YOUR PERSONAL HEALTH INVENTORY: CHECKING-UP ON YOURSELF
By regularly scheduled medical check-ups, you can be sure of discovering most serious illnesses before they have gone too far. By learning the danger signals, you will catch many diseases before they get under way.
However, some diseases may appear between check-ups and advance quite seriously. Thai is why I recommend a second line of defence in your health programme: your personal home medical check-up. Combined with your regular visit to the doctor, a few minutes spent once every two months on this health inventory will he an additional safe guard for your health. It would be wise to make a note on your calendar to look at this chapter on the fifteenth day of every other month.
If the answer to any of the following questions is Yes, you should see your doctor as soon as possible at his surgery. If you have a perfect score of No, the chances are reasonably good that your health is satisfactory, and that you can wait until your next scheduled periodic health examination—but no longer—before seeing your doctor. These symptoms may arise from mild or serious conditions; let your doctor make the correct diagnosis for you.
Have I noticed a sore on the skin, lips, or tongue which does not heal within a reasonable period of time?
Do I get short of breath when walking on level ground or climbing stairs or performing other types of exertion which did not bother me in this way previously?
Am I troubled with indigestion, nausea, abdominal pain or cramps, or the sudden appearance of constipation or diarrhoea?
Have I noticed that there is blood in my bowel movements?
Am I steadily losing weight? Or am I steadily gaining weight? Is my weight under or over the average weight for my height and build?
Am I getting nervous, irritable, or depressed? Have I been having crying spells? Do I have a persistent feeling that people are against me? Do I feel a nervous breakdown coming on?
Do I feel tired or run-down? Do I have a new persistent pain or any other new symptoms?
Has my skin colour changed? Am I unusually pale?
Have I a cough that has been lasting longer than one month? Have I coughed up blood?
Have I had persistent hoarseness?
Have I had any dimming or fogging of vision?
Have I had any persistent headaches?
Have I felt any discomfort in my chest without obvious cause?
Have I noticed swelling in my feet or ankles or both?
Have I had any prolonged aches in my back or limbs or joints? Special questions for women
Have I noticed vaginal bleeding at unexpected times?
Am I troubled with hot flashes?
18 Have I felt a lump in my breast, or have I been worried about cancer
or tumours there or in any other part of the body? Every woman
reader of this book should see page 331 about how to examine the
breasts for cancer without becoming a victim of worry or fear.
Special questions for men
Has my urination been abnormal recently—difficulty in starting or stopping, any dribbling, and so on?
Am I ruptured, or do 1 think-1 may be?
Could I have contracted some illness while in a foreign country?
Am I worried about having a venereal disease?
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