Posts about hypochondriasis, or unexplained somatic complaints that seem serious to me but are just as likely nothing major.
I’ve been debating for a while about this post and finally decided I should share. I mean, this is an anonymous blog, right? Well – who knows if it really is anonymous. I wasn’t even sure how to title this post. There are plenty of ways to describe it – rectal discharge, mucus, watery diarrhea… When it first happened, it just seemed like some slimy thick clear “stuff” that came… Read More »Passing Mucus when Pooping – Solved
So numbness in the hands is one of the vaguest symptoms you can have, and it can have a multitude of causes from anxiety to paraneoplastic syndromes (a side effect of certain cancers). I of course assumed it was cancer, as that seemed like the worst thing it could be. Surprisingly, I didn’t think it was a brain tumor, but multiple sclerosis did cross my mind. I figured this was another good… Read More »Hand Numbness – Causes and Evaluation
It all started with little F’er 2.2 having some diarrhea. No biggie – it happens, or so they say. Of course, it quickly turned into painful diaper rash on top of diarrhea. Still nothing I haven’t been through before. But then little F’er 2.1 started to act crabby and seemed a little warm. Then the diarrhea came from 2.1 as well. And then the painful diaper rash. And then more… Read More »Viral gastroenteritis sucks
This is one weird, but horrible, pain I’ve got. I first had this about a year ago. It came out of the blue and was a sharp stabbing pain, like a dagger. The location was odd as well – right on the top of my foot where my leg meets my foot. The pain was so strong that I wasn’t sure if it was also on the side of my… Read More »Sharp stabbing pain in top of ankle
So 2 weeks before one of my little F’ers comes home from overnight, we get a call that there has been an outbreak of lice at camp. Our lucky child happens to have nits but no visible lice were spotted. They went ahead and treated him (with who knows what) and then they treated again after 1 week. This was a few days before he comes home. I of course… Read More »How I made sure I didn’t have lice
Being spring break where I have the little F’ers for a week, I decided to take the four of them to the neighboring water park. Oh how I love the smell of chlorine (not really). It at least gives me the (probably) false sense of security that everything is being disinfected. Aside from one of the little F’ers farting on the way there, and me worrying that they had contracted… Read More »Recreational water illnesses for fun
I made fried matzo also known as matzah brei this morning for me and the little F’ers. I am not much of a cook, but usually I make pretty good fried matzo. I couldn’t find my usual recipe so I think I made it a little different today (although I’m not sure how many different recipes there can really be – maybe just different ratios of egg to matzo). As… Read More »Don’t need to overcook that matzah brei
I discovered a tag line for my blog: “Learning Medicine Through Hypochondriasis”. It came to me yesterday at our Seder when everyone was sharing their illness concerns and it became clear that we are a genetically hypochondriacal family. Nonetheless, I realized that I was most motivated to learn issues in medicine when I was worried that I was dying from the particular illness. As I mentioned in my earlier post about rat… Read More »Rat Droppings, GI Symptoms, and Hypochondriasis
After the nice cold winters we get in the Midwest, we took off the cover to our new grill we bought last year and the smell caused a flashback. Not quite to PTSD criteria, but bad nonetheless. Yes – as the title of the post gives away, there were rat droppings in the grill, or at least somewhere in the vicinity. I’m sure it was the nice warm, sheltered cover… Read More »Rat Droppings in the Grill