I think of it as a medical grease and oil change. It is one thing to live life with energy and positivity, but bodies are like engines: they can break down, and having a regular service can flag any bits on the edge of needing attention.
Where health is concerned, prevention and self-care are the new black. The Federal Department of Health, Disability and Ageing stats show almost half of all Australians have health conditions that could be prevented.
One-in-two adults do not meet the physical activity guidelines and two in three are overweight or obese. One in eight have at least one of eight common chronic conditions. Essentially, we could be in better shape and so much is up to us.
Rather than just waiting on what musician Bernard Fanning elegantly calls the “ticking bomb that lies beneath our skin”, this week has been dedicated to medical maintenance.
A while ago, I received that little parcel in the mail that asks for a little parcel of our own: the National Bowel Screening program kit. It is not my favourite biennial present, and life was busy when it was delivered. So, I filed it.
But this is medical grease and oil change week, so posting my poop was on my list. Too many people I know have needed to get to the bottom of a problem found after popping their poop in the post. And the consequences of feeling too shy or uncomfortable to do it are simply too horrible to risk.
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Also on the list was a mammogram: an experience like no other. Boob nurses manipulate mammaries like they are creating origami, and the real test is of your ability to hold your breath and stay steady while each boob is twice squashed wafer thin in a glass vice.
The BreastScreen people make it all very pleasant, with smiles, calming pale-pink soft furnishings and written affirmations in plentiful supply, but I will be glad not to have to see them for another two years.
Rounding out medical maintenance week was the annual skin check. A childhood lived in the sun when sunburn was part of a good day out eventually comes home to roost. As my DNA echoes with both parents having had melanomas, being inspected all close up and personal might just save my life.
Just do it, I say. After all, health – a holistic, wondrous gift – is far more than just the absence of illness.
Dr Jane Stephens is a UniSC journalism lecturer, media commentator and writer.
