I had my first ever Japanese health exam on July 27. You may or may not have heard about it, but it’s a mandatory annual occurence that people go through that’s covered by most health insurance and is usually required by companies. They’ll receive and keep the reports for their records, and you also supposedly receive a grade on your health?
About a week or so before my appointment I got a packet with a questionnaire and urine sample tube and other various instructions on what to do and expect. One of these items included fasting rules: for the lucky morning folks, you need to stop eating at 9pm the day before.
Unfortunately, I was assigned a 2pm time slot, which puts me in the afternoon category. The directions said that I was only allowed a bowl of porridge or a slice of bread the morning of before 7am, and after that only plain liquid like coffee, tea, or water. Plus, the water needs to stop 2 hours before your appointment. I felt like I was actually not going to survive…
I ended up just not eating at all because I didn’t have any of the items, and I highly considered eating a banana since it’s kind of a simple carbohydrate, but decided against it just in case. I also felt like if I ate I’d be prepping my stomach to just get hungrier, so I ended up fasting until 2 pm, with the exception of water, a cup of green tea in the morning, and a can of non caffeinated blend tea. Usually if I don’t eat right when I get up I start to get hungry (including stomach noises) around 10, an although I indeed was hungry, it wasn’t too bad that morning. It started getting noticeable at noon though…
Anyway, my town’s health exams were being held at the twon cultural center, and I checked-in at the reception desk on the second floor. The guy took my packet and urine sample, handed me a clipboard with all my information in it, and instructed me to wait my turn for the first thing, which was immediately drawing blood. As a side note, all the items were scattered around the building, and it wasn’t even in numerical order. I’m sure there was a reason to the numbers, but it didn’t exactly make sense to me.
When a spot opened up, I went up to the lady, and the first thing she did was go over my questionnaire, confirmed anything I wrote down, and then took my blood pressure. Before taking my blood I asked her if she had any baby needles since I’m not great with needles, and she actually said yes! That was kind of relieving. I got the bloodwork over with, and then she directed me to the back where a small curtained area was.
The next thing was a brief checkup with a doctor, who again checked my questionnaire, and then listened to my breathing with his stethescope. That finished pretty fast, and then I was directed to the front of the room to get my height and weight done. Along with that, I encountered something new: the scale that I was on apparently can also take body fat percentage (if I translate it correctly). That was a first, and I have no idea how good/bad the number is. Google says normal is from 20-30%? The lady then took me to a curtained area next to the scale and asked me to lift my shirt up to take my waist measurement with a tape measure. That was also something new.
After that, I was told to go to another room to do the vision and hearing test. The vision test was basically looking into a microscope-esque thing, and then telling the lady what direction the whole in the circle was according to the number she asked. It was like doing a normal one, except instead of a poster on a wall, it was into binocular-like device. The hearing test consisted of putting on a set of big earphones and pushing the button when I heard any sounds. For my right ear I think I did it correctly, but when the right was over, I thought that it was just a warm-up test, so I didn’t immediately press the button when I heard it in the left ear. I think the lady tried adjusting some settings so I could hear it, but I told her it was just fine and I thought it was a warm up. Much shorter than what I’m used to…
The last item of business was to go down to the first floor and out to the back and into a bus to get my chest x-ray done. I had to take off everything on top and put on a special shirt thing, then I took in a deep breath and the guy pushed me up against the board. It was all over pretty fast though, and all I needed to do to finish was head back to reception on the second floor and hand my clipboard back to the reception guy.
It only took about 30-ish minutes total, and was not too bad, except for the fasting and the blood part. Maybe that’s a personal thing though.
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