NHS check up

apricot

Hehe. I blame the ticking of the boxes! That is ridiculous, you should have had praise heaped upon your 70 year old head.

I had a careful risk analysis thingy done not so long ago, two of doctors poring over the computer (my GP needed help from one of the others to run the programme), because my cholesterol was slightly higher than is advisable. After a while they both swung round and proudly told me Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee style that my risk of developing heart disease having ticked all the boxes with the information they have, is about 6% when I reach my mid-80s. I said I'd take my chances!

I'm not unappreciative of the risk analysis though .

It takes a lot of effort to tick boxes, I bet she was exhausted.

They will change the goalposts again soon, don't worry apricot

There was an occasion when I answered the exercise question by saying that I swam 1–2 km every day, depending on how much time I had. I was then asked, "But do you do any real exercise that increases your heart rate?" The person asking didn't look as if he did any exercise at all and if he attempted to swim a length might collapse with heart failure.

However, nothing beats the gerontologist who wanted me to prevent my 91-year-old, non-smoking, non-drinking mother from eating 2–3 After Eights when she watched television in the evening in case she developed diabetes.

Box ticking seems to be a national pastime.

Just checked the date to see if it's April 1st

Do you think she got commission from the gym for getting them members?

I had an NHS check-up last year and was told I ought to do more exercise. I was given a leaflet about a walking group and told the nurse would ask them to get in touch with me. The next week the nurse phoned up and said I could not join because I'd had an aortic dissection the year before, and they said nobody would know what to do if it happened when I was in the group!
Not a good way to get out of exercising. I wouldn't recommend it.

This reminds me of the time when my cholesterol was up and I had to see the practice nurse for dietary advice. She was very fat and didn't know much about nutrition. I just couldn't believe it.

Liz I believe you. I recently went to our local hospital for an X-ray and many of the nursing staff were overweight and even obese.

I've just been called in. I am on medication for high BP and have been for years. I have a machine to check it myself and it is usually fine. The trouble is the minute I see a nurse or a doctor my BP shoots through the roof. I haven't got to go until next week and am working myself up into a frenzy already! Liz/Anya - I had the same experience. I am not overweight really, maybe a couple of pounds and I had an extremely large nurse telling me to lose the couple of pounds!

I was being encouraged to take hormones during the menopause and I told the nurse I was worried about putting on weight because several friends had put on weight when taking it.

She said,

"I've been on it for years and feel fine in every way."

She was a VERY large woman.

I managed without the hormones.

absent - I loved the story about your mum and the diabetes. My 90 year old mum had smoked for decades and when she developed a dementia - she completely forgot that she had ever smoked. (Nature was being kind in its way.)

Just got back from having an ultrasound scan to make sure my aorta is okay. It is, although an ultrasound cannot tell if there's a dissection, just an aneurysm.
But the doctor doing the ultrasound asked why I was there. Surely the GPs letter should tell him.

My very fit hairdresser who runs every day, has completed several marathons, doesn't smoke, doesn't eat carbs after 6pm etc. etc., was outraged to be told by a very fat practice nurse that he was a binge drinker because when he goes out with his pals he has more than 3 pints.

At my last check the computer said I was seriously overweight and I laughed out loud because I am a size 12 and the nurse at least a size 20! She laughed too and ticked the OK box.

Surely they can tell if you are overweight by looking at you and then use the time on testing blood, urine etc.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who is insulted at being told I am on the verge of being overweight by a practice nurse who could almost make two of me! I'd like to have asked her how much residual exercise she took in a week, but I was speechless! She was banging on about body mass index, but I have read that BMI is not a very reliable indicator of whether someone is overweight or not.

My risk was 18% Grannyknot so I just said" well that means an 82% of not having one then,I will take that risk". The nurse just shrugged.

I am also very overweight but I am otherwise healthy.

Greyduster, you are right. Most of the evidence discrediting BMI is in fairly abstruse statistical articles. Here is a reference to one of the most accessible, I should skip the maths in it and just read the text (it is what I did) https://web.archive.org/web/20090505180701/http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_05_09.html

re the many overweight health workers - my daughter is a midwife and works awful shifts. 13 hours without a break is common and it has been proved that working shifts and nights have serious health implications.
When these nurses and midwives do get a brief break they naturally grab whatever quick snack they can. And grateful parents constantly give them boxes of chocolates. The NHS should tackle the unhealthy lifestyle forced upon its workers then fewer people would criticise the fat ones.

I wholly agree apricot, am returning to nursing and finding hours are worse than when I left 10 years ago - 13 hour shifts 'the norm', some wards even longer (14hours)
I intend to work 'normal shifts' but won't be very popular- 13 hours would finish me off......
Food-wise you grab what you can and even the hospital canteen food isn't healthy- I intend to take food with me if I can.