First Trip to the Doctor When Nothing's Wrong

It's been a long time since I've been to the doctor.  A really long time.  In fact, I don't remember having been to the doctor for any other reason than to have my lady parts checked once a year...but that's a different doctor entirely.

I just don't go to the doctor unless I'm sick.  

Which doesn't happen very often because I don't get sick hardly ever, and when I do...it's not sick enough for me to feel the need to go and see a doctor.  I battle it out on my own.  With the mentality that if I'm still sick a few days later, then I'll go.  But that never happens.

I'll admit, I'm a little nervous.

Nervous about going when I'm not sick.

Because it's not something I do.

It's one thing to go when you kinda already know what's wrong...it's something totally different when you're going hoping that they don't find anything wrong.

Which is what's happening today.

I finally have decent enough insurance where I can go to the doctor just to get checked over and make sure everything is OK.  And not just because I'm sick.

I normally still wouldn't do something like that... but as my mother keeps reminding me, I have three children to think about - and staying healthy for them should trump my mentality that going to the doctor is a waste of time unless there's a reason to go.

And I do kinda sorta have a reason to go... I have a mole that's scared the bejeezus out of my mom.  It's one of those moles that get people all nervous and frantic.  It's not symmetrical.  It's raised.  And what ever else the signs are for not-good moles.

I first noticed it a little over a year ago.  I thought it was a tick...and being the idiot I am, tried to pull it off with tweezers.  That ended up causing a piece of it to be pulled off...which led to it not being what a "normal" mole should look like.

Honestly, I'm not that worried about it... but my mom and my kids' doctor think I should get it checked out.  (My mom's doctor and the kids' doctor is the same person... my mom just had to show a picture of it to him the last time she saw him, and then when I took the kids in he mentioned that I should get it removed.)  

Since having the mole, it hasn't changed or gotten bigger.  Those are good signs.  But, to appease my mother, I'm getting it checked out...on top of getting my whole self checked out because it's been so long since I've done that.

It's been so long since I've had a "wellness check" that I don't even know what they are going to check.  

I'm not against going to the doctor.  I would have gone sooner if it wasn't so darned expensive.  I think that routine check-ups are good.  I'm just not a person that thinks about stuff like that unless I have a reason to.

I think it's pretty sad that something like going to the doctor just to make sure I'm healthy isn't an option unless I have insurance to do so.  I mean, up until now it hasn't been an option because I've only ever had insurance that covered something bad happening.  If I just wanted to make sure I was OK, I'd have to pay full price unless my huge deductible had been met.

That's messed up.

I think everyone should have the ability to go to the doctor for preventative measures.  And it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg to do so.

And, I still have to pay $133 a month now in order to get the benefits of getting preventative check-ups and services.  Times that by 12 and I end up paying $1596 a year.  The preventative check-ups are free... or should I say check-up...but anything else is going to require meeting a $1500 deductible.  So, if I need to cover that.. I end up paying $3096 a year just to get the insurance to start picking up 70% of the tab.

I'm pretty sure if I just put the $133 a way each month I'd be able to go to the doctor when I needed to.. but that's not how it works, is it?  If something bad does happen, I will be thankful that I don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills.  Those bills will be reduced...not gone... just reduced.  So I pay over $1500 a year just to have the peace of mind that if I end up in a major car wreck or with a major illness... I'll only be out of pocket $3000 plus 30% of my bills.  

That's a lot of math...and a lot of money...still.

I'm one of those people that wish we had national healthcare.  I lived in England for 12 years, and going to the doctor or the dentist or whatever was never an issue.  It was just done.  My parents didn't have to worry about how much it would cost or when would be the best time to go..so that it could be afforded.  We went when we needed to.  

I often hear fun made of English people and their teeth.  Well, I have no idea where that came from.. because everyone I knew in England had good teeth because they had regular visits to the dentist.  Moving to America, I was exposed to my first sightings of people that had missing teeth and decaying teeth and thought we'd moved right in to a horror movie.  And then I heard that people had to live that way because they just couldn't afford to go to the dentist, and dental insurance was an added expense to their regular insurance that most people just didn't justify paying for.

I know so many people that have just removed all of their teeth and now have dentures because it's just cheaper to do it that way.

In England, dentures were for old people.  Period.  And I'm talking old as in their 70s or 80s.  Not people in their 20s and 30s like I see so much of here.

But, ranting aside, it's something I need to start doing.  Going to the doctor.  Checking to make sure I'm still healthy.  

The way I look at it, I'm paying to have those benefits... I might as well put them to good use.  Otherwise I'm wasting all that money each month.

So, I better go and get ready.