Annual checkup

The elderly male doctor's is friendly with good English. He asks me how I'm doing as he locks the exam room door.

At my age, I guess I should be getting annual health checks but I haven't gotten one in maybe five years. Five years in part because of my own procrastination and in part because the English speaking hospital I normally go to only does rudimentary checkups. That's because checkups done locally are pretty through and covered by standard insurance. I had one in 2006 and again in 2018. As far as I know, I passed without anything significantly wrong in those checkups. The two prior checkups also had an elderly, slightly overly friendly, good English speaking doctor. I knew what I was in for even before they locked the door.

I had ended my checkup procrastination since I've been feeling a bit fatigued and ever since covid occasional uncomfortableness in my chest. I asked Sabrina to book a place, help me communicate on exam day, and help me interpret the results. She booked in a top flight center near our home. English was scant; except for that overly friendly, elderly doctor.

At these checkups, you go from station to station. First blood. Then CT chest scan. Standing x-rays. Sonogram. Eyes. Teeth. Ears, nose, and throat. Many others that I forget. You carry a sheet a paper and at each station, the doctor signs the row for their department test and then you are off to the next station. It finishes with urine and stool. I could only manage urine. They serve breakfast when you're done.

Before he locked the door, the friendly elderly doctor is looking for gloves. Seems they only have small ones in the exam room. A nurse comes in, not believing, checks the drawer and then leaves the room. She returns a minute later with medium sized gloves. I'd rather prefer the doctor who only needed small gloves. Door now locked, the elderly doctor gently hits his fists on my back, a kind of massage. He then asks me to do some squats. I do three or four. Then for the main event. Bend over, touch the toes. Prostrate is apparently ok.

The test results came back a week later. 12 areas of concern. But not ranked. Most are not a real concern. But I do have moderate calcification of my left ventricle; 91% worse than others my age. This is a concern and may explain the fatigue.  Diet and monitoring seems to be the main treatment. I'll take the test result to my main hospital for follow-ups.