Soul Kate Vol 12: Health – Not just a State of Mind

By Kate Henshaw
Indeed, the saying that health is wealth is not an understatement. When you lead a very busy and hectic lifestyle, you tend to take a lot of things for granted, like our complete physical and mental well being. With each passing day, we wake up and get ready to face the daily grind of our different professions, family life etc.

We hustle all day, grab a few mouthfuls here and there, maybe indulge in some ‘light’ drinks and heavy dinners and before we know it, the day is far spent and the night sets in. This is a cycle that continues all year round.

The need to exercise cannot be overemphasised. It is more important than an apple a day keeping the doctor away. It is what keeps our organs in good active and healthy condition and especially the blood in our veins flowing. An overall check of most of us in Nigeria will reveal shocking results.

We lead a sedentary life and are more concerned about making as much Naira as possible that we forget to take care of our bodies. How about spending some of this hard earned money on ourselves? When last did you have a comprehensive health check? When last did you take a day off to rest from all the hustle and bustle? Do you take holidays/ vacations? Body no be firewood as they say.

Given the spate of deaths that have struck the entertainment industry for a while , I wondered if we were sacrificing our health for wealth. If we were so entranced by the filthy lucre that the machinery that worked to bring in the lucre was being neglected, hardly being serviced or cared for.

Then the all important killer, Cancer was also brought into view in the month of October, with the celebration of breast cancer awareness by different groups and NGOs all trying their best to enlighten us (especially women) on the need to get checked as early detection of the problem is key to beating the spread of the disease and saving many lives that are lost.

With the end of the year fast approaching and my desire to have a glorious New year filled with new dreams and goals to achieve, I decided to go for a complete health assessment. I have however had the smaller checks done, like the Pap smear test, blood pressure etc and I do exercise regularly but I wanted a more detailed check and I got that at the Lagoon Hospital in Apapa.

I met Dr Mene through my sister and he encouraged me to go for it. You know, there is this fear of, what if they find out something I do not want to know? What if with this discovery I only have a few weeks, months, to live? What you do not know will not hurt you. I beg to differ. I would rather know so that I can get help for it. So, I made an appointment at the Health Assessment Clinic on a Monday.

I got in at 8am which was a good thing as I later found out that the procedure took four hours and you are asked not to eat the night before so as to check your Fasting Blood Sugar. With my form filled, I was directed to a changing room where I dressed up in the robe and under clothes provided, wore a pair of white gauze-like slippers on my feet and moved to have my weight and height checked. Next, the hearing and eyesight check (I found out later from the Dr Savage that I could not hear low sounds, only high pitched ones).

Ok, then came the Spirometry test, which simply put is a ventilatory test to assess the efficiency of the respiratory tract through the measurement of the expiratory and inspiratory flow rate, it was a test for the lungs and I inhaled and blew into a tube to see how long I could sustain it and a graph indicated how well I did. I was then moved to a room where I had an ECG check which was done by attaching electrodes to different parts of my body and I went on the treadmill for a total of 21mins and at intervals of 3mins the elevation was changed.

I came out tops as I did not even get to my recommended heart rate at the end of it which was a good sign. Then I was transferred to the Ultra Sound room for a scan, the X-ray room for a mammogram which I must confess I have never had. I have only done the self examination check on myself but the mammogram is more detailed. It is painful I must warn (I did tell the doctor, I would be truthful) but a few minutes of pain is worth it to prevent death.

Between the ECG and the X-ray room, I met with Dr Savage(in charge of the Health Assessment Clinic) who checked my knee jerk reaction, pressed my stomach, looked inside my ears and eyes and asked me comprehensive questions about my lifestyle. I also had brought a sample of my “derriere” to put it nicely and gave a sample of urine too.

I have been given an appointment in a few weeks time to come for my results and though I am a bit anxious, I do want to know the true state of my health. Thanks to Nurse Theresa Onuh and Juliana Raphael especially, for making the experience quite pleasant and to all the staff who did a great job that day. Please do the same, get yourself checked for health is wealth.

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