half-yearly check-up

visited the polyclinic for my half-yearly check last friday.

any asthma attack? no. any need to use your ventolin? no. do you still have your stand-by prednisolone? yes. have you lost weight lately? no. any issue you want to highlight? no. how often do you exercise? everyday. how long was your exercise? anything from half hour to four hours... well, that was roughly how the whole consultation went. erm, looks like there's nothing much i can say. oh, perhaps, eat more vegetables, and less prawns, sotong, you know... those are high in cholesterol...

kinda straight forward right? heh... and just when the doctor thought she could send me away, i asked - how does a person know he/ she is depressed? (and she explained, nothing new to me). why did you ask that? she queried. erm, well, i have been going through rather tough times and i just want to make sure i am ok. she didn't probe further. i didn't volunteer further info too. and before she closed my consultation. i told her about how i went for my kidney stone removal x-ray and noted 2 of my lumbar vertebrae were sitting too close to one another, so much so that that urologist suggested i should see a spine specialist. 

that remark caught her attention right away. she immediately made me lie down and checked my back. did some leg raise to check if there were any pains. nope, i said, just a little tight currently (that was in the afternoon). the pains come every mornings and i could not stand to wear my pants. i had to sit on my bed to do it. i added. what about any pain that goes down to your legs? she asked. well, not often now but when i twisted my back, i felt it. how about passing urine and motion? any difficulties? she probed further. erm, no. but the urine flow is very weak. she seemed a little concerned and immediately drafted a referral letter for me to see the spine specialist.

so... spine specialist appointment made - jan 2017. next general health review, mar 2017. and to do another round of routine yearly blood test a week before that.