Typical Friday
My husband, at my pushing, went for a check-up today. He told me it would be weird if I came along with him, which was odd to me. At home, we encourage people to bring a second set of ears to any medical appointment, and wouldn’t think anything at all of a spouse/partner sitting in on any exam.
When he returned, I grilled him for details. I plan my own check-up soon and wanted to know how many needles to expect. Turns out he just sat across the desk from the doctor and talked about his habits, then got his BP checked, his weight, and a spot of patchy skin looked at. No tests. I guess they had a good laugh over how Americans over-test for everything just to make money for the insurance companies, and how my husband’s crazy american wife is paranoid.
I’m not sure how I feel about it. I lost both grandmothers to breast cancer and the phrase “early detection is key” is stamped forever in my brain… and it’s really hard to fight the idea that as much as a capitalist medicinal system is out to steal your money by over-testing, a socialist one is bound to cheap out and refuse all but the most painfully necessary tests. I’m sure the real answer lies somewhere in the middle. Still, I think it’s weird they didn’t even check his cholesterol levels or do a basic urinalysis even. He was just told to eat more chicken and less red meat, which seems like common sense to me.
Afterwards, we wandered to the post office, where there was a shiny box from Agent Provacateur waiting with my name on it. (Hubba hubba, happy v-day to youuuu!) I spent a good deal of time whining about british lingerie this month and well, I suppose I will stop whining now that I know it’s not all Ann Summers tat.
(tat - another co-opted word I have come to love.)
This sounds about right for checkups… depending on where you go. In some surgeries when you first register with them, they do a much more thorough checkup including urinalysis and so on… but there doesn’t appear to be any kind of obligation for them to do that… at least on the NHS. I’ve never had any experience of going private (though I do get private healthcare from work, I’ve never had occasion to use it) so I don’t know if that’s a more “American” way of doing it.
Hope you both enjoy your box. Package. Thing. Uhhh… there’s actually no word I can use to describe it that doesn’t sound like a filthy innuendo. :) Whatever. Enjoy!
10 months ago