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A Touch of the Med Student Syndrome
This isn’t the first time that I’ve had medical issues since I started med school. In the past year I’ve diagnosed myself with scoliosis, infectious mononucleosis, breast cancer, hyperthyroidism, a diphyllobothrium latum infestation, bacterial endocarditis, and leptospirosis. I guess that does seem like a tad bit much, don’t you think?
I have been struck with a nasty case of med student syndrome. Whenever I learn about a new condition or disease in school, I immediately begin exhibiting the symptoms. This is actually a pretty common occurrence amongst medical students. When we become ill, we hear hoof beats and think it’s the zebra.
I guess I could handle just diagnosing myself with all these illnesses and leaving it at that. Unfortunately, though, the med student syndrome is starting to spread. My poor partner has been devastated to find out from me that he has squamous cell carcinoma, irritable bowel syndrome, hepatosplenomegaly, complete left lung atelectasis, myasthenia gravis, and congestive heart failure. I think that it’s been quite devastating to him, especially considering that he’s only 33 years old (and he also had the audacity to question how he could be walking around with a collapsed lung and not know about it!).
Not only have I diagnosed myself with a myriad of problems, but I’m also convinced that I’ll likely be dying in the near future. I’ve been taking microbiology and pathology for the past five months, and I’ve learned about hundreds of ways the body can malfunction or be attacked. I’m scared to death that I’m going to get salmonella from my morning eggs, and I know that it’s only a matter of time before I get diagnosed with some type of cancer.
I haven’t figured out how to come to terms with the hundreds of diseases that I’ve learned about in the past year. I mean, if you sit back and think about all the possible things that can go wrong with the human body, it’s amazing that people aren’t hospitalized their whole lives. Okay, so I know that I should actually wise up and focus on the beauty of the human body, and the miracle that it works as well as it does. I guess I should use the knowledge that I have not to worry about what could possibly go wrong, but instead to appreciate the fact that I am currently in pretty good health (except, of course, for the meningitis).
October 20, 2007 in Kendra Campbell | Permalink
Comments
haha! i'm sure we can all identify with you there!
i had cushings and addisons in the same month, not to mention diabetes,ca colon, pleural effusion, appendicitis, ca breast......
i'm sure things will only get better the longer you spend in med school ;)
best wishes to your poor boyfriend!
x
Posted by: rupa | Oct 20, 2007 10:16:06 AM
I think it happens to all of us. I diagnosed myself with hypothyroidism, irritable bowel syndrome, migraine, cardiac insufficiency, among A LOT others. Guess you just have to accept the fact that your're NEVER gonna be "healthy" ever again haha.
Keep on the good work, i admire you so much.
Greetings from Mexico.
Posted by: Claudia Gonzalez | Oct 21, 2007 2:48:50 PM
I also sometimes have scary feelings that I'm affected with a particular disease I have recently studied about or seen in hospital,though at the same time I'm sure not to let myself get involved in med students' syndrome.
I remember when I was passing parasitology,I occationally came to think "with so many horrible refractory-to-treatment parasitic infections in the world,how is that so many people are alive??!!"
Posted by: Innocence_e1 | Oct 22, 2007 10:02:49 AM
Hehehee! Wow Kendra! That's so true! I remember in my first year, when I was doing Anatomy and we were studying the cranial nerves and all that stuff about nerves, I developed this twitch in my eyelid for about a month! I was sure I had some neurological disorder, and that I was doomed to have a twitching eye forever! I even thought that I would probably wake up one morning with Bell's Palsy (I still have that fear!).
I've also had my share of fear of developing some incurable terminal disease...I mean, patients who suddenly develop problems and become diagnosed with some problem were "fine" before weren't they? Ok...I'm not helping!Hehe!
Anyway, the good thing is that chances are, we're probably quite fine! As fine as we were BEFORE we ever learned about all these pesky "little" pathologies!
Posted by: Karla | Oct 22, 2007 4:04:36 PM
Oh come on thats just too much overreacting come on people use your brains a little after all you are studying medicine this happens to lots of medical students but just do a little reasoning and stop exagerating its as if you are hypocondriach
Posted by: | Oct 23, 2007 2:22:44 PM
HAHAHA
This same thing keeps happening to me! I'm not even IN med school yet, just planning on going there in the future, and I keep doing the same thing, diagnosing myself with things, even though it's unreasonable. Hopefully, for all of us, it will be better in the future :)
Posted by: Gail | Oct 23, 2007 4:36:09 PM
I remember reading about the Med Student Syndrome in my undergrad Abnormal Psych class. Learning about signs and symptoms of these diseases helps us to understand how different disorders have some of the same symptoms; even healthy people FEEL things in their bodies (not always pleasant to be a human being).
We do have the advantage of understanding warning signs for really terrible afflictions; this is the "advantage" that will make us doctors and healers. I think it is part of the empathy component that many doctors have too; an innate ability to feel what others feel.
However many fake symptoms of the diseases you are learning about you and feel you may have, don't ignore your body altogether. Because of the off chance you may actually be sick. I was dignosed with hereditary angioedema only after I learned about it, diagnosed myself, and begged my Family Practitioner to run my complement proteins!!!!
Posted by: ray of sun | Oct 23, 2007 6:22:40 PM
humm, i guess i have that too, lol. i also have another problem i dont know how to deal with, when i read about any painful symptoms, i start having them, lol. i keep thinking if a pateint comes in to me with some complain, would i really be able to listen?
Posted by: | Oct 23, 2007 7:17:20 PM
its weird, my sister is a med student as well, this morning i complained of lower back pain and immediately she diagnosed me with kidney failure...i just hope they teach her more stuff b4 she goes off startling her poor patients:)
Posted by: | Oct 24, 2007 12:42:11 AM
yeah, my partner & i have that too! When we talk about the earlier lectures during lunch, we suddenly 'feel' like we're having the symptoms! *lol!* we even attributed our fat legs to compartment syndrome once! *lol*
but hey, doesn't it mean that we are just actually learning? I mean thinking about it that often just proves that we've retained at least that part of the knowledge that we're supposed to learn in med school right? ^_^ kudos to us then!
Posted by: vee | Oct 24, 2007 8:43:47 AM
I think that till the end of studying we feel all deseases exept those from other sex hehe ..
a med stud.
tony
Posted by: artan | Oct 24, 2007 11:10:24 AM
Just wait until you study psychiatry!!
Posted by: Elspeth | Oct 24, 2007 2:39:16 PM
I too feel your pain,
This year i was convinced i had diabetes as i was constantly tired and urinating like every 5 mintues, but thats cured now. Oh wait this week ive had rheumatoid arthritis and to top it off ive just torn my rotator cuff.
Posted by: Jae | Oct 24, 2007 7:10:54 PM
I used to diagnose myself with all kinds of mental diseases. once (when I was counting the diseases I had) I found out that I was actually a SUPER MAD and a very good case to be studied on!
but these problems can be solved by a little thinking that, hey! if I were realy ill I wouldnt be here, at least I had to be in hospital (or maybe the grave yard!) and someone from all the doctors and professors around me had to diagnose the jumble of mixed diseases and failures I had.
so sit back and relax!
Posted by: hamideh dehghani | Oct 24, 2007 7:51:19 PM
*grin* Great article, and of course i can relate!
Posted by: Rachel Mattock, New Zealand | Oct 24, 2007 10:55:32 PM
Lol, Kendra, I know exactly how you feel. So far (this month), I've had Leukemia (all kinds!!), a Pituitary Adenoma (I don't know why...), an Aortic Dissection. an Aneurism, about 3 MI's and so on. I do have HCM, but for some stupid reason I'm not worried about that... lol
Kendra, I think it's something we all go through. We read medical books about diseases and start thinking we have them. But I hope we learn to know when we're being soft and when there is really something wrong. After all, if we can't learn this for ourselves, how do we learn how to do that with our current and future patients?
I'm third year and I'm just waiting forn my next terrifying, life-threatening disease to come along!!!
Aw, your poor partner... lol =) Take care.
Posted by: Sarah Lockhart | Oct 25, 2007 2:54:38 AM
Lucky me..! Im doing ob/ gyn attachment and there is no room for " hypochondriasis" for a male in such block. I used to think that I have appendicitis with every abdominal pain and to utilize my knowledge I used to try to elicit rebound tenderness ,,, It was really pathetic!!
Posted by: Ted | Oct 25, 2007 4:09:15 AM
assimilate what you have learned from the book and practice it... and remember that even as a med student, others will look up to you and will take your word for it so do be careful in giving your diagnosis... you might advise them to go and have their labs taken and or to see their doctor when you think there is a need to do so or for their peace of mind... and as mentioned before, when you feel something is amiss, your body might DO tell you something is REALLY wrong so just watch out and monitor for aggravation of any signs/ symptoms... ciao
Posted by: ninette_umpa | Oct 25, 2007 7:05:44 AM
Awesome blog, Kendra.
I have SLE, IBS, and I think that maybe Huntington may be running in my family even though nobody had it before. I'm getting these weird neurological problems in which I fall asleep on my left side and then my arm is in incredible pain the next day.
lol
Keep studying Kendra, you'll survive...
Posted by: Soniely Lugo | Oct 25, 2007 7:50:39 AM
great great great!!! Im writing from uruguay (lil country in southamerica)and your article is great!!! Im also a med student... and this year when I had bacteriology and parasitology and all the bugs and virus we could learn about I went crazy!!! But I so looked for the disease that ended up with and Aureus infection and taking TMP!!! But its true... what we learn... we have!!!
keep writing!!!
Laura!
Posted by: Laura | Oct 25, 2007 2:51:41 PM
hahahahahahahaha, yeeeeaaaahh....I have this month ovaries cancer, meningitis, lupus, brain cancer! jajajaja, hypothyroidism, anemia and depression...is the med student life...but, the most funny is that only me have a disease and nobody of my family...=P
greetings from Chile =)
Posted by: karito | Oct 25, 2007 6:15:05 PM
LOL!!
yes... i know exactly what you mean... honestly i have diagnosed myself with all kinds of things too... but theres not much else that can be done, most of us are really ok... except for the fact that we consciously chose this lifestyle for ourselves jajaja! AND we love it! jajaja!
best of lucks, may you remain healthy....
Posted by: Patty | Oct 26, 2007 11:53:00 AM
Don't get Raynayds on July 4th. I had a roommate w/ presumed Guillan-Barre' 2y to literature review. Imaginary illnesses have imaginary cures, hence the success of Diet Vernors. Mebbe it is pink hair dye lack... You rock :) Bob
Posted by: Bob Kocembo | Oct 26, 2007 12:08:45 PM
I had the same experience, Kendra! I'm into my final yr now, and when I had these twitchings in my biceps, I immediately ran in front of a mirror to look for tongue fasciculations - motor neuron disease! And when I feel my energy level going down by the end of the day compared to a few yrs back where I had a higher energy level - I thought of hypothyroidism? and myasthenia gravis. haha
Posted by: alvin | Oct 27, 2007 9:11:58 PM
oh dear. I also have a lot of medical issues. I just had learned dermatology for the past 2 weeks. and i'm so scared to cornu cutaneum ;)
Posted by: Dagmara | Oct 28, 2007 8:48:34 AM
