Every year, I go for a comprehensive medical checkup. We musicians, not belonging to a company, do not get these medical check-ups unless we decide to go to the hospital ourselves.
I myself never had a medical check-up until the family discovered my mother’s terminal cancer.
In fact, my mother did not have the time to think about going for a check-up herself as she was busy caring for my father and the children. All she got was a blood test, visiting the family doctor’s clinic when she felt unwell.
So, I used to think that was enough for me too, but my feelings changed after my mother passed away.
I got quite scared because my mother had not noticed any symptoms of her cancer. It means that cancer and other troubling diseases could be hidden. Before, I used to take supplements when I wasn’t feeling well and always avoided going to check-ups.
At first, I was very reluctant to go.
It took me long to fix an appointment at the hospital. However, I remembered what my mother had proved to me, “good health matters”.
So, I went to my first comprehensive check-up, pushed by my mother, which I thought would be a fairly tough and thorough examination from the top of my head to the tips of my feet.
But somehow, I came to like it!
I got very interested in knowing about my body. I was feeling a little surprised about not knowing my test result figures and what went on within my own body until then.
I thought I should know more about it for my future, to spend the last days of my life in good health as possible and make the time I’ll be sick in bed as short as possible. So, I decided to get to know more about my health and have the check-up done every year!
I also discovered some habits in my way of thinking!
I become more careful about my diet and lifestyle a few days before the check-up to achieve
better results but it is pointless if I didn’t have my normal life examined.
Another thing I still can’t fix is the eyesight test. My eyesight is gradually weakening, which is unavoidable due to aging, so it can’t be helped. But I still try and get as good results as possible and I end up “guessing”, the one you say left, right, up, down, and so on. Even when I can’t actually tell, I guess the answer and often get it right.
I am getting better at guessing from the examiner’s reaction of “Ah…” and “That’s right”,
which does me no good…
The gastro endoscopy and colonoscopy feel so good as if the inside of my body is refreshed, and it becomes quite addictive. To avoid pain, I get lightly anesthetized and find it interesting not knowing when exactly I am anesthetized.
The check-up ended like this again this year. I get examined because I want to keep standing on stage as a violinist and to keep climbing the mountain of music and because I want to grow into a violinist who can deliver as good music as possible to the audience.
As long as I am here as an unsatisfied violinist wanting to do more, I feel it is essential to take good care of my body.