Don't get me wrong WebMD has some good patient education materials; however, I think some people can take it to far. I've really never been on WebMD but I'm assuming there is a place where you can put in all your symptoms and it will pull up every scary diagnosis known to man. WebMD is not the place for hyperchondriacs!

Well yesterday and today I got to visit with the ultimate hyperchondriac. So this patient came to me yesterday after having what he thought was a CVA (cerebro vascular accident a.k.a stroke) on Saturday. The story is that he was out shopping in the heat and suddenly felt funny in the head and had some generalized weakness. So after going inside in the air conditioner he felt much better. Immediately he believe he was having a heat stroke. So what does he do but get on WebMD when he gets home. I examine him on Monday and he shows no signs of stroke. He is a 50 year old male that hasn't had a physical in a while so I suggest we get some baseline labs and schedule a time to come in for a complete physical. End of story....NOPE!

This morning he came back in to get his fasting labs; however, after leaving the clinic he starts to feel funny again so he decides to head on over to the ER. Well the triage nurse told him to go back to his primary care physician which is me. So this morning I see him again in clinic. We go over the symptoms again and come to find out he is a nurse and he works for the local mental health/mental retardation organization. Well this doesn't help anything because he has a knowledge of things. He continues to tell me that he thinks he is having either mini strokes, he has an aneurysm, or increased intracranial pressure. I do another exam which is normal. I finally tell him I think he is anxious about his health and that is making him have these "funny feelings." So then I decide I want to put him on an antidepressant well he doesn't want that because they are psycotropic (whatever that means). Then I convince him to try a non-addictive anxiety medicine. Finally he agrees after a lot of convincing and I send him on his way. End of story right...NOPE!

So later in the afternoon he tried to call the clinic to set up a colonoscopy which we do not do in the clinic. I happen to get on the phone with him and he has one more question. He wants to know if I need to check a PT/INR which is what we check on people who are on some sort of blood thinner. I guess he thought his blood was either to thin/thick and needed that checked. I once again reassured him that this was an unnecessary test. So tomorrow when I get his lab results back I'm sure hoping everything comes back normal because I don't know if I can handle anymore WebMD searches by this gentleman.

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