Sunday, July 24, 2005

In sickness and insane

Its amazing how a sore throat can turn me into quite a nervous wreck. Like right now, I should be at the gym, but here I am slumped in front of a computer in our airconditioned den for fear of symptoms of rheumatic heart disease.

I admit I am a bit of a hypochondriac (I think I get it from my lola Aida). I have good reason to be though. I've had my share of freakish ailments.

I had primary complex, a form of TB, when I was a kid. I've had chicken pox, and mumps. I recently had rheumatic fever. I've had a dengue scare, a rabies scare, and a hepatitis B scare. The last two were particularly memorable.

It was two days after I had been bitten by one of my pet hamsters. I was feeling slightly feverish, so I told my mom about my rabid hamster and that I should see a doctor for shots. Convinced of the urgency, she drove me to a clinic.

Me: "I got bit by my hamster a few days ago. I think its rabid."

Doctor: "Hijo, I don't think its rabies. Hamsters don't get rabies. Ever."

Me: "Are you sure? Its been acting kinda violent..."

Doctor: "I'm quite sure. Unless of course you've been keeping your rabid dog in the cage with it."

How good to know.

But hardly had I breathed a sigh of relief when two weeks later, Chris (not his real name), my significant other at the time dropped a big fat bomb on me. He was a dormant Hepatitis B carrier and he thought of telling me now because he could be having an attack. He supposedly meant to tell me sooner but couldn't muster up the strength. It had backfired on him in his previous relationship.

When he told me, it was instant flashback to the night when I told him his eyes looked kinda yellowish. And then instant flashback some more to a lesson in Health Education back in high school on sexually transmittable diseases. Then flashback to the nearer past when I slept over his place...I totally freaked!

I don't even want to remember how dumb, intolerant, 18-year-old me reacted. The fact that my reaction was no different from his most recent ex's puts me to shame. It caused a lot of unnecessary heartache (after doing some research, I found out dormant hepa B is NOT transmittable), and I've reaped a good shitload of karma from it.

Bottomline: I think this just illustrates the real root cause of my psychosomatic tendencies -- IGNORANCE. I really should consider med school. A little knowledge might just be the treatment I need. Or I could just date a physician. No spoonful of sugar needed there. :)

1 Comments:

At 12:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Re: early symptom of heart disease

I saw this blog about heart disease and I found it very interesting that omega-3 supplements are essential in helping to combat the diease. I decide to buy some omega-3 and although I didn't have a bad heart in the first place I did suffer from anxiety and depression. With the omega-3 supplements my physical and mental health has improved no end and I cannot wait to get up in the morning. On further reading I discovered that omega-3 supplements are great for other ailments including cancers, psoriasis, angina, stroke, for healthy skin and bone, anti-aging, asthma, adhd, eczema, add, autism, menopausal symptoms and help with brain development in children.
http://heartdisease.blogdrive.com/

Best of luck with the blog - sorry to post anonymously but I hope you find the information as useful as I have (and you do accept anonymous postings).

 

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