Hypochondriac?

This is the problem when a person knows a lot of things. Me having a background in medicine and a nurse at the same time, knows a lot of knowledge about diseases. I tend to be hypochondriac sometimes.

One time, my left eye got irritated from my contact lens and because I don't usually bring my solutions every time I go out, I didn't remove it. My eye suffered for about 1 hour. Stupid me for letting it to happen! Whew! I took it out immediately when I reached home and then I noticed an abnormality in my sight. My left eye can see halos around lights. I thought I just need to rest it so I slept for 2 hours. When I wake up, my sight is still the same and that made me panicked! That was the first time! And it was so sudden! I didn't mention that I also have a headache that time and it made the situation worst. A lot of things are coming into my head. Do I have Glaucoma knowing I have a headache? Did I injure my eye? Am I going to be blind? If not, will the halos be permanent? Am I having retinal detachment?

I called my friend who's an optometrist and consulted about it. I was in panic that my hands were shaking. She tried to comfort me by saying that it's not glaucoma or retinal detachment but I need to consult an ophthalmologist if possible to know what went wrong. She suspected it as corneal edema. I wasn't convinced and so I called another friend of mine who is also a Doctor and luckily her brother-in-law is an ophthalmologist. I consulted over the phone and he said the same thing. Because of the irritation form my contact lens, my cornea became edematous attracting water which explains the halos that I can see around lights. I just have to rest it and hopefully my eyesight would go back to normal the next day. I felt relieved and convinced at last. To make it short, I slept early that night and my eyesight went back to normal the next day.

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Because of too much tension, my headache worsen that night and resulted to nausea and vomiting.

I didn't check my Blood Pressure because I would just worry more.

The next day I told my two friends about the good news.

The most important is I've learned my lesson...

From then on I always bring my lens container with the solution.

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Hypochondriasis manifests in various ways. Some people have numerous intrusive thoughts and physical sensations that push them to check with family, friends and physicians. Other people are so afraid of any reminder of illness that they will avoid medical professionals for a seemingly minor problem, sometimes to the point of becoming neglectful of their health when a serious condition may exist and go undiagnosed. Yet, some others live in despair and depression, certain that they have a life-threatening disease and no physician can help them, considering the disease as a punishment for past misdeeds.