How old are you and how often do you go for a medical checkup?

54 and once a year.

They're only as good as the doc you're seeing. I thought I was sailing through them for years, my father has diabetes so I always asked about my sugars and was told they were fine.

Got a phone call after one 'Is that Makikomi from boards.ie?'... You were in for a medical last week, yadda yadda.. ''Are you a diabetic?''

''FUCK' I said, I guess I am now.

Anyway, goes back to the doctor and we went over everything.. The bloods I'd just given weren't for a medical so I asked 'How come I wasn't diabetic in December and now in Febuary I am?.. He looks back through my file, I was diabetic for three fk'ing years and the bollox before him never said a word.

There ya go, I question them every time now

kippy wrote: »

That's slack but unfortunately despite all the good that goes on in the health service an all too common type of story.

Id not had a check up in a few years and very rarely before that. Ended up going to the doc earlier this year after checking my own bloods and getting a very very very high blood sugar reading. Turns out I have Type 1 diabetes. Not sure how long have had it.
Had the full NCT during the initial phase of consultations and will be having a full NCT annually from here on in. No harm really.
Late thirties.

Thankfully mine was T2 and I worked very hard at putting it into remission. Just before Covid-19 I was getting treatment for a stress fracture in my foot, that kept me off running (I run a lot).. Come the virus and my treatment stopped, I couldn't run and despite regularly swimming I started to gain weight, and I'll be honest here too we were exceptionally busy in work with our tasking with C-19, to handle the stress of that I drank too much too.

Anyway my bloods recently went back up into T2 ranges so I got into remission mode again, cut back on the carbs etc and I'm back on track.

Story is, I think once you're over 40 regular health screenings are worth their weight in gold. Unfortunately for me I was seeing a brain dead work doctor who didn't bother his hole with properly reading my bloods.

Now I've a super family doctor, a really good guy who I trust [literally] with my life.

I do a lot of sports, I've always competed at something but when I turned 40 things started to slow down and I wasn't recovering like I once did. I was winning Judo nationals in my weight a few years running, cycling 40+ km a day, in the gym, swimming etc but my prescription kept growing.

In my 50's now, I'm still going strong with training but with C-19 nothing competitive and recently went onto blood pressure meds. Feeling cheesed off I asked my pharmacist (who's brilliant) wtf was going on, I joked that if my prescription got any bigger I'd be bringing it to her on a memory stick.

She said 'M, you're like an old sports car. Looking great, feeling you can still put it up to the younger ones, but you've miles up on the engine and your serving intervals need regular checking'.. I thought that was brilliant.

So lads, and girls, you might think you're bullet proof but you can't hold back father time. Get your checks, but keep going too.

Years ago at a Judo competition I met an old guy, he's fought with the American marines during WWII and was stationed in Japan after the war. He learned Judo there but hadn't trained in a very long time, he was at the competition supporting his grandson. Something he said stuck with me to this day;

'If I'd known I'd grow so old I wouldn't have grown so old so young'.

Check your body, do your servicing and keep on chipping away at whatever it is you love, and if you don't love something then find it.