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| By Sgt. Mark St. Hilaire - Rescue Team Wellness |
My brothers and Sisters, as we move ahead towards better
health and fitness, we must begin with a crucially important visit to our
primary care physician. Now I am
surprised when some of you admit that you don’t have a primary care doctor. This is the one person we really must depend
on for our health and well-being especially in our high stress, injury prone
careers as first responders.
My initial point of visiting your physician is for a
complete physical exam before we make changes in our eating plans, exercise
routines or added performance of work duties. We want to ensure there will not
be any negative repercussions to our health during these undertakings.
The real point is that all of us need to visit our primary
care doctor at a minimum annually especially as we age. Many first responders face many health
challenges in their duties which affect our health. We want to establish a health baseline with
our doctor so we have an idea of normal especially when we feel ill or may be
injured.
There are many areas that we need include in our physical
exam: General health, cardio, lungs and circulation, our bones and muscles,
neurological functioning, skin exam, blood and body fluids testing and a new
undertaking many primary care doctors inquiring about our mental health and
possible depression.
Men and woman will undergo some additional examinations in
particular to our genders.
One of the important tests we should be asking is colonoscopy,
diabetes and transmitted infections screening.
When was the last time you had a vision or hearing test?
Have you been to the dentist lately?
I have lost many friends over the years who did not take
care of their health but neglected to visit their doctor regularly until it was
too late. Some of us develop excuses
such as: I’m not sick, I’m not injured, I’m not a baby and I’ll suck it up, I
don’t have the time, It costs money and the co-pay is too much, No one cares
about me anyways and I’m afraid the doctor will find something bad.
Our bodies are like delicate machines and we need to get
checked up to ensure we stay functioning.
Like our motor vehicles, we send them in for routine maintenance, well
our visit to the doctor is our routine scheduled maintenance. It is crucial, less expensive and lifesaving to
discover a health problem now in the early stages then when it is too
late. As I stated above, I lost a few
special friends fast when a terminal diagnose was made follow a sudden
hospitalization due to their fear and putting it off.
You may be referred to a specialist like a dermatologist. A dermatology nurse practitioner discovered a
small mole on my back recently which tested as a pigment issue and it is not
toxic. It is now scheduled to be removed
this month. I can thank my wife who
noticed some aging spots on my body and insisted I get them checked out. I am
grateful to my primary care doctor who scheduled the appointment immediately.
As First Responders, please take care of your health. Your loved ones, your co-workers, your
community and your future retirement are depending on it.
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