Being married to a doctor, I hardly know if I’m going to be greeted next morning with a hug or a syringe!

Today it was the syringe for me.

“I’m okay!” I shout in protest. “What is the need to draw blood so early in the morning? Sadist wife!” “Listen Bob,” she says firmly in that doctor voice of hers with syringe held threateningly in strike mode, “Stop being an ostrich, there’s nothing wrong in finding out, is there?! I meekly hold out my hand and turn away at my precious blood being sucked rapidly away!

A friend of mine came to visit me the other day and we had a lovely evening as he regaled me with stories and jokes.  “Life is meant to be lived king size.” He told me with a loud guffaw.  “You know something Bob,” he said moving closer to me, “I suspect I’ve got diabetes, but I’m not going for any checkup and have a doctor spoil the rest of my life.” He winked at me and like a fellow conspirator I winked guiltily back at him.

I wish I had told him that it makes sense to do a test, that prevention of the farther complications of any disease or illness was better than not knowing. I know he reads this column and I hope he goes right away and gets his blood test done. There are many like him. Friends of mine who feel a sense of uneasiness once in a way and brush it of as indigestion, others who get up in the morning, feeling giddy, and don’t want to find out why, even though their company pays for all their medical bills. We still believe in the ostrich policy that what we can’t see is not there, that what we don’t know doesn’t exist.

I know you guys are not as lucky as I am: That syringe and blood sample bottles don’t greet you when you get up, but a little time off could get your engine tuned and fit for another hundred thousand kilometers! We hear the rattle in the car and to the mechanic we head. The washing machine makes weird noises and in comes the repair man. But when our own bodies give out warning signals, we bury our heads in the ground and pretend we hear nothing.

But remember, you start with sticking your head in the ground and end with the rest of yourself being lowered six feet into the same ground to join same obstinate ‘stuck in the ground’ ostrich head!

Instead, have a poke in time..!

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