Monday, November 5, 2007

Hypochondriasis

When I started medical school, I told myself that I wouldn't become one of those silly medical students who believes they have every recently learned disease. HA! Who was I kidding?

As we go through the organ systems, there are moments when I'm convinced that I have at least one or two of the diseases mentioned. OK, maybe four or five.

Gee, my hip has really been hurting. I think I have chondrosarcoma. What? My x-rays show no acute pathology? Are you sure?

Gee, I seem to have some discoloration in my skin. . . acanthosis nigricans? Could it be paraneoplastic (yes, it's always cancer)?

And now that I have my stethoscope. . .

Hmm, is that an S3 gallop? No, definitely S4. Maybe I have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy? See, not having enough time to run is a good thing after all .

Hmm, did I just hear crackles? Pneumonia-- no, interstitial lung disease-- no, pneumonia.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well I think we are suffering:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_student_syndrome

And remember - if wikipedia says it, it MUST be true!

DC Med Student said...

Medical Student Syndrome indeed. One of the clinicians warned us of this at the beginning of the school year.

Ah, Wikipedia. A professor once told us to go ahead and use wikipedia if we didn't want to read the required text, but warned that "taking the exam will be a very unpleasant experience." It was funny because he said it as if he was the Terminator.