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Health Scares and Wake Up Calls
December 27th, 2008 | Stephen Bailey
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As a man grows older, there are certain terms he fears hearing while sitting half-naked in a hospital gown. Heart disease, emphysema, prostate exam, diabetes, arthritis just to name a few.
And these very terms were flowing freely from a doctor's mouth at a recent and long overdue physical. Forty two years of nutritional neglect and bodily abuse now needed to be put into perspective.
Dr. Ruvan Shein of Manhattan Internal Medicine asked if I'd heard of his reputation for being a mean guy. I said no, but I had heard that he was thorough. Besides, sometimes meanness is what it takes to get through a skull as thick as mine. He was highly recommended.
Fourteen long hours had passed since my last bite of food (a lifetime for my fast metabolism), which made it even more difficult to sit calmly as Dr. Shein checked me head to toe. In a stern-but-compassionate tone, he spelled out the various horrors that my life thus far may have set in motion for my life to come.
Smoking, drinking and a love of eating red meat while sitting lazily on office chairs and sofas add up to a number of possible health concerns.
Dr. Shein continued to probe, prod and poke as I listened anxiously to a laundry list of problems. My head spun from my lowered blood sugar and the onslaught of bad news. The scariest one being his almost casual tossing out of the word emphysema. Understandable with my history of smoking, but a bit premature I felt.
Then, a glimmer of hope.
Unlike many doctors, this guy believes in healthy living over pill popping. He felt that I was not that far gone and a few simple tweaks to my lifestyle would work wonders. Plus, I had a few factors working in my favor. One was genetics.
My family is notorious for longevity despite certain health indiscretions. Other factors include being smoke free for over a year and, for the past couple of years, eating better. I do still drink a bit too much and exercise way too little.
After the more embarrassing portions of the exam was over, five vials of blood and an EKG were taken. More tests were to come, but I had to leave as I was losing my battle with a growing hunger and falling blood sugar.
A week later I was treated to another series of tests. Echo cardiogram, doppler echocar, doppler color flow and carotid doppler. Similar to the ultrasound tests for pregnant women, these were meant to see and hear if my heart was healthy.
I had never heard my heart in this manner before. The sound was like old galoshes trudging thru slush in an old 80s arcade game. The technician said that every heart has it's own music. I like that analogy. And, although the official tests results would take ten days, he gave me a thumbs up and a smile.
Now all I can do is patiently wait for my test results. Happily, the talk around the medical water cooler seems to be that things look good so far. Solid blood pressure, healthy prostate, strong heart. However, the doctor's use of the word emphysema kept ringing in my ears as did another nagging issue. Arthritis.
Arthritis is the one genetic flaw that has made it through my families otherwise stellar history. It is also the one ailment that I've been living with all of my adult life, albeit undiagnosed. And while the threat of this crippling ailment is scary, it is the one I can most live with. I say this because all the rest of the nasties I was probed for, if found to be real, would be the results of my own neglect.
With one series of tests done, I have more to come. By Dr. Shein's insistence, a pulmonary specialist will check my lungs. One of the blood tests taken was to check for rheumatoid arthritis. Whatever the results, the damage to my legs and back is obvious. So also up next is a date with an orthopedist. Finally, physical therapy to rebuild lost strength and balance.
All of this tossed together at the end of the year is like a karmic bullhorn screaming for me to get my shit together, once and for all. I've been a fairly lazy person all my life. At younger ages, this meant lost opportunities and low stamina. As serious as that sounded back then, it now means my very life is on the line.
Stay tuned for more…
Related Topics: doctor, health, life
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Health Scares and Wake Up Calls
(via Facebook, MySpace, Digg, email and more)