Maintenance inside and out

While Ross headed to Miri for the day very early this morning, I stayed in bed for an extra half hour before getting up and dressed in time to get to Prince Court Medical Center for my Well Woman check-up at 7.30.

Going through the usual rigmarole of sanitising my hands and wearing my pink sticker to show I was clear of Swine Flu, I headed down to the Executive Health Department. I was met by a nurse who registered me, explained the procedures I would do today, showed me to the changing room and asked me to pee in a cup - good start!

From there I was led to the laboratory where they drew a lot of blood for the numerous blood tests - cancer markers, HIV, glucose, blood work, venerial diseases etc. I was also given an eye test checking for colour blindness and my general eye test. Next was weight, height, waist to hip ratio and lung capacity test. The last test in this batch was a hearing test.

After all this, I waited in the lounge for the radiology department to open so I could go and get my chest X-ray, ultrasounds and bone density scan. I was escorted to the department and changed into my pink "scrubs" and fluffy robe! First was the chest x-ray then I went to the MRI department for the bone density scan. Next was the ultrasound of all my internal organs and my boobs. Then this stage of the check-up was done.

Back in the Executive Health lounge, I waited for the doctor for the next part of the exam. The doctor asked me some standard questions and then gave me a pap smear test as well as an abdominal, chest and breast examination.

I left the doctor and next up was the stress test - i.e. running on the treadmill to measure your heart. The nurse explained the procedure, hooked my up to the electrodes and then took my resting heart rate and pulse. Then it was onto the treadmill. The machine spends three minutes at each level and with each level increase, it gets faster and the incline gets steeper! The aim is to get to at least 85% of your target heart rate (220 - your age) and then continue onto 100% target heartrate if possible. My target heartrate was 187. It took me about 9 minutes to get to 85% and I managed to go 2 minutes longer until I got up to Step 4 and 95% of my target heartrate. By this time I had to hold onto the hand rail as the slope was pretty steep. I had 6 minutes to recover before the test was over. If you ever wondered what your heart looks like when it's working hard - see the photo of the ECG.

This was the last test in the check-up. I took a shower, ate the lunch they provided me and went out to Coffee Bean (which was in the hospital) for a cappuccino and to wait for my results. Before I knew it the nurses came to find me as all of the results were in. I met with the doctor again and she took me through everything. All my tests were in normal ranges. The only thing that came out of the tests was that my good versus bad cholesterol showed an indicator of becoming higher in the future. Although my bad cholesterol was 2.9, well within the recommended 0 - 3.4 range, the doctor said that the international gold star standard to avoid heart disease was less than 1.9. She recommended I take fish oil supplements, oats and muesli daily and also a supplement called Lecithin. She also said I should cut down on red meat and seafood. I was suprised about the seafood as I didn't think this affected cholesterol and I eat quite a bit!

So I walked out of the clinic 4 hours later with a clean bill of health. I drove to Pavilion for my hair appointment and although I was early, I hoped I could get in - but no luck. Instead I went to Parkson and managed to walk in to Benefit for a brow and lip wax! Certainly a way to kill time. I walked out in time for my hair appointment at The Belfry. I changed from my other salon, Andy Ho, because I wasn't happy with the colouring that they do. I met Marc who put highlights through my hair and definitely toned down the yellow colour left behind from the other guy. I walked out with a better head all round :-)

I went up to the next level and went to the gym for a great workout. I pushed myself on the cross-trainer for 45 minutes before getting on some of the weight machines. I ended with some stretching which felt great and I left Pavilion with new hair, eyebrows, lips and hopefully a better body :-)

Before leaving, I went down to Sumo Sushi for a quick bite and pretty much gorged myself as I was so hungry! I went home and caught up on my blog, did some washing and have a feeling it won't be long until I am in bed.