OCD

The medical school admission process selects for people who border on OCD. I would be one of those people. The reason why is because medicine is so damned detail-oriented. It's like putting together Lego's, except you read the instructions once, see it done once, and then you're expected to do it from memory. So having people who are a little neurotic sometimes helps.

And sure enough, when I'm doing my thing, I've got it down to a T. I'm ordering 5,000 labs, getting x-rays, quizzing students on the diagnostic criteria for hemochromatosis. Beware my Doctor Fu. I'll check back on things, and I'll hear, "Oh that Dr. ifinding is so thorough!" But where this spills over into my personal life can be a little annoying.

I can never remember if I locked my car. I will go back from my office or from the hospital to check and make sure I locked my car. Even now, just talking about it, I want to go and check. Even worse, my front door. I am always so glad when I have a place where the door automatically locks.

I am always worried that I left my burners going on my range, or left the toaster oven on. Every day before I leave, I have to check both to make sure they're off. This might even sound somewhat reasonable till I tell you that I've been doing this daily, but I wasn't cooking for about 2 weeks. That's right, I was checking burners that I hadn't used in 2 weeks.

I have a pathologic fear someone is trying to page me and I'll miss it. Weekends, at night, my pager is always on. It's really, really hard for me to turn it off. I'm even worse with my cell phone.

And I can't pack like a normal person. I was gone for a weekend, and when I finished packing for the trip, I had 5 days of clothing packed for a 2 days. I had packed sweaters, jeans, boots, and a jacket for 90 degree weather.

I need help.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are not alone! I am obsessed with whether I closed the garage door. Your post made me laugh out loud, thanks.

The Sneaky Dog said...

HAHA, what you said sounds normal to me. I am always triple checking to make sure my house is safe (everything unplugged) before I leave to go to the hospital. I also fear that I have left my dog out. even though i know he is in on my couch, I sometimes have to drive back when I am halfway to school to make sure he is in. You don't need help, you just need a hobby.

Aaron

Pseudo_Doctor said...

Just started reading you blog today for the first time as it was recommend by someone else and just wanted to say that I really love it. BTW I tried looking up what you're Latin phrase meant and couldn't translate the last word "videatur". Curious if you could enlighten me since I myself am a little OCD as well. Take care

incidental findings said...

Let's see. Last time I broke out the Latin dictionary was when I first stumbled upon this quote.

Ut = how
aliquid = something
fieri = to be done
videatur = to be seen, seem, appear

So I think it goes 'How something is seen being done' literally. A more English friendly translation would be 'Something done so it can be seen' or 'Doing something for appearance's sake.'