As humans, taking care of our health should be a priority, but let’s be honest—most of us don’t always pay enough attention to it. Life gets busy, and we push things like medical checkups aside, convincing ourselves that we’re fine and okay. But the truth is , regular checkups are important. They help us detect potential health issues earlier before they turn into something serious.
For me, I don’t visit the hospital often, but I do take my health seriously. The last time I went for a checkup was last year, and to be honest, it wasn’t planned. I had been having stomach ache for a while, and it was becoming a real problem. At first, I try to push it aside because I thought maybe it was something I ate, so I started taking different medications, hoping it would go away. Some days, I’d feel fine, and then, out of nowhere, the pain would come back again. It got so bad that I even tried some herbal concoctions because, at that point, I was willing to try anything to make it stop.
So there was this particular day,were I went to visit a childhood friend who still lived in our old neighborhood. During that period, my mum suggested that I see our family doctor before returning home. She was worried that I might have an ulcer, and honestly, I had started thinking the same thing.
When I got to the doctor, he asked me series of questions—what I had been eating, how often I felt the pain, and for how long i have being feeling the pain. After listening to me, he told me to go to the laboratory to take a test and confirm if i had ulcer. So, I went to the lab, they took my blood samples, and told me to wait for the results.
During that time i just kept thinking, What if I actually have an ulcer?? What would happen then. Luckily, when the results finally came out, I was told I didn’t have an ulcer and that, medically, I was perfectly fine. I was shocked. How could I be “fine” when I had been feeling so much pain? It didn’t make sense to me.
I went back to the doctor, and he explained that my stomach pain might have been caused by something else—maybe stress, diet, or even something as simple as not drinking enough water. He prescribed some medications , and after taking them for a while, the pain stopped completely. That was when i realised that just because a sickness feels serious doesn’t always mean it’s something major. Also, it is always better to see a doctor instead of just self-diagnosing.
Since then, I haven’t had another checkup, but I plan to go for one when I get back home from school to probably check my sugar level because to be honest i have being consuming alot of sugary foods lately.
At the end of the day, health is everything. No matter how much we focus on work, school, or making money, none of it matters if we’re not healthy enough. That’s why I take my health seriously, and I encourage everyone to do the same. Check-ups might seem unnecessary when we feel fine, but they can actually save us from bigger problems in the future. After all,they say ,prevention is better than cure.
Thanks for reading.