Carolyn J. Rose
Recently I told a friend I
had occasionally smelled smoke where there was none, and had looked up possible
causes on the Internet. Being a medical professional, he reacted much as he
would have if I’d said, “Here, hold this angry rattlesnake. Just grab it by the
tail. It will be fine.”
I can’t blame him. He’s
probably treated plenty of frightened people certain they have horrible
diseases because of what popped up after they typed in their symptoms and set a
search engine to work. He may have treated hypochondriacs for whom the Internet
is a gold mine of information about ailments, diagnoses, and treatments of all
types. No malady seems too obscure not to be written about somewhere by
someone.
Which is, of course, both good
and bad. Good, because there’s a ton of information and it’s easy to access.
Bad, because it’s up to you to filter what you find. And that job isn’t a cakewalk—especially for those of us who gleaned our medical knowledge mostly
from TV shows and conversations with friends and relatives.
After a minor freak-out over
what I discovered smelling smoke could mean, I decided to rule out the big
stuff. After all, I was about to go on a three-week vacation. How could I enjoy
myself if I had a major-disease ax hanging over my head? I told myself the
smoke was either my imagination or the result of a low-level sinus infection
that would clear up soon. Several weeks later I noticed increasing pain in my
jaw which turned out to be an abscess beneath a molar. After a course of
antibiotics, the infection cleared up and the smell of smoke disappeared.
Last week I noticed flashing
lights at the corner of my left eye. As soon as I could, I fired up a search
engine. Ruling out the big stuff and anecdotal scare stories, I went with the
aging process causing “gel” inside my eye to shrink and peel away from the
retina.
Still, recalling my friend’s
recoil, I hustled to my eye doctor. When she confirmed “my” diagnosis and told
me it would almost certainly heal itself, I felt the I-knew-that brand of
smugness coupled with now-I-have-to-pay-for-what-I-already knew irritation.
Then I set my feelings aside.
After all, I could have been wrong.
