My friend Karina is always seemingly suffering some new and unusual health problem, which invariably ends up dominating the conversation at any given catch-up. I wouldn’t mind if I didn’t secretly suspect that she’s a hypochondriac. This week, foot problems are the order of the day. Apparently, her arches are playing up.
I shouldn’t be so dismissive, I know. But if you knew Karina, you’d probably feel the same. I know for for a fact that she spends hours on online diagnostic sites for the sole purpose of discovering health problems she hasn’t heard of before, and identifies symptoms in herself accordingly. She rarely seeks in-person treatment or advice from any kind of specialist.
For example, in this case, I asked if she’d seen a podiatrist. She said she hadn’t, but that she was planning to buy Orthaheel thongs online, and was also looking into fail fungus treatments. I enquired as to when the fungus problem had cropped up, and she was super vague about it, although she seemed to know an awful lot about PACT photodynamic nail fungus therapy (whatever that is).
That’s what makes me suss on the whole thing, really. It’s the fact that Karina can never provide details about her experience of her so-called conditions sufficient to convince me that she really has them. Given that we share so much else about our lives with each other, I’d fully expect her to give me the nitty gritty on her fungal nail issues. Plus, I’ve never seen any evidence of said issues.
As for the thing with her arches, I’d more likely to accept it if she didn’t have a track record of suspicious, if not blatantly spurious, health claims. Mark my words – she will not seek treatment for the alleged problem, including the purchase of orthopedic footwear or speaking to a foot specialist.
If I see evidence to the contrary, I’ll 100% change my tune and support Karina’s healthcare efforts, but so far she isn’t really making much of an effort beyond all the talk.