TIME FOR A CHECKUP

To be sincere I really want to take my health seriously, and I wouldn’t say I don’t have the time. The thing is walking up to a hospital isn’t just my thing. My mum used to say hospitals will always find a problem with your body, and at the end of the day, you will have to pay for it. The fact that I feel money will leave my pocket for no genuine reason is why I don’t like going to hospitals. My partner however usually has one issue or another taking her to the hospital. She feels a discomfort somewhere, she starts to complain about it, and we end up going to the hospital. This has been the only reason I go to the hospital, only on rare occasions do I go to the hospital for myself.

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I wish to go on a very good day, but for me to do that I need to have the least 50k at hand I am ready to spend. This is the major reason you wouldn’t find me going to the hospital. Even if something is wrong with me, as long as I feel fine in my body, I’m good. And even if I am not feeling fine, the hospital is not my first call to action unless it’s becoming too serious to just overlook. If I am feeling fuzzy and my partner says we should visit the hospital, in my mind I will be like; and spend which person’s money… If medicals were free in my country, perhaps it would have been a different ball game entirely. Or if I know most of the hospital expenses will be covered, it would have made the idea of visiting the hospital more accommodating.

My company just added me to their HMO list, which I think would be a good opportunity to carry out all the checkups I have always wished to do. Imagine the last time I was seriously sick, and I asked for a doctor's permit after spending almost 30,000 naira in the hospital on medicine, I was told I would have to pay another 3,000 naira for that. I just gave up the idea and forgot about submitting a permit which meant I would have to go to work the next day with ill health. So you can understand why hospitals will never come to my mind unless it’s something very serious.

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I naturally like to allow my body to heal itself from little symptoms, I don’t like to be reliant on medicines every time and have gone more than 6 years without taking medicines until I had an accident that forced me to take them. This is not because I am afraid of taking medicines, I feel it’s a healthier way to live. I allow my body to heal, then take fruits to boost my immune system and also eat healthy so that I don’t rely on these meds whether local or foreign. These days the major cause of sickness for me is stress, so instead of going to the hospital, I will prefer to find ways to rest knowing how my body is.

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO HIVE LEARNER'S PROMPT FOR WEEK 151 EPISODE 1