wrong. Her doctor suggested whatever it was could be cancer, and ordered a CT scan. Nothing. Then an ultrasound. Still nothing.
They reviewed her lifestyle obsessively. She ate from all the food groups. She went to the gym. She drank no more than one glass of wine with dinner and smoked only occasionally. There was nothing obvious to fix, yet she felt terrible. And the longer it lasted, the darker her thoughts became.
For a month and a half, she lived with the fear. At night, she had nightmares about cancer surgery, about chemotherapy. The mystery or the illness that could be terminal was eating away at her as much as whatever was actually wrong.
The Breakthrough
Then one afternoon, over lunch with friends on Haight Street in San Francisco, everything changed.
Her friend L looked at her hands and asked, "What's with the palms of your hands being totally orange?"
C. looked down. Indeed, they were a yellowish shade of orange. She laughed it off. "It's fine, it's carotene. At Microsoft, I get free carrot juice and I drink two regular-size ones a day. I like to drink healthy stuff instead of Diet Coke."
But L wasn't laughing. "Wow, with the color of your palms and fingers, you might be overdoing it. You could be overdosing on Vitamin A, and that's toxic—it can even kill you! Maybe this is why you are feeling so awful."
C. was incredulous. People say things. Her friend wasn't a medical professional.
The Internet Diagnosis
But that night, she went home and searched the internet for "Vitamin A overdose" and "Vitamin A toxicity." What she found stunned her. She suffered from every single symptom: fatigue, headaches, nausea. Even more remarkably, Vitamin A toxicity increases the chance of infections—including UTIs.
She didn't go back to the doctor.
She stopped drinking the "healthy choice" fresh carrot juices and switched to Microsoft's Talking Rain sparkling water instead. It took about two to three months for her body to clear the excess vitamin A and for her hands to return to normal color. She remembered being on vacation in Tahiti when she first started feeling like herself again.
The Lesson - Too Much Healthy Might Not Always Be the Best Thing
She was fortunate to have health insurance and didn't have to pay the $10,000 or more that the CT scan and ultrasound cost. Those fancy machines found nothing. But a friend paying attention to a weird detail made all the difference.
She went from thinking she had cancer to enjoying snorkeling in Tahiti.
A cautionary tale for what it's worth. I remembered this all these years and asked my friend C if I could share it on my Substack.
This is a personal story shared by a friend and not medical advice or an opinion piece on how to handle medical problems. Always consult healthcare professionals for medical concerns.