The month of February is always the most dreaded month for me as it’s that time of the year when I’m due to go through a battery of medical tests. I’ve not skipped any of my pap smears and ultrasound scans even during the strict lockdown years. I know how important it is to do a yearly screening coz if there’s any malignancy brewing inside of me, at least it’s detected early and survival rate is higher with early treatment.
For this year:
Annual pap smear ✅
Annual ultrasound scan of lower pelvic and breasts ✅
Annual blood work ✅
Mammogram 🔜
Appointment with cardiologist to review high cholesterol reading 🔜
I skipped a blood work last year, so this year, I took a package with 45 parameters checked (with one free parameter on colon cancer test) offered by AA Pharmacy at my neighborhood.
Blood work report was out yesterday and everything looks good with no red flags except for my cholesterol reading. As expected, it’s pretty high at 6.82 as I have Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH). FH is an inherited disorder that makes it harder for your body to remove low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the bad ones) from your blood.
If you have FH, your cholesterol is going to build up in the bloodstream regardless of what you eat. And this is exactly what’s happening to me. I eat very little meat, avoid fatty foods and minimal dairy products and yet my cholesterol reading is high.
Because of my strict diet, I’ve lost quite a bit of weight. And some unkind people have been body shaming me, accusing me of wanting to be stick thin. I can’t believe that some people can be so shallow-minded and insensitive.
Would you body shame someone who is battling cancer or have a hormonal disorder?
Oh well, I’ve now shunned away from these people and have minimal interaction with them.
Anyway, back to my health issues.
I’ll be meeting up with my cardiologist when he returns from the UK end February. He’ll review my medical report and perhaps asks me several questions before deciding if I should be started on statin to control my cholesterol levels.
As I’ve not done a mammogram for more than 5 years, my gynae thinks that I should get one done. She recommended a 3D mammogram at Sunway Medical Centre, which is a relatively new procedure and more advanced than a 2D mammogram. This procedure costing RM450 is going to burn a hole in my wallet this month as I’ve already spent quite a bit at my gynae’s office and on the blood work.
But spending RM1k a year on health screening is something that cannot be scrimped or avoided because you’re going to be spending even more when something bigger and more malicious is detected later. So if you’re above 35 and have not done a blood work and health screening for years, I think it’s good to have one done for early prevention of diseases.
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