PREPARE FOR A DOCTOR VISIT

Do you get in shape for your doctor visit?

For too many men it takes an force of nature to schedule a doctor visit. Women, not so much.

That force of nature is called a wife after she makes an appointment two months away.

She knows you’ll go; you know you’ll go. How you show up is the big question.

Two months is long enough to make changes in your lifestyle. Ease off the beer, the extra cheese burger, the pizza.

Some say baby boomers ought to be old enough to know the drill, but are they? Are we? Are you?

Part of staying engaged in the community, or just having friends, is passing things by them. Their answers will tell you the sort of friends you’ve made.

“I’ve got a doctor visit coming up. Two months away.”

“What’s wrong?”

That’s the question everyone asks, and the reason most people keep to themselves as they age.

There has to be something wrong to warrant a doctor visit? Of course, why else do people collapse in public. They didn’t have anything wrong with them.

It’s like dying of natural causes, as if smoking two packs a day results in a natural cause.

“Nothing wrong. Why do you think there’s something wrong. What’s wrong is you asking if there’s something wrong.”

“Okay, okay. While you’re there ask about the effects of stress. You’ve got some of that. Ask about anxiety, too.”

Good friends aren’t afraid to talk about stress, anxiety, life. That’s why they’re friends. The more you talk it out the less likely you’ll be one of the mopes dropping at a bus stop. No one wants to see that happen.

There’s nothing wrong with you, at least nothing you know about, so you plan on going in with a clean slate.

You make a list of things you’ll do the next two months.

Eat less, as in less fat, salt, carbs.

Drink less, as in less beer, wine, liquor.

More rest, as in go to bed and plan on a good eight hours of sleep for two months.

Exercise, as in start doing something to break a sweat. And do it more than once over the next two months.

“I’m getting in shape for the doctor visit. He’ll never see a cleaner machine. He’ll wonder why I’m even there.”

“He won’t be the only one. You won’t give him correct data to establish a baseline of health. You might come out feeling good, but it’ll be a false accomplishment. Every mook thinks fooling the doctor with a burst of healthy living is all fun and games. Why bother? Why waste both your time?”

Once you hear those words, you have two choices:

1. Make new friends and never talk about important stuff. Or,

2. Give the doctor a fair look at your lifestyle.

The third choice isn’t worth mentioning. It’s the derelict choice of eating and drinking at a binge rate and show up as human wreckage that can only get better. You can only go up, since going down requires a shovel and casket.

Consider the choices again, all three. The first is like cheating in school. Sure, you’ll get the grade, but no one learns anything.

The doctor can’t make a correct analysis of your blood and urine, weight and diet, or even mental acuity.

Aging needs good health or you end up as one of the people you used to see when you were young and say, “I’ll never look like that.”

If you’re a manly man who knows more about the real you than anyone else, you’re wrong.

How many know their blood type, family medical history, or genetic predisposition?

Women know this stuff. They don’t get ‘white coat phobia.’

If you have kids, why not show them part of being a responsible adult is health maintenance? It might be an Olympic year, but no one asks you to compete for a spot on the team.

If you’ve ever seen someone drop in public, you know it’s spooky.

Check the A, B, C s, the airway, breathing, and cardio.

When do you start CPR? If you’re the one dropping, that’s the question others will have if they don’t just walk by.

Do a self-check in the mirror while you plan your doctor visit. Are you going just to get your wife off your back? To show you’ve still got enough gas in the tank to get in shape? To prove you can do anything you want and still be a picture of health?

Why not show up to the doctor office as the real you and skip the drama?

What sort of results did a sixty one year old boomer blogger get after a six year pause in health maintenance?

Ask in comments and lets sort it out.

The doctor is IN.