Wel, its official, I'm getting old :) Well old enough to have a complete Health Check anyway. After talking with a friend the other day, and given I have been here in India for 10 months, I decided it was time I did a complete check on where 'things are at' health wise. Many other expats I spoke to thought I was crazy to have it done - why don't you just wait until you go home? Well, my theory was that I wanted a heads up if there was an issue to try and fix/look at when home in June. And let's face it, how many Indian doctors have we all seen out of India?? Heaps, so surely they know what they are doing.
So the local hospital offers a complete Health check for under $150 including the extra bloods for vitamin D and B12 which are about $60!! This was to be a complete overhaul..... Below is what I had done. So off I went - what a fun morning (5+ hours) I had.
Of course, I was the only white person there and language is always a barrier. When people yell out in Hindi, I am now oblivious to it, so I just ignore it but when they are yelling my name with a strong indian accent, I don't hear that either !! Mrs Soooosaaaaan ? No one uses last names and even of they did it was spelt wrong on every document I saw. There were a number of people having the same process as me and it is very interesteing to watch the way westerners are treated in places like the hospital. We seem to get preference and treated better and that must really annoy the locals. It doesn't stop me saying 'excuse me' constantly as I still don't understand this accent. 😳
My first major issue was that there were mosquitos everywhere - you would think a hospital could get it sorted but if I was healthy after all the tests, I may now have malaria from the mozzies...... As I had to fast, the bloods were first and then blood pressure - and of course it was high - well India does that too me 😣 they were a bit panicky about that and really wanted it to come down - well that didn't happen with them constantly carrying on.
After that it was time for breakfast - yep, it was included and was 'local' to say the least - Susie passed and had some trail mix...... See the picture below. The other photos are of the entrance to the cafeteria on the roof......this is a very well respected hospital here and the cafeteria is amongst rubble ! There were also floors complete unfinished but the building has been occupied for years. Typical India - never sure if something is still being built or being dismantled.
All the processes were as expected - and the hospital has clean for Indian standards and all needles etc were new etc. The machines used all appeared to be maintained well and of a high standard, the process ran smoothly with you moving from one test to the next with very little time in between.
One hilarious moment came when having an echo scan of my heart - the assistant scanning asked if I was a marathon runner..... I laughed out loud - argh, that would be a no. Then today the doctor asked if I was an athlete ? Again lots of laughing.......apparently I have a very large heart and many runners have a large heart- Mike has taken to calling me Phar lap.
I went back today for the results and apart from a little elevated cholesterol and my blood pressure, I got a clean bill of health. I have had the blood pressure tests before and it seems I have a case of 'white coat' hypertension. Never have been good with doctors and hospitals.
No comments:
Post a Comment