Hypochodriacs. Do you know any?

[canesisters]

My room mate!

If anyone I know is sick - or is having any other issue that requires that I pay more attention to them than 'usual', she will suddenly: start having strange pains in her back or chest or head or stomach - she will begin sniffeling and coughing and park herself on the sofa under a blanket - announce that she has to go to bed early because she is just SOOOOOOO tired for some reason... and on and on and on.
The first few times this happend, I ran to the store for cold meds and fussed and worried over her. Now I just toss a "have you taken anything for it?" over my shoulder and leave her to sulk.
My Mom recently started another round of chemo - I thought my roommate was gonna die from all the coughing and sniffing she was doing. jeez.........

 

[Orchid]

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Not only do I know someone like that, but she also thinks her children and husband are all dying of some dread disease every time they turn around. It's disturbing and sad.

 

[Avalon1984]

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I personally know someone JUST LIKE your mother. If it's not one thing it's another. ALWAYS ALWAYS something wrong. If someone says that they have "something", the next day or 2, she has the same thing. If someone's back is hurting and need to go to the chiropractor, so does this person. I get so sick and tired of hearing her complain and putting on the "prune face" as I call it. She enjoys going to the doctor and coming back with a bag of "goodies" (meds). I could tear my eyes out when I hear the weekly story of "What Is Wrong With Me This Week". I can't take it anymore. Now, I just pass on by and don't even ask her how she is doing because I know what's next. And NOBODY wants to hear of her complaints - NOBODY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She always has to TOP someone else's sickness!

Isn’t it weird that people do that? I had a friend once (not a friend anymore) and she had Lyme diseases and she also loved to be then center of attention. One of our last conversations was that she had broken her arm when she fell off her human aggressive horse. When you hear that stuff all day you just kind of shrug and say, ok? So the entire day she spent whining to everybody how her arm hurt and her friend is a nurse and diagnosed a fracture. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the very next day when nobody was looking she was in the barn throwing hay bales just fine on that arm

I don’t mind it when people have a whiney day every once in a great while. We are all humans. But for Gods sake, why do people compete for the worst injuries???? I would be happy not to deal with some of the aftermath of my horse accident horror stories. I remember when I fell off one of my mares at a full canter and messed up my ankle royally. Hubby had to leave for work for the week and there I was, skyhigh on pain meds, driving into work with my left foot and then doing horse chores and cleaning stalls with crutches. It was pure hell for a couple of weeks but you live through it and get over it. In those two weeks my mom had a severe cold, hurt that toe again, the belly hurt, the leg hurt, the finger hurt, I am forgetting what else. Don’t they realize that if something serious ever happens, people will not take it for serious???? Why would you want to get attention like that?

 

[hennyannie]

My aunt has had so many surgeries in her adult life that I have lost count.(probably in the teens at least) She has had every organ you can live without removed.Also she had heart surgery in her forties.Once she had to have surgery to remove scar tissue from the other surgeries.Yesterday she had her back operated on for at least the second time and Monday she is having eye surgery.
The really odd thing is one would expect her to be disabled by now to the point of needed a nursing home, and she is still walking and driving.She is around 65 and from my point of view getting around very well.
The thing is sometimes I wonder if all these procedures were completely nessary or if she complains till the DRs do something for her problem. I know some of them like the heart had to be done but then others seemed unnessary and even dangerous. (She has even had her toenails completely removed)Also she is constantly on a new medication for something. She has IBS, artritis, and some rare eye disease she refers to as RB.
I feel bad for using Hypochondriac to descibe her but ever day she has a new alliment.

 

[kuntrygirl]

The funny thing about this person is that she is a closet smoker and she hides on the side of the building to smoke but when she comes back in from smoking, you smell the smoke on her clothes, her breath and in the bathroom. So after her smoke breaks, she complains that she can't breath and is hanging on for dear life and needs to see her doctor. And she keeps reminding everyone that she only has 1 working lung and she is just glad that she is just still alive. WELL STOP SMOKING AND YOU CAN BREATH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**AND STOP SIGNING UP FOR THESE FREE PROGRAMS TO HELP YOU STOP SMOKING AND PROVIDING YOU WITH MEDS WHEN YOU KNOW FOR A FACT THAT YOU WILL NOT STOP SMOKING AND YOU CONTINUE TO TELL THE NURSES AND DOCTORS IN THE PROGRAM THAT YOU ARE NOT SMOKING ANYMORE SO THAT THEY WON'T KICK YOU OUT OF THE FREE SMOKING CESSATION PROGRAM. GIVE THE NEXT PERSON IN LINE (WHO REALLY NEEDS A CHANCE) A CHANCE SO THAT THE PROGRAM AND MEDS CAN HELP THEM.

 

[Beekissed]

It may be a chemical imbalance or borderline personality disorder. I've noticed in my own family that there are a few that seem to be attention starved no matter how much attention they get. It's never quite enough. Some find out early on in their lives that the most attention they can receive~both positive and negative attention~is when they are sick. These are the people who persist in this type of attention getting throughout their lives because they have found it works....who in the world would NOT give proper attention to a sick person? How could you tell them to just stop acting sick? Not many do because it seems mean to do this....so most families grouse about it to each other, try to talk sense into the hypo down through the years and finally give up because, that too is attention on which they feed.

There is usually no way to win that battle, so best to just distance oneself from the whole mess. My youngest son met a girl that is a true hypo... and then my attention junky son started to model the same patterns. He's always been a tough kid that didn't ever seem to feel pain, but now every little mosquito bite must be examined in the ER.

I just change the subject when he starts to whine.

 

[Orchid]

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I personally know someone JUST LIKE your mother. If it's not one thing it's another. ALWAYS ALWAYS something wrong. If someone says that they have "something", the next day or 2, she has the same thing. If someone's back is hurting and need to go to the chiropractor, so does this person. I get so sick and tired of hearing her complain and putting on the "prune face" as I call it. She enjoys going to the doctor and coming back with a bag of "goodies" (meds). I could tear my eyes out when I hear the weekly story of "What Is Wrong With Me This Week". I can't take it anymore. Now, I just pass on by and don't even ask her how she is doing because I know what's next. And NOBODY wants to hear of her complaints - NOBODY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She always has to TOP someone else's sickness!

Isn’t it weird that people do that? I had a friend once (not a friend anymore) and she had Lyme diseases and she also loved to be then center of attention. One of our last conversations was that she had broken her arm when she fell off her human aggressive horse. When you hear that stuff all day you just kind of shrug and say, ok? So the entire day she spent whining to everybody how her arm hurt and her friend is a nurse and diagnosed a fracture. Well, wouldn’t you know it, the very next day when nobody was looking she was in the barn throwing hay bales just fine on that arm

I don’t mind it when people have a whiney day every once in a great while. We are all humans. But for Gods sake, why do people compete for the worst injuries???? I would be happy not to deal with some of the aftermath of my horse accident horror stories. I remember when I fell off one of my mares at a full canter and messed up my ankle royally. Hubby had to leave for work for the week and there I was, skyhigh on pain meds, driving into work with my left foot and then doing horse chores and cleaning stalls with crutches. It was pure hell for a couple of weeks but you live through it and get over it. In those two weeks my mom had a severe cold, hurt that toe again, the belly hurt, the leg hurt, the finger hurt, I am forgetting what else. Don’t they realize that if something serious ever happens, people will not take it for serious???? Why would you want to get attention like that?

The person I referred to does that as well. If you broke your ankle, she or one of her closest relatives would have broken THEIR ankle once SO much worse than you broke yours. It is BIZARRE.

 

[Avalon1984]

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I hear you! My mom is the same way. Last year they found some funny cysts on her ovaries. They did surgery, they came back. Now mind you. I have ovarian cancer running in my family. I told her before the first and second surgery to just have all the crud down there taken out before it turns cancerous. She is in her early 50’s so no more kids, she is on enough other medications so you’ll just have to swallow another pill but now she is on her 3rd surgery with this stuff and the doctors are finally taking all the stuff out. I swear to God she was excited every time she announced that’s he would have surgery. Had she listened right away she could have saved herself 2 surgeries and countless sick days but no. Must be more fun being in the hospital.

You will have to explain the medical benefit of having toenails removed to me

 

[Avalon1984]

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X2. That is what I have learned to do as well.

 

[Beekissed]

With recurrent, infective ingrown toenails they will often recommend removal and cauterization of the nail bed to prevent regrowth. Problem solved.

I can just hear the thoughts of that doctor, "Let's see her whine about ingrown toenails NOW."