Campaign for Annual Medical Tests.

Lest we forget! It’s that time of the year again when we all need to go do our annual physical or medical tests.

For men in their FORTIES, please go do tests on your blood pressures, hearts, cholesterol and, above all, your prostates. For women in their FORTIES, please go check your blood pressures, hearts, cholesterol and, above all, your mammographs (for breast cancer).

And for those of us (men and women) in our FIFTIES, it’s time to go do all of the above. In addition (for those who have not done so already) please go do your colonoscopies and perimenopause (for women).

The rate at which people are dying annually from these preventable health issues at global level is alarming and critical. As far back as a few months ago, I have heard horror stories from close friends who neglected to do these very simple, preventable tests. The guys barely escaped avoidable deaths by the skins of their teeth. They were among the lucky few who survived to tell their stories.

One of these gentlemen used to sneer at this clarion call. If he was not trying to blackmail Jesus by saying “the blood of Jesus will always cover me…” he would be quoting some silly clichés and platitudes such as “Que sera, sera…” (whatever will be, will be). He almost lost his life to colon cancer.  

Another friend would often trivialize the issue by telling me “Femi, don’t you know that going to a doctor for an annual medical test is like taking a good car to a mechanic for a check-up. Even if nothing is wrong with the car, the mechanic will create a problem, just to get money from you…” It was his wife that finally dragged him to go do the tests. Fortunately, the results were good. But unfortunately, those of his wife were not that great. The poor woman was promptly placed on hospital admission when one of her test results indicated an early stage of uterine cancer.  

Now, all of these individuals have vowed to strongly spread the word every year to all the doubting Thomases and the reckless Joes out there that an annual medical test is imperative. Furthermore, all of these people are now great disciples of daily workouts.  

Surely, “Heavens help only those who help themselves”.  And a Yoruba proverb says it succinctly, “A gentle chameleon that maintains a simple, laid-back lifestyle does get killed…how much more of a reckless frog that knocks its body on the ground each times it jumps.”