There comes a time when having invested all your energy on looking after your ailing elderly loved ones, your spouse or seriously ill children, that you need to start taking good care of yourself too.
As a caregiver, you’d know the drill. You’ve probably heard of the same questions about family health history and would have repeated the same answers over and over again each time you see a new doctor or specialist, or even the different teams at different hospitals.
This time, the focus is on you. Can you answer all those questions about yourself? How many times have you read or had people telling you to take care of yourself? What does that even mean? Is it just a catch phrase in place of “goodbye”? Or should you really take it to heart and do just that – take care of yourself?
Here are some things you’d want to consider when you “take care of yourself”.
IMPORTANT CHECK-LIST
The first one involves going for a medical check-up. When was the last time you had one? People go for medical check-ups for different reasons. Most pregnant women are diligent about this because they’re excited and anxious for the baby. This is especially so if they’re going through a complicated pregnancy.
Others who go for regular check-ups are those who have gone and are now on prescribed medications. They’d need to see if their dosage could be maintained, increased or even decreased.
So where does that leave the rest of us? Take that first step and make that appointment to see your doctor. Perhaps start with your family physician or favourite General Practitioner (GP). Alternatively, go to a private hospital and choose any of their packages; there are quite a few to choose from depending on your age, gender and budget.
Why should we do it? Such screenings are meant to detect diseases early, especially if you have a family history of certain diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease. If you’ve been a caregiver to family members with these diseases, get yourself tested too.
Quite a few diseases, such as cervical cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, diabetes and everything related to it like loss of vision and heart related illnesses, can be nipped in the bud early if they’re detected in the early stages and before they spread or get worse.
These health check-ups would usually include a blood test to check your blood glucose level, cholesterol levels, and numerous organ functions as well as certain infections. You may request for other specific checks too if there are things that concern you like hepatitis or sexually transmitted diseases. You’d also be required to give a urine sample. Quite often, you’d be asked to fast from the night before for at least 10 to 12 hours before a blood test can be done.
THE PROCESS
If this were your first ever visit for a medical check-up, the doctor would ask for your family medical history to see if diabetes, heart diseases and cancer run in the family. There may be other diseases that are hereditary that the doctor would need to know.
The doctor would usually also ask if you’ve had any major surgeries, lifestyle habits, for example, if you exercise regularly, and if you smoke or drink alcohol. After taking your blood pressure, a sample of your blood and that short “interview”, the doctor may press on different spots of your abdomen to make sure everything is all right. By palpitating the abdomen to ensure that nothing is too big, firm or tender, and listening to it, he may be able to pick up on some problems.
The doctor may then check your ears and throat. You’d be surprised what can be seen in the ear when the doctor uses the special tool to look inside. It could be anything from compacted ear wax (considering how often people use cotton buds and other tools to clean ears), swollen air canals or infected eardrums.
Your throat can also reveal a lot about your health, from how clean your teeth are, gum diseases and possible problems near your tonsils. You may be referred to a specialist should a problem be found.
The doctor may also shine his flashlight into your eyes to see how fast your pupils react to the light. By doing this, the doctor might also detect problems related to high blood pressure, glaucoma and other eye problems.
When the doctor listens to your lungs, heart and neck, he’s listening for sounds that could denote trouble. If he finds anything out of the ordinary, you might need further investigations and he’d refer you to a specialist.
And that’s when it all goes to the next level. You may be prescribed medications and/or a change of lifestyle after which you’d be asked to return to see if your condition has changed or improved.
[Next week: Other medical tests one should do after 40.]
Putri Juneita Johari volunteers for the Special Children Society of Ampang. She can be reached at juneitajohari@yahoo.com.