People always say "Don't go trying to look up your symptoms on Google. That's a bad idea.". I know that nothing frustrates doctors more then when a patient tries to self-diagnose themselves by searching the internet. Yet, I sit here and search, even when I know better. I can't help it, I just get sucked in.
Those of you who are on The Fibro Frog facebook page know that my right hand started hurting out of the blue, without any injury to it. The pain was so bad Wednesday that I broke down and went to the ER. After taking an x-ray the doctor was asking me how I'd previously broke my hand. I was stunned. I've never broke my hand. I've never even had any pain or swelling in my hand to indicate a possible break. He kind of was making me feel guilty as if I was lying to him or something, because he kept insisting that I had and in two different spots because I have calcification of the bone there, and the calcification is pointy I guess.
This has really bugged me and I've sat and thought long & hard about any time I could've possibly broke my hand and there really is not any explaination at all. Then, I started thinking about the fact that they found a calcified granuloma in my right lung just about 4yrs ago. I started wondering if this calcification might be linked to the one in my lung. That is when I became bad, and started playing Doctor Google. I searched for diseases that cause calcification within the body. I came across Sclermoderma. The calcifications, the shortness of breath, the high SED rate that I always have, the hurting joints and muscles. It all sounds like me. Which is why doctors detest people playing Dr. Google. I'm embarrassed to go to the doctor and tell them I've searched, and ask them if I have this lol. I do have 1 patch of thickened skin, right above and encompassing the ankle bone on my left leg. I don't belive I have thickened skin anywhere else though, so I don't know.
This post was just a warning to you all, not to play Dr. Google with yourself because if you do, then you'll be sitting here wondering like I am, if you have some nasty hardly-ever-heard-of disease in which you're embarrassed to even broach with your doctor but yet you're convinced you may have it. =/ Uhhh....and yeah, I kind of feel like a hypochondriac about right now. =)
