I never worked with anyone that much of a hypochondriac, but did work with one older woman who you fast learned never to ask "Hi - how are you?"

No I'm sorry I don't....If you find out how to handle someone like her, let me know...My daughter works with a girl like that. She's always sick and her children are always on the verge of dying. And what ever my grandkids might be sick with, her children have it worse. The worst case ever.

It sounds like she wants attention more than anything. She maybe uses these excuses to make up for her lack of work ethics.
I work with someone similar and I just ignore her. I can't keep up with her disease du jour for whatever reason. She always seems healthy and ready to go, come Friday. She also never complains about being sick on the weekends .... so I wonder...

I don't think this gal is a hypochondriac, but, anything you have hers is worse. I'm just waiting for her to have a worse case of (fill in the blank with something that only affects men).

I'm a trauma nurse and i work with one. You should see her at the end of a shift!LOL. I dont mean to sound uncaring but she drives me nutz.

oh dear i'm so mean i think i'd let her overhear a conversation with another worker using some phoney but medical sounding condition, and see what she comes up with...

actually though if it's affecting her work and ability she does have a problem, but mental, and that's sad...

I have one working for me. She has everything under the sun and then some. Is allergic to everything on the planet. I don't dare ask how she is. If she starts in about her latest ailment, I stare at the computer screen, typing furiously on the keyboard and make grunting noises at her (uh-huh, uh-huh) until she shuts up. I try to be compassionate, but TMI is TMI!

Get a little notepad and label it "(Her name)'s Illnesses" and every time she complains of something, put a check on the notepad, or even go so far as to write down the illness.

We had one of these going for a co-worker who wouldn't stop saying "I'm sorry..." She'd say it before EVERY sentence!!!! Finally we showed it to her so she could see how much she did it. It was all in good fun, but she never realized how much she said it.

Blessings,
Haley

I work with one. She's on medications that number in the teens for everything from some heart ailment to fibromyalgia to depression to the Epstein-Barr virus, and God knows how many I've forgotten. She tells us about her ailments daily. The other day she said one of her doctors told her she doesn't really have diabetis, but he put her on medication for it because she's close to having it. Come on. She sees one doctor or another at least once a week, usually more. She manages to miss work at least two or three times every month for some illness.

Believe me, if I were the boss, she would no longer have a job. She drives us all crazy, and when she is at work, she does as little as possible.

How is is possible to be on so many medications without some kind of bad interaction happening??

The next time she "has a stroke" call an ambulance. If she's really sick, you'll be saving her life. If not, the EMTS will embarass her terribly, and she will be getting some huge bills from the ambulance company, hospital and any doctors who see her.

Jannie, I think I like that idea of calling an ambulance for her. That's a great idea!

Sorry, but I couldn't help but laugh at a lot of this thread. I dealt with the sick leave when I worked. We were required to give an employee a 5-day advance if they ran out of sick leave. They didn't accumulate any until they 'paid back' that amount. Each year she'd ask if she'd used her 'extra' sick leave yet. She had a total of at least 5 hysterectomies, plus a myriad of many other surgeries. And each surgery the dr told her she couldn't lift anything heavier than a teacup for at least 4 to 6 wks. Since her absences required work on my part, (I did payroll and insurances), I alternated between frustration, anger and chuckling. Bad me, I guess. The sympathy well runs dry after so long.

Shirley

I had a sister-in-law like that,Everytime one of my family got sick with something,or one of our kids,she or her kids had it also only worse.If i or one of my sisters had to go into the hospital for something,so did she!! My other brother said she goes into the hospital once a year,they unzip her and hose down her inside walls,as there's nothing left,since she had it all removed.LOL
Kathi

Duct tape.

Over the mouth.

(Another use for duct tape - oh, this was one of the original list of uses, was it?).

ole joyful

P.S. I like the idea of the list, on 8-1/2 x 11 sized sheet, taped to file cabinet? cubicle wall facing well-travelled area? refrig in lounge? Date and name, as the symptoms get reported.

Maybe, having kept the list quietly for a few days at the beginning, be a good idea to visit her, paper in hand, to ask her how to spell the malady, if it's slightly difficult.

If she asks what you're keeping that for, tell her that it's in case you may need to call an ambulance for her, so you can send it with the attendants so that staff at emerg. knows of the problems that she's had.

o j

My MIL was like that, she was always complaining about her health or taking pills for this or that condition, and I swear she went to at least one doctor appointment a week; I know because I had to drive her. I tried to always listen patiently and say "oh. Um. Uh-huh." when she complained. Sometimes I was actually nervous picking up the phone to call her, knowing I'd have to hear about how sick she was. The last three years of her life she had three surgeries, part of her intestine removed, a hip replacement and a hysterectomy. When she died, of a "real" heart attack, we cleaned out her medicine chest. Literally dozens of bottles of medications. She must have been so miserable. I have nothing but sympathy for anyone who has to be near a hypochondriac. I once read that such people ar
te obsessed with illness because as children the only time they got pampered was when they were ill. I tried to remember that when dealing with MIL. I know for certain she had a terrible childhood, largely ignored by her own mother.

i don't work with one, but one of my best friends is. not only her, she has turned her kids into them as well. although the doctors must agree with it, because i've never seen such a "drug store" in anyone's home like i have seen hers. believe me, any ailment, any durable medical equipment you need, she has it.

i most recently laughed at her when i had made some a dessert with strawberries in it. she ate it, but then told me she was "a little bit allergic" to strawberries. i laughed, said either you are or you aren't, there's no middle of the road. they all can't have a fire in the fireplace because they are allergic to fire. the youngest daughter got restless leg syndrome as soon as the commercials started advertising it. the list goes on and on and on.

oh, and she can diagnose any medical condition. i've learned in all these years never to say "how ya doing" because then i get the run down.

you should find one of those check lists a doctor has you complete listing all the ailments and diseases to build your family history and have her complete it. i'd also wear a surgical mask when you need to be around her. i would NEVER ever ask her how she's doing. but then again, if you start on her, she might come back with a harrassment complaint.

I work with a hypo.
I told her, after she said she had major artery blockage in her heart that maybe, if she was so ill, she shouldn't be at work. She wouldn't do her job so our boss told her she needed a doctor's note to release her from her duties. Now she coughs a lot and sighs.

Lori

My brother is in the hospital because he managed to be on so many medications that the interactions of them darn near killed him. I fully expect him to go right back on them when he is released. There is NOTHING I was able to say to convince him the danger of this, he feels the doctor is stupid, of course he has to be on this med. He has been this way all of his adult life.

I've done extensive research on this subject over the last few years. It is an illness and there is no known treatment which is effective. These people believe to the depths of their souls that they are suffering from these ailments and there is nothing that can convince them they are not.

I've resigned myself to the fact that he will kill himself with medications one day, and that until that time he will discuss his illness's with the great pleasure that this subject always brings to him.

He is an adult, he has the right to make his own decisions. This idea has been extremely hard for me to accept, but I must. We all have the right to live as we choose, even if it kills us.

I'd like to add that I must put up with this because I love him. I understand your pain, it's hard to deal with someone like this because the conversation has no period at the end of it.

Were it someone at work, a simple acquaintence, I would leave the area every time the subject came up.

I realize this would mean I had to work from home. I mean, seriously ;)

Good gracious. I've never experienced that and hopefully won't have to. She sounds like she has challenges, which she may use when it comes to work that she may not be looking forward to.

Wonder how she reacts when she's backed into a corner.

I think maybe I'd come up with one good response, plain but politically correct, and use it every time she starts. Something like: If you're here and not at home or the doctor, we need you to do your share of the work. If you cannot do that, you should go home or to the doctor.

And I just would walk away, not give her my audience. She'd learn that I am not the right person to complain to.

My MIL is like that, too. However, I only see her a couple times a year and talk on the phone to her only a few times a year. I can tolerate it for a short time. Even when we visit for a few days, I just listen and offer superficial sympathy. She feels the only way to get attention is to be sick. However, as soon as she has anyone's attention for a minute she consumes it with health complaints. She will even go into explicit detail to her grandchildren about her bowel movements. (Nothing brings generations closer. LOL) So people avoid giving her their attention to avoid the health complaints. It's a cycle. When I do talk to her, I try to ask more specific questions that "How are you?" If she's tried any good recipes; been anywhere fun; what she's watching on TV these days. Granted, she can even turn that around to foods she cannot eat anymore; how hard it is to walk or ride in car; and the medical report on CNN. But it doesn't open the door quite so wide as "How are you?" I sort of hold her husband a little bit responsible b/c he does ignore her unless she is sick. But when she is sick, he fawns all over her and tells everyone else to give her a break. She grew up the oldest of 6 kids on a farm, I'm sure she had to be very sick to get much notice.

OMG! I am still laughing! A self-diagnosed stroke? I agree with the poster who said to pick up the phone and call an ambulance. The notebook idea is a classic, too. Keep 'em coming!