I always knew I was a little bit of nerd when back in the good old days of grade school, I HATED getting sick because that meant I’d be behind on my schoolwork (and the lunchroom/playground drama). I guess I should have anticipated that outside of the cushy gates of full-time education, this mental habit would transcend into my work life.
Not long ago, I spent three days in bed fighting off what felt like a mini case of the swine flu (although it wasn’t). While in theory it seems ideal to spend this much time lounging around and catching up on my DVR, I continued to feel the nagging of the ‘homework’ piling up. What ever happened to good, old-fashioned slacking? Blast you innate nerd!
Pair that with the now popular online resource WebMD, and you’re likely to think you’re dying. I’m not kidding.
I know I’m not the only one who will have a scrape, check WebMD, and think I have cancer or some case of serious internal bleeding. Don’t pretend you’ve never tried to self-diagnose in attempts to bypass going to the actual doctor and find a home remedy. Instead, you typically find yourself panicked thanks to this site’s ability to say your dilemma could be meanningless or life-threatening, all in one paragraph.
Moral of the story: Being sick is never fun. Just ask my roommate who gets to be my stand-in mom, buying me thermometers and Gatorade and bringing me saltines in bed. In this case, I think we’d both prefer I revert back to being a healthy nerd.
I self-diagnosed myself with appendicitis last week. Turned out it was a 24hr stomach bug. I am convinced that internet access has created an epidemic of hypochondria.