This week: Take Action on Your Health Edited by: NaNoKit  
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Going to the doctor isn't fun. It is, however, important to take active care of your physical and mental health.
What is your best tip for those who are apprehensive about going to the doctor or dentist?
This week's Action/Adventure Newsletter is all about working towards a healthier future.
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I realise that this is an unusual topic for an Action/Adventure newsletter, but it’s on my mind today. My dad’s been receiving treatment for cancer and just today it was confirmed that the tumor will need to be surgically removed.
My dad’s never liked going to the doctor. I cannot blame him; I rarely go. I’m afraid of needles and pretty much anything medical and will only drag myself to practice or hospital if I can no longer reasonably avoid it. In fact, I’ve been putting up with some issues for much longer than I probably should have and am only now trying to sort them, because I can no longer justify putting it off.
I grew up in an environment where not going to the doctor was seen as brave, and tough – sensible, even. Weak people would go see a doctor ‘for every little thing’, and so the way to go was to see if it’ll pass. Keep your chin up and soldier on through. And sure, many issues will pass. Not everything needs a doctor’s care. When you’re raised in such a culture, though, you eventually end up with a distorted view on what classes as ‘every little thing’ and what’s actually worthy of medical attention.
When you put off going for too long a medical issue that could have been solved with ease can become increasingly worse and require much more extensive care. You can end up like me, who thought that not much can be done about a broken toe, and it’ll heal on its own. Which is true to a certain extent, but it depends on which toe and the type of fracture. Now I can’t bend any of my toes on that foot and I suffer with osteoarthritis.
You can end up like a friend of mine who thought her symptoms were probably Long Covid, so not worth checking out, but it turned out to be stage 4 cancer. As she says herself, if she’d gone to the doctor a year and a half earlier, it might not have spread. You can end up like my dad, who was too frightened to go and ended up with a four-inch tumor which will be difficult to remove. When it comes to your health, don’t think that you’re a hero by acting tough and/or minimizing your symptoms. Your body is telling you there’s something wrong. It’s trying to get your attention. You need to act on it.
I know that this may be easier said than done. In my country there are long waiting lists for certain types of treatment and some treatments aren’t available at the moment due to a lack of resources. This is especially bad when it comes to mental health care – I’ve been waiting for treatment for 19 years now and have kind of given up on it ever happening. Private healthcare can be prohibitively expensive. I had to pay for a Dyspraxia assessment because there weren’t the resources for Dyspraxia assessments for adults. My Autism assessment took years because it had to pass various specialists and funding panels before it was given the go-ahead. Many people, then, try to save up for a private assessment, as it’s a lot faster. That option isn’t available to everyone, as it’s impossible to save when you struggle to keep a roof over your head and food on the table.
I’m still lucky, though, as there are countries where people dread calling an ambulance because it will come with a huge bill. There are nations where landing in the hospital can land you in a significant amount of debt at the same time. When that is the case, it is understandable when people try out pretty much anything but going to the doctor – they simply can’t afford to. I don’t know how such a situation can be improved other than to try vote for better. Sadly, if you’re stuck in a two-party system where neither side sees health care as a priority, this may take a while.
Where possible, though, please take active care of your body. Here in the UK there are some screenings and preventative checks, but uptake is low. I’ve been guilty of avoiding some of them myself. They’re not pleasant, and if you’re anything like me you assume your body is generally ticking along quite nicely… until something goes wrong. We tend to be better at checking our cars than ourselves!
It’s not nice to get a check-up. It’s not fun. It can feel like a waste of time if it turns out everything is indeed okay. Isn’t that nice to know, though? And isn’t it better to take the time and effort just in case? Because if something isn’t okay it’s far better to catch it and nip it in the bud as quickly as possible.
I walked around with a thyroid issue for ages. It’s much better now and all I have to do is take one tiny tablet a day. Why be miserable when you don’t have to be?
I’ll never like going to the doctor. I have some medical tests still to come, and I am not looking forward to them. Waiting it out doesn’t work, though. Not for everything. Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is to be brave and take action on your health.
NaNoKit
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Action/Adventure: November 06, 2024 Issue [#12822]
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