Today I took my wife to a health-screening offered by an independent company, not insurance-inspired, the 3rd. such annual screening we attended. Cost is not frivolous: $219. However, she obtained a special coupon deal last year worth a free screening. Their work is not typical, no blood glucose, nor cholesterol, but rather geared toward serious potential illness. They do Carotid screening for partial blockage, linked to possible stroke, Aortal Aneurism screen for both heart-area and abdominal, blood-pressure equality tests, left side to right side, both upper body and lower (lower legs). I did not take part in this. Has anyone else participated in such programs? They sound realistically valuable. A friend of mine in Missouri, diagnosed with an aneurism, had it repaired before rupture occurred, was told he was likely close to death from it. Am I remiss for not taking part in the program? We have limited funds to spend on predicting future events. OTOH, well, .........who knows? Frank
How are these tests done? In July I have my medicare wellness check and my first test will be an EKG. I've never even had one of those.
We went to one of those health tests when we first came out here. It was about the same price even then; but my daughter sent both of us to have the screening. I think it was called Lifeline Screening, or something along that line. They found the a-fib and CHF, which was something that we already knew I had, and not much of anything for Bobby. They seem to be very competant and did an excellent job with the tests. I do think that it is a good program for the price, and they are very thorough. Sam's Club offers either the same thing, or something similar, and their's is free to members. I would guess that Costco probably does the same thing; so a $100 memberhip to one of the buying clubs would not only help save money on groceries; but cover the screening for both you and your wife, @Frank Sanoica , assuming that you have one or the other of those Clubs nearby. Sam's offers these tests several times per year; but Bobby hates all of the congestion at Sam's so we have never gone to one even though they are free.
@Chrissy Page Not to worry! EKG involves simply pasting a couple of things to the skin for a short time. The prick of a finger for a drop of blood for Glucose check is about the most painful part of the whole deal. Frank
Thanks, I guess this test will be easy...hope my results are good. Worst possible time for me to have tests done.
@Chrissy Page Sorry to hear that, but now wonder why. Something I missed previously? Not prying, please do not think so. Personal affairs are personal. Frank
My mother died on June 4th and something happened the following day that caused me to kind of go over the edge and even had to go see my dr. Because of it. The issue would have rolled off my back had I not been so stressed and down because of my mom's death. I'm getting better and hopefully now I can start the grieving process almost 2 weeks later. The deed is something I'll never forgive because of the insensitivity and thoughtlessness from someone you wouldn't expect it from. I went into such a shock and I'm afraid it might mess with my bloodwork results, etc. I wasn't eating right or anything else since this happened. The anger I felt for this person consumed me and it denied me of mourning my mother and that just angered me more. That's it in a nutshell.
I get notifications for those screenings all the time. I haven't ever done any of them because there is usually some kind of cost involved although it is pretty minimal. I take part in a study at University right now..and they do a lot of bloodwork and screening, although they are not looking for anything specific really. However, I have a big headache with my insurance company, so I have no idea what would even be covered if they found something.
The funny thing about EKG testing is that anyone with a diagnostic EKG monitor could do that for himself. Of course, the doctors would insist on doing their own before offering any sort of treatment for what was found but, as a former paramedic, I know that diagnostic monitors are amazingly accurate, and the only prior knowledge required is to know where to place the electrodes. Our medical director was a cardiologist and the head of a heart hospital, and he told us that the diagnostic monitors are one hundred percent accurate as long as the leads are placed correctly. They don't find everything that a cardiologist might be able to find, but they find most of it and what they find is always accurate. When we first began using diagnostic monitors on ambulances, I would tell the receiving physician just what sort of a heart problem a patient had, according to the EKG, and he was impressed that I could read a twelve-lead EKG so accurately. I told him it was in English. By a diagnostic monitor, I mean that it would print out a synopsis of what was found, such as "Inferior ST-segment elevations consistent with acute or subacute myocardial infarction," or "Left ventricular myocardial infarction, probably as long as two years ago." Although we did receive training in reading a 12-lead EKG, our training did not include diagnosing the problem causing the abnormal EKG. With these machines, we'd get the print-out of the EKG itself, with a diagnosis printed below. Of course, they are not particularly cheap, and I'm not certain that it's legal for a regular person to buy them, although we had six of them (one for each ambulance) when I owned an ambulance company, and I don't remember anyone asking any tough questions or requiring identification, for that matter. I kind of wish I had taken one of our old ones with me when I left. Then again, I remember that when I bought a couple of them as program chairman for an Emergency Medical Technology college program, I had to buy the ones that had the electroshock capabilities disabled. I would have wanted that anyhow, for obvious reasons, but I do remember that they brought it up before I did, and that they wouldn't sell them to a college program without first disabling the electroshock. Added later... Having looked, I see that the ones we used when I was still in the business are now selling for as low as $150 refurbished, since there have been several upgrades since then, and there isn't much of a demand for obsolete medical equipment, since no ambulance company wants to be more than one upgrade behind the competition, and it does look like they are for sale to whoever has the money. The next time I come up with a couple of hundred dollars that I can spare, I think I'll buy one. In that way, I won't have to see a cardiologist until I know that I need one.