Getting a physical....

Yesterday I had my annual employee physical examination, courtesy of my office's employee medical program. I wasn't really interested in availing of it, since I prefer going to my own personal physicians, but since it was free, it gave me an opportunity to get second opinions, and I would be allowed to get the day off, I said to myself: "Well, why not? And so off I went.

It wasn't that comprehensive an exam though. They usually reserve the complicated exams for the older employees. I had to give a blood sample for lipid profiling and a sample of my urine for urinalysis. Blood extraction always stings, but I think I have gotten used to it after all of the bloodwork I had done in the past. As for the urine sample, I had some difficulty aiming my stream in the cup, but I produced my sample, nonetheless. :-)

My vision was tested, and I performed quite poorly without my glasses. I could still see relatively well even without corrective lenses (of course "relatively well" is very subjective), though I lose a lot of the fine detail. As a result I could hardly make out a lot of the smaller letters. What can I say? I'm nearsighted in one eye and have astigmatism in the other. I have been wearing glasses since college. I guess that's one aspect about myself that I'll probably carry the rest of my life. Unless of course, I opt for corrective laser surgery. Who knows? If I have the money in the future and I'm reassured its risk-free, why not?

My blood pressure, height and weight were also measured. My blood pressure was slightly elevated (it often is), and even without the attending nurse saying anything, I already knew that I was overweight. If I'm not mistaken my physique is considered Class 1 obese, meaning I'm about 10% over my ideal weight. That means I have to lose about 8 kg/17.6 lbs. Easier said than done, but I'm already on it. I have been on it since last year, and while I have already lost some weight, I'm still a ways off from reaching my ideal weight.

I had a dental exam as well. Nothing really noteworthy here, though the attending dentist remarked that a couple of teeth had some insipient cavities. Insipient meaning very, very small cases of dental caries. There wasn't any urgent need to have them filled because of their small sizes, but probably something I should watch out for and consider having filled when I get the chance.

I dispensed with the digital rectal exam. Somehow the thought of someone sticking his or her finger up my ass didn't seem that appealing. It was meant as means of determining whether a person has hemorrhoids, but since I was quite sure I didn't have any, I had it crossed off my list. Some people may enjoy something up their ass, but unfortunately, I'm not one of them. :-)

The physician who wrapped up the findings of my examination advised that I should monitor my blood pressure regularly, and gave the usual litany of lifestyle changes that I should make so I would avoid developing full blown hypertension or other heart conditions. Heard the same litany from a lot of other people before. Well, I try my best. Some changes are easy enough to implement, but some aren't. Take stress for example. We don't usually have control over events that can be very stressful, and sometimes its just impossible to avoid. But I guess we should at least try.

I hardly smoke anymore, and I try to work out as much as I could. As teenagers or young adults we always thought that we were immortal, that we could never get sick. I'm only in my early thirties, and while I'm reasonably healthy, eventually I have come to accept that my body is not in any way immune from the ravages of time. Let's face it. None of us are getting any younger.

It may sometimes seem like a low priority, especially considering everything else that we have to deal with, but we really should take better care of our health. It's in our best interest to try and stay as healthy as we can, especially in these stressful times, with the huge number of disease causing organisms and substances surrounding us, and the potentially high financial cost of being sick.

And, if you're a parent, you owe it to your kids to stay healthy.

Right?

So, have you had a physical lately? :-)