Mom and her new hobby

What a great life I am living. Within this week, I got only 6 SMSs. Ever wondered what were they?

Two of them were from MOBILY (my cellphone network provider) who for some weird reason always keep sending me a notification in both Arabic and English telling me to pay my bill. I mean just send it in one language. Not both.

The other four were from the hospital. I gotta admit. I admire the hospital's initiative in utilizing technology and sending SMS notifications of the next scheduled appointments we have. But honestly, I feel a bit uncomfortable when I get one of those messages because I know it's not for me. It's for my mom.

Apparently, mom has developed this hobby of visiting dcotors or, putting in other words, abusing our medical insurance. It all started with "Hamza, let's go to the hospital to check my blood pressure". "Mom you are ok. There is nothing wrong with you" I say, but she keeps telling me that I am not the doctor and she might have something and she wants to be diagnosed early rather than late. So I listened and I did.

3 days later, "7abeeby, take me to the hospital...I wanna do an ECG".

Me feeling a bit worried "Mom, your doctor said your blood pressure is not high but you gotta watch it. He didn't ask us to do an ECG"

"I know, I am just being cautious"

And So I took her one more time. Thankfully, the results were ok but she needs to constantly monitor herself and be cautious. So far so good, but something inside told me that my mom was not satisfied.

A week later, the same request pops up. This time she wants to check her thyroid glands. She argued that her family (her mom and her sisters) suffer from Hypothyroidism and that it might be hereditary and she wanted to check it up. As usual, I kept hiding my increased anxiety towards her excessive obsession about her health.

This time the results disappointed me. The doctor's latest diagnosis concluded that she indeed suffered from "Hypothyroidism" and she has to deal with the fact of using lifetime medications. Such news could never ring well in my ears.

So up to now, my mom has committed herself to 3 separate doctors that she deal with on a regular basis. To my surprise, I feel that my mom is a bit satisfied as if she is enjoying taking care of herself. Well, I don't wanna blow her bubble but I hope her obsession will not become paranoia. If she ever asks me to take her to the dentist, then we are going to have a serious talk. I'd have to explain to her the concept of medical insurance and that it is not fully FREE, and that I have to pay a portion of each invoice and check-up.

But I know I will never do that. If she knew that I pay a portion of her treatments even if it is insignificant, she'll feel guilty and she'll only go when it is an emergency. At the same time, I don't want her to surprise me with further unanticipated symptoms of old age. Because this means that she will soon start giving me the "talk"...

the taking care of my brother & sisters talk. A one I am not ready for yet.