Medical Terminology for Health Professions 7th Edition by Carol Schroeder,Ann Ehrlich

Exercise 71

The following story and questions are designed to stimulate critical thinking through class discussion or as a brief essay response. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions.
"Stick the landing, and our team walks away with the gold!" Coach Schaefer meant to be supportive as she squeezed Claire's shoulder. "What you mean is beat Leia's score for the Riverview team, and we'll win," Claire thought sarcastically. She watched as Leia's numbers were shown from her last vault. A 6.8 out of a possible 7. "Great, just great! She chooses a less difficult vault, but with that toothpick body she gets more height than I ever will!" She wondered if Leia was naturally that thin, or did she use the secret method-you can't gain weight if the food doesn't stay in your stomach.
All season it had been that way. Everyone seemed to be watching the rivalry between West High's Claire and Riverview's "tiny-mighty" Leia. Claire was pretty sure that her 10-pound weight loss had improved both her floor routine and her tricky dismount off the beam. "I'm less than a half point behind, so Coach should be happy," she thought. But just last week, Coach Schaefer had a long talk with her when she got dizzy and fell off the balance beam. Coach had asked Claire the one question she hoped she'd never have to answer: "Just what have you been doing to lose the weight?"
Claire felt her hands sweat. "Just stick the landing," she told herself, but her body had a different agenda. Starved for fuel, her muscles failed, she fell, and the gold slipped out of reach.
Imagine you have a daughter. How would you know if she had an eating disorder? How could you help her?