I felt strangely compelled to blog about this lab I had to go do this morning. But first, a little background. last Monday, I went for a physical for the first time in a while. I need to start taking better care of myself, I figured I should see where I am right now. For the most part I was deemed healthy, but my blood pressure was up when I got checked the first time (probably due to the fact that I had just gotten off work a few hours prior & also had some stuff on my mind that was bugging me). Folks, don't schedule physicals for right after work. Nuff said. I did tell the doctor that I was coming from work & hadn't slept before my pressure was taken. It was retaken after the rest of the physical was done just to make sure.  I also have to go back in January just to be on the safe side, or so I was told. That's not what this post is about per se, but it all started here.

   There was another somewhat funny moment at this appointment that I should have blogged about then. I was being hooked up to an EKG machine (which is NOT SOP in a physical that I know of) because...I'm not sure. Could have been because of the initial blood pressure check. Y'all, I was so tired I didn't bother to ask. The doc told me something, but I don't remember. So here's what happened. The nurse came in to hook me up to the EKG. This involves sticking tape & sensors to various parts of the arms & chest. Wellll, 1) there was considerable problems getting said tape to stay on my body in places. Probably because I had on lotion (or my body is Teflon based). 2) I have a hairy chest, so pulling off the tape in that area was an issue with me. The nurse "let" me take those off. 3) The nurse was having printer problems after the third time trying. She gave up after that. The doc asked her to try again after swabbing me down with alcohol in the places needed. We both laughed hard about the whole thing. 4) Oh, and I was cold as shit & didn't have one of those stupid gowns on! All I had on were just underwear & socks, y'all. Come to think of it, the socks came off at one point. Folks, I can't stand the cold! I was literally shaking like a leaf the whole time. It was a surprise that she got any good readings at all. I had to brace myself to keep from shaking & that didn't work.

     At any rate, like I said before, I was was deemed fairly healthy by the doctor, but he still was concerned about about a couple of things, one of which being the circulation going to my legs. The other, my Cholesterol, was another appointment that I've already had, but don't know the results of yet. The reason for this appointment (possibly outside of milking my HMO for moolah), was because they want your stomach to be at least 8 hours empty. Now, by the time I even saw the doctor, it was about that & my stomach was growling. I guess the whole don't eat after midnight thing you hear about has something to it. Don't know. And I'm not totally sure about the doctors whole concern was. I have some sort of idea, but he & I might differ as to the cause of it. As far as I know, I'm alright. Yea, I know, Damn!

     To keep this post from being too long (and I'm kinda tired at the moment), I'll save today's escapades until later on. I will go ahead and bottom line this for those of you who don't care about this(and why are you reading this, then?):

Go get your self checked every year & ummm, schedule the damn thing when you are not working. You don't want to take work (or any kind of) stress into your physical. If you do, let them know about it when you get there. You do NOT want them thinking it's something that it's not. Granted, you can't help the fact that you might be stressed when it comes.

P.S.
I twittered about this. Prostate exams are not comfortable or fun but necessary after a certain age. I'm not at that age yet, but had one anyway. Wasn't given much choice that I remember. That is all.