How often do we receive a doctor bill, or insurance premium payment, and want to run and hide? And, there are those times we struggle to get ourselves into the doctor's office, to find our fears of needing more tests, or other appointments to follow, come true? When was the last time you sat before your brilliant computer and chased a variety of websites, to find what it was you were suffering from, through self-diagnosis?

The new black, has become self-diagnosis for many for a variety of reasons. A ton of people do not have the extra money laying around to afford health insurance, the "spendy" trips to the doc's office, or the time to go in and "face the music". Often, what we do to surpass all of the added stresses and expenses, is hit the World Wide Web first, and then move forward if it appears a real person with all the acronyms, experience, and colleagues to be referred to, needs to intervene. And, sometimes we wait and see what becomes, or become fearful with an abundant amount of false information, with hopes that our self-diagnosis was successful

Having two children with life-long medical conditions, and life-long medical bills following, it is easy to live the life of a hypochondriac, and live with a need to scrub every surface and crevice, including those on my children. Last year, during a wicked flu season, and on a Saturday of all days, our son spiked a fever, a little over 102 degrees, just before a variety of other symptoms tackled him. Before phoning the on-call nurse, (bless her heart; her response, of course, to hit the emergency room swiftly), I was able to uncover what the doc was able to tell me 5 hours later (in which he included a nice huge bill for his 15 minutes of hard work and my almost-3-hour waiting room experience). But, is this always tried and true? Of course not, but it has become a comfort to know there is so (read: too) much information floating about; information I can get my hands on, when the necessary beings, (also known as doctors), are not available. It is easy to get stirred up when entering the vast mixing pot of the internet without all of the ingredients, directions, and tools, but often we sift through, and find what we are looking for; or so, we hope. Just remember, if your thumb hurts, it is probably not some unable to pronounce diagnosis that will lead to severe stomach problems, and so on. And whatever you do, getting caught up in diagnosing, my sources say, it is not wise to start prescribing or attempting to. Keep in mind the internet sources are not always credible; I know it is hard to believe.

In other news:

Are you a right-brainer? If so, you may be in luck:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/05/07/o.Oprah.Interviews.Daniel.Pink/index.html

An inspiring recycled cottage:

http://www.sunset.com/garden/earth-friendly/salvage-garden-design-ideas-00400000043273/

New Lung Cancer vaccine:

http://health.msn.com/health-topics/vaccinations/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100237895&Gt1=31049

What to do in your garden, in May:

http://www.sunset.com/garden/garden-basics/what-to-do-garden-may-00400000044037/

Geek is now chic:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/05/06/geeks.pop.culture/index.html

And for more on self-diagnosis:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=self+diagnosis&aq=f&oq=