Knowing too much

Sometimes when you've been a nurse for a while you just end up knowing to much.  As in when my husband, aka "the medically clueless", is talking on the phone long distance to his uncle and he tells me that a family member is hospitalized with "a swollen leg, lung problems and she's confused".  

Now, I have only met this family member once and all I really know about her is that she is rich, old and she drinks a little too much.  Oh, and that her husband was a recluse who also drank too much.  He died a few years ago.  Never-the-less, I immediately know that she had a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) in her leg, that she now has a PE (pulmonary embolism) that is causing her breathing problems and that she is also going through alcohol withdrawal causing her to be confused.  I know that she is on a telemetry or step-down unit, is on oxygen, and has a heparin drip running into her IV line.  Turns out, I was right on.  I love it when I'm right.

Sometimes this gift is not a good thing.  As in when you are walking through the grocery store and know the guy you just passed has pancreatic cancer or some other horrible and deadly illness.  

Sometimes this gift also translates into thinking you yourself have the worst possible illnesses based on your own symptoms.  Especially when you happen to be an ICU nurse who sees the worst possible scenarios on a daily basis.  I myself am easily convinced that I have cancer.  I know this because my family doesn't have heart disease, we have cancer.  Both parents and most of my grandparents died of cancer.  Mom died at a young age of 58, pancreatic cancer.  Dad died at 65, stomach cancer.  

My cholesterol is really low and my blood pressure is under control, low-normal even.   I don't do drugs, smoke, or partake in dangerous extra-curricular activities.  So, it's gonna be cancer that gets me.  If I have abdominal pain; it's cancer.  Hip pain; no, it can't be bursitis, I must have cancer.  A headache; that's a brain tumor.  That mole on my hand; it'll be cancer some day.  My family laughs at me now but one of these days I'll be right.

Knowing too much can also make it hard to find a good primary care provider.  It's hard to trust them when you have seen how stupid they are sometimes.  I had to change primary care providers when mine told me that my fasting blood sugar of 85 was too low and that I should consider adding more protein to my diet.  It was hard not to openly balk.  I asked her if she knew that was my fasting blood sugar.  She didn't really have any idea why I would point that out.  I didn't see her again.   Besides, 85 is a great fasting blood sugar, any higher and she'd be telling me I have diabetes.  That's the last thing I need.  How could I trust her to find my cancer when she doesn't even know a good fasting blood sugar when she sees one?

In the end, knowing too much is good for my patients, maybe not so good for me.

PS  If anyone knows how adding protein to my diet will increase my fasting blood sugar please let me know.