I Find The Human Body Utterly Fascinating When it Doesn't Make Me Queasy...

[unspeakablehorror]

Though the primary reason I didn't decide to become a doctor as a kid was because I thought the process to become one sounded grueling and that it would be a high stress job, I also had a strong involuntary response to discussions of the human body when I was younger and any discussion of certain parts of the body, especially the circulatory or nervous system made me nauseated.  Health classes were really a nightmare for me sometimes.  Though it was easier for me to absorb the material on my own time outside of a class setting, and I've always found it intensely interesting.  As I've gotten older I've found it easier to learn about such things, and my first reaction to any health problem is generally to look it up and try to deal with it myself.  

It's only when my research and my assessment of my symptoms points to the necessity of tests, medications, or procedures I'm unable to obtain myself that I resort to outside medical intervention.  In that case, I'll tell the doctor what my symptoms are and see what they have to say.  I almost invariably try to avoid telling them any guesses I have about the problem, not because I think I must be wrong, but because then I also get an independent professional medical opinion on what the issue is that isn't biased either for or against any of my guesses.  I also am generally aware that certain symptoms can have more than one possible cause, so getting a doctor's opinion can be useful for limiting those down.

That is what I did for the (slightly less) mysterious medical issue I am having now, and though they haven't decided on how to resolve it, the tests I've had so far have made it a bit clearer what the issue is.  This in turn has given me some ideas for actions to take myself to mitigate this unfortunate issue as best I can while I wait to see what treatment the doctor will advise.  The pain is thankfully already greatly decreased, either through one or more of the recent changes I've made in how much I sleep or exercise or one or more of the foods I've started eating more often, or through some sort of spontaneous improvement.  I'm almost certain that how terrible my sleep habits had gotten were making the problem worse, though, since the pain almost invariably tends to be worse when I'm tired.

But anyway, I find biology and medicine fascinating as well as useful, so I always try to use what knowledge I have and can find on those topics as a first line reaction to try to diagnose and treat issues myself.  At the same time, I also use that knowledge to judge when I probably won't be able to resolve a health issue myself.  Except for routine checkups, I usually only see the doctor when I have a more persistent issue like this one which does not go away in a short amount of time.  When I've only had something a short time, even if it's extremely unpleasant, I typically won't go see the doctor.  I do worry this means I may be less good at diagnosing acute emergencies in myself, but it might also just mean that I've correctly judged that past issues weren't life-threatening and would resolve on their own.  The fact that I haven't already died either means I did correctly judge those cases or that I've just been lucky so far, and I think a strong argument could be made for either of those possibilities.

Comments

[rugessnome]

It's interesting to hear about your background with human biology. I just read (as part of a big reading event) a historical fiction novel set in 1840s England about a woman who stumbles into being an anatomist due to ending up as the ward of an eccentric surgeon, and some reviews complained of excessive medical detail. I read James Herriot's books as a kid—while they're about veterinary practice, they do also contain the medical details, and those don't typically bother me much... but there are certain areas of human biology (neuroscience can be a major one) that have pretty much always made me at least a little anxious about my own functioning.

Personally I decided against going into medicine in large part because I didn't think I could manage cadaver dissection—the preservation chemicals bothered me when doing worms or frogs in school and I found it hard to distinguish different tissues. (And I didn't think I'd do well on the people side of things either, though in retrospect it absolutely is a grueling process and a stressful job)

[unspeakablehorror]

That probably wouldn't bother me to read. I'm unsure whether I was just more sensitive about those kinds of things when I was younger or whether I was just in more situations where I was forced to contend with them at a particular time (ie. during a class). Possibly it was a combination of both. But if I'm allowed to approach that kind of material in my own time and in my own way, it's much more manageable for me.

But I still wouldn't want to dissect cadavers either. That's a lot more to deal with than just listening to someone talk about internal organs or seeing pictures of them. Though even if that wasn't an issue for me I definitely think my understanding of how grueling the field is to train for and work in was a big factor in my decision.