Nursing School Making Me A Hypochondriac!

[NICUnurse21]

Hi everyone! I am new to allnurses! So I got accepted to my school's BSN program in the spring and just completed my fundamentals course this summer. All my friends who have already completed a year in the program told me that I would become such a hypochondriac. I brushed it off because I am a very laid back person. But it happened! I am convinced I have leukemia. Any time I get a bruise and don't know where it came from I get a sickening feeling and I am convinced I'm having dull pain in my left side.. Which of course I have chocked up to being an enlarged spleen. My little brother has a doctor's appointment tomorrow and I am going with him to ask the doc questions about MYSELF. Is this happening to anyone else? I am going crazy!!

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

Take a deep breath. It is going to be OK. You are going to learn a lot about different illnesses and assessment findings and while you may occasionally have a symptom or two, if you look at the bigger picture, I doubt you have leukemia. I doubt you are immunocompromised and getting sick often. Or that your lymph nodes are significantly swollen. If it would make you feel better ask a doctor, but try to keep the big picture and just a symptom or two in mind when you rush to assumptions

[NICUnurse21]

ChristineN, I didn't even consider those other symptoms! And you are correct, I don't have any of those. It's always nice to hear reassurance. Thank you :)

[mwilso2318]

Lawd I'm a hypochondriac now and I'm still taking my prereqs...

[springchick1, ADN, RN]

I actually had sort of the opposite happen. I have been having some health problems and I was brushed off by someone and told that, "You're fine. You're just in nursing school and are probably just having symptoms of something your studying". I was so mad!

[Nursing2102]

I too went through that in the beginning. I was convinced for a while that I was a type 2 diabetic! It's common to get these feelings where you think you have all the symptoms known to mankind.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

This is a very common phenomenon, also called "medical student's disease." Fortunately most of us do not have those awful diseases, and it gives you some appreciation for the process of doing differential diagnosis, doesn't it? I mean, we all get bruises in the normal course of an active life (people were designed for active lives, admittedly more active than many people have now, but still....) Bruising is normal physiology made visible.

Now, when you have bazillions of bruises on no or minor trauma or on places where they are uncommon, or you see a woman or a child with many bruises in different stages of healing who can't tell you what happened, then we have a problem.

[LoriRNCM, ADN, ASN, RN]

Lawd I'm a hypochondriac now and I'm still taking my prereqs...

This made me !!!!!!! I can only imagine when I have a semester or two of nursing school behind me, how many times my mom will call me with her "new" symptoms. UGH!!!!!

[Caribbean Character]

This is VERY COMMON in medical courses. I once heard about half of a med school class which were convinced that they were victims of a resurgence of Bubonic Plague!!

[ambitiousBSN]

I've had this happen a few times during my pre-requisite courses, especially Genetics! I can only imagine it is bound to get a little more crazy as I embark on my nursing school journey later this month.

[amoLucia]

This is VERY COMMON in medical courses. I once heard about half of a med school class which were convinced that they were victims of a resurgence of Bubonic Plague!!

First semester, I thought I had Hepatitis. My PMP graciously ran some bloodwork and then delicately told me I had a common disorder - 'new student nurse-itis'.

[dansamy]

I diagnosed (correctly, I might add) all of my in-laws' psychiatric disorders.