In the second of a series on health check-ups, Jimmy Yap faces fears about his well-being and gets an executive screening at Singapore’s prestigious Mount Elizabeth Hospital.
Now I’m in my forties, I know I should go for a health screening. However, I’d been putting it off. Time consuming and too much bother, I told myself. But the truth was, I was a little worried about what they might find. I’m a little overweight, I don’t exercise, I eat too much and I used to smoke. Not a great combination, surely.
I recently decided that I should face my fears. After all, better I find out early on, when the problem is fixable, than to discover the problem too late, when nothing can be done. I finally made an appointment at the Executive Health Screening Centre at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. I signed up for the basic general package, Executive Health Screening Package 1.
WHERE IS IT? The hospital is located at 3, Mount Elizabeth, off Orchard Road. It is behind Paragon Shopping Centre, which makes it easy to locate.
THE FACILITY: “Mount E”, as the locals refer to it, is one of Singapore’s largest and oldest private hospitals. It’s known for delivering high-quality medical care in a five-star environment.
THE PRELIMINARIES: On Tuesday night before my appointment – which, by the way, was fixed at the ungodly hour of 8.30am – I called my parents to find out if anyone in my extended family suffered from anything I should be worried about. My mother was one of 13, so I had plenty of material. Apparently, heart attacks and high blood pressure run in the family. Great.
That night, I also avoided eating. Hospital staff had emailed to tell me not to eat after 10pm. I was allowed to sip water but I decided against it. In the email, they also requested that I bring my medical records, old X-rays, regular medication and prescription glasses.
THE PROCEDURE: Fortunately, when I got to the Executive Health Screening Centre, it was an oasis of calm. I filled in my particulars and waited in a comfortable and well-lit reception area. My name was soon called and I was ushered to a room where a nurse took a sample of my blood. Hoping to put this off, I asked her if I could give a urine sample first. I did so, and left the sample in a basket in the bathroom. No luck with the other sample needed though, so I kept the bottle in my pocket.
Reluctantly, I returned to the room to have my blood drawn. My fears were unfounded. The nurse located my vein swiftly and almost painlessly drew out two vials of blood. The good thing about having blood drawn is that you can eat after that (they require you to fast about 10 hours before the blood is extracted). On returning to the waiting area, I was served sandwiches and coffee, which I appreciated.
After breakfast, I was called into the consultation room of Dr Pok Yang Hang, a family doctor, who was, disconcertingly, accompanied by an attractive third-year Norwegian medical student. She took copious notes as Dr Wong delved into my family history. He took my blood pressure (which turned out to be normal) and then started the physical examination.
At the examining table, I took off my shirt and laid on the table. He drew the curtains, and I was briefly hopeful that it would just be him doing the examination. I was wrong. The blonde Norwegian shadowed him. Dr Wong instructed me to unzip and he checked to see if I had lumps in the testicular area (I don’t). He then told me to lie sideways, and established, via a well-lubricated, gloved finger, that my prostate appeared fine. Meanwhile, during all this, the blonde Norwegian solemnly took more notes. I didn’t think I impressed her – one seldom looks one’s best during a prostate examination.
Once the examination was over, I put on my clothes and proceeded to another room for a series of tests, starting with the taking of height, weight and body mass index.
“Hmm,” the nurse said, “a little overweight, aren’t we?”
“How bad is it?” I asked timidly. “You’re obese,” she said cheerfully.
She wired me up for the electrocardiogram (ECG) to check my heart. As I laid down, I thought being obese, plus having a family history of heart attacks, was hardly a good combination. Fortunately, my ECG looked good, at least for now. She also checked my lung capacity, which required me to blow repeatedly into a tube. As an ex-smoker, I’d always been a little worried that my pack-a-day habit would leave me with a reduced lung capacity. Fortunately, the nurse expressed no surprise at my results.
Another nurse took over and checked my eyesight. She discovered that I was a little near-sighted. Not really a surprise as I’ve had to do the old, take-off-the-glasses-to-read-fine-print trick once or twice recently. She then conducted a tonometry test to check for pressure in the eyes. For this test, you rest your chin on a device, look straight ahead while a blast of air is shot into your eyeball, first the right eyeball, then the left. “Pressure in your right eye appears to be high,” she noted. This was news to me and I had no idea what the implications were. “The doctor will discuss this with you,” she said.
I went back to see Dr Wong who ran through the initial results. He pointed out that the pressure in my right eye was a little outside the average range and explained that it was a test for glaucoma. He also reassured me that the results were “not much higher than normal” and recommended that I go for the test again sometime.
After leaving his consultation room, I was told to go to the X-ray room where I got my chest filmed. This is another one of those tests that smokers and ex-smokers worry about – who knows what they will find? The process of getting X-rayed was painless and over very quickly. By then, it was around noon. The whole process so far had taken about three hours, which I was told was faster than normal. I was lucky because it hadn’t been a busy morning.
Given the choice to return in the afternoon or the next day, I decided on the former. I made my way to Starbucks to kill time and ordered a venti low-fat latte, my concession to healthy living. After that, I had lunch and did a little window shopping before heading back to the hospital by 4pm. Along the way, I managed to fill the bottle with the other sample needed.
THE ANALYSIS: At the screening centre, the nurse ran the tonometry test again. The results were not good. Pressure in the right eyeball was still a little higher than normal.
I saw Dr Wong again, who reviewed all the results so far. “The air-puff test is not a very accurate one,” he said, adding that I should see an ophthalmologist for a more accurate test. X-rays showed that my lungs are clear and the blood test confirmed that I don’t have a sexually transmitted disease (my wife will be glad to hear this). However, the bad news was that I had to lose weight and change my diet. I’m 13kg overweight, and my cholesterol level and uric acid count is on the high side. He advised me to avoid organ meat (no problem, because I generally hate liver and kidneys, though I am partial to an occasional plate of foie gras) and to stay away from egg yolk, which is a minor tragedy because I have a fondness for eggs done sunny-side up. “Lower your weight and exercise more” was his parting advice.
When I left the screening centre, staff at the reception told me that they would mail to me the full set of results but had already prepared a copy of the results so far. I asked for the report that Dr Wong had earlier scribbled on, with calculations of my cholesterol level, and they nicely allowed me to take the set.
Overall impressions: An unreserved thumbs-up. The whole process was swift and efficient, the nurses were pleasant, the reception staff were friendly and helpful, and Dr Wong was more than competent. However, now that I know my health status, I am faced with a deep philosophical problem – that crispy fried bacon swimming in runny egg yolk is off the menu, is life even worth living?
PRICES: A basic Executive Health Screening Package 1 starts from S$550 (US$391). Interestingly, ParkwayHealth, which owns Mount Elizabeth Hospital, also offers a health screening involving elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Called the Integrative (East-West) Medical Screening Package, this involves, among others, an analysis of yin and yang balance. The screening is done by a general practitioner who has studied TCM. Packages begin at S$200 (US$142).
CONTACT: ParkwayHealth Primary Care Network, Executive Health Screeners Centre, 3 Mount Elizabeth, #02-02/03 Mount Elizabeth Centre, Singapore 228510, tel 65 6235 7010, www.parkwayhealth.com/hospitals
