Dr. Google

Last week, I had an MRI to gather more information about possible causes for my trigeminal neuralgia. An MRI is a common diagnostic tool these days, so I'm sure many of you are familiar with the experience I'm going to describe.

I was apprehensive before I went because I answered yes every time someone asked me if I were claustrophobic. But with some good strategies in place, I did okay in the confined tube. However, I had a hard time believing the machine had to be so loud to do its job. It was like someone figured out the most obnoxious sounds they could, turned up the volume, and put them into a MRI machine. But it was what it was and I survived the noise, too.

A few days later, I met with the doctor to go over the results. All was good and more options for treatments opened up. And it's always good to have options.

So all was going well with my latest endeavor until the MRI report showed up online which, of course, I immediately read. Even though I consider myself fairly well educated in medical matters, the report, that was meant for doctors, had several things in it that I didn't understand. I immediately went to the expert in all things--Google. After a short while, Dr. Google had me convinced that there were some major blood flow problems in my brain. I was also convinced that I had had or was going to have a stroke soon. It all made sense to me. This information of course explained why I sometimes forget someone's name or what I had for dinner last night. It didn't matter that the doctor didn't mention any problems because I assumed that he only looked at the part of the report he needed.

Pretty soon I told myself that my relationship with Dr. Google was turning me into a hypochondriac which surprised me. But after a few panicked moments, I did something very smart. I told Dr. Google that I wouldn't be seeing him again any time soon. Then I closed Google and went to fill the bird feeders.

Do you ever scare yourself with Dr. Google? Or am I the only one? :)

Until next time...