Preventive Medicine PSA

Sooo - how many of y'all get a yearly physical?  How many do preventive tests, scans, etc.?  C'mon - raise your hands!!  Now I'll admit I'm a bit overdue for my physical, but generally speaking, women are better at that kind of stuff than men.  I've been begging my husband for years to get a physical.  Well, let me tell you a little story that just might change your views...

Some time back, my step-mom's brother had a heart scan done just to make sure everything was okay.  Well lo and behold, it wasn't.  Next think ya know, he's on the table having a triple bypass.  He'll be okay, but who knows what would have happened had he not had that scan.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago.  Because of what happened with her brother, my step-mom insisted that my dad have a heart scan.  You know - just to make sure he's healthy.  Well, they saw a little something and he was scheduled to have a stress test.  No biggie.  But...BUT...the next day they called and said they saw "something" on one of his lungs, so more tests were needed.  A week later they did a PET scan, and it showed that the mass was "metabolically active", so a biopsy was scheduled.  And what did they find, you ask?  Lung cancer.  Now dad quit smoking 50 years ago, so needless to say we were all shocked.  Fortunately, however, they caught it so early that the docs believe that a) it hasn't spread at all and b) surgery will take care of it.

Now - just think how things could have turned out with both of the above stories if there had been no preventive heart scan.  I truly can't imagine, nor do I want to.  So do yourselves and your loved ones a favor - take care of yourself.  Don't put off all those "fun" tests...it could save your life.