[유금순의 토크백] The story of a health check-up that is a guess for any body

▲Health checkup / Photo = Pixabay

▲Geum-soon Yoo, writing committee member at The Indigo

[유금순 = 더인디고 집필위원] Health doesn’t just mean extending life, but it also means reaching happiness by improving the quality of life.

Although I live embracing the disability that has already become my life, I feel bitter and sad that this society does not seem to be a place where people can enjoy a natural life while adding disease to their disability.

There is a consensus among those of us regarding disabilities that it is not the hardships and misfortune of the disability itself, but the discomfort and discrimination felt due to society’s misconceptions, but the walls of society are still strong and thick.

It is said that average life expectancy has increased. Even so, in my case, I suffer from severe scoliosis and pain due to skeletal deformation and contracture, so I would like to wave my hand without hesitation at longevity with poor quality of life.

I understand that the national health check-up, which is aimed at early detection of diseases, is funded by the government and is checked every other year (odd-even system applied) based on the year of birth. Listing height, weight, waist circumference, vision, hearing, blood pressure, blood test, urine test, chest radiography, oral disease test, and stool test through stool sample, it seems quite systematic and thorough. I also receive a national health check-up every other year, but honestly, it feels like a form without content because I can’t even properly measure basic things like height and weight every time.

Since I couldn’t get on the scale at the hospital, I tried getting on the electronic scale at home. No matter how I manage to get on the low electronic scale, I cannot accurately measure my weight with my hips and both legs on it. There was no way to control my unbalanced body, so I just broke into a cold sweat and estimated my weight as an estimate. The only way to do this would be to have someone hold me on a scale and check the remaining weight after subtracting my own weight. When I was pregnant, someone held me and helped me get on the scale. One day, I checked my weight by going up to the scale that measures wheelchair weight at the Irum Center in Yeouido, Seoul while riding an electric wheelchair and subtracting the weight of the wheelchair from the total. I remembered that weight and have used it as my weight to this day.

Since your height is roughly measured with a tape measure and you answer questions from the examiners, nothing is accurate. For the urine test, the patient received a urine cup from the hospital the day before and collected the urine on the morning of the test. There is a lot of potential for contamination due to the process of transferring urine and the time it takes. Will my disease be detected early?

Even if it is discovered, will it be possible to receive timely and safe treatment while protecting the dignity of the creature? Since the basic start is like this, the test seems to be a bit shaky, and it is difficult to expect reliable results.

In order to skip the process of changing clothes for chest radiography, I have been trying to do health check-ups for which there is not enough help from machines and people, such as visiting the hospital without a bra and wearing loose-fitting clothes, as if I were completing a backlog of homework.

As they have done so far, the activity support staff and nurses lifted me up on the bed for the gastroscopy last time. A nurse laid me down on my side and said, ‘Don’t worry, be safe,’ and pressed my face so hard that I felt like I was going to die before even getting a gastroscopy done. Although I didn’t know it, her confidence, as if she had dealt with disabled patients a few times, was very uncomfortable for me, who has different individual differences. After barely suppressing nausea and belching, the results of the test showed gastritis, but I am still suffering from it without any treatment.

Colon cancer screening involves a colonoscopy and biopsy if abnormal findings are found after a stool sample, but I don’t think it will be as good as this test. What about breast cancer screening? After hearing people’s experiences saying that mammography was difficult while sitting in a wheelchair, I kept putting off getting an ultrasound. Cervical cancer screening is also difficult to access and move around the examination table, and the structure of the examination table does not seem to take into account various body structures, making it inconvenient and something I wanted to avoid if possible.

I think there are no errors in a blood test. What can I say about an oral examination? Nevertheless, I only skipped the health checkup once or twice during the coronavirus, and I think I got it almost every time. It’s like the bare minimum courtesy to a body that no one takes care of.

Although I had barely been able to get a national health checkup, it was unthinkable to pay for a health checkup at a hospital and receive a comprehensive health checkup optionally to systematically check my health status. I felt it was even more necessary because I had experience giving birth, but I was putting it off due to the burden of having to do a separate ultrasound and the cost.

While attending the surgery department at OO University Hospital, where my husband had undergone surgery for thyroid cancer, as a guardian, I was somehow attracted to the faith given by the professor in charge. I had never been screened for breast cancer through a health check-up, so I asked about my wish to be screened, and a date was set up sooner than expected, so I went to the surgery with my activity support person.

Before the test, I urinated again, but I felt the need to urinate quickly, perhaps due to nervousness, which made me even more anxious. The doctor, whom the nurse called Professor, was sitting in the ultrasound room and turned his upper body to look at me. I felt relieved for a moment because the doctor was a woman. Without hesitation, I explained the functions of the electric wheelchair (tilting, reclining, elevating) and then told her that I wanted to be examined while sitting in the wheelchair.

As she listened to me, a faint smile appeared on her lips, and she looked as if she had never heard such a ridiculous story before. Hearing her sigh in succession, I looked at the testing machine in silence for a moment.

As I looked at the doctor who was telling me that the examination bed was the best access to the test machine, I was momentarily conflicted about whether to give up the test or not. The doctor must have read me, as if he had made a big decision, and told the nurse to pull the bed with wheels forward and the ultrasound examination device, which was like a built-in cabinet, forward. Ultrasound machines also had wheels. All wheels have the flexibility to roll and move.

In the examination room, the professor seemed to be the only one who was inflexible. In fact, I think she opened her heart by what I said next.

“My husband, Mr. OOO, underwent surgery for thyroid cancer at this surgery. “I am his guardian, and I have never had a breast cancer health checkup, so I requested a checkup from a surgery professor.”

Finally, she changed her attitude and decided to get tested.

Ready for the test, I began to take full advantage of the optional features of the electric wheelchair that I had mentioned. For the ultrasound examination, the angle was adjusted by elevating, tilting, and reclining, and even the wheelchair armrest swing function was fully utilized, creating a situation that was roughly similar to an examination bed.

In Sano, there is no way that even a professor who seems as alive as I would know that there are times when the angle and posture need to be lowered or adjusted depending on the person and situation, but I thought it would be good to remember at that moment.

I obediently took off my top as she asked. With the help of an activity support person, I assumed the hurrah pose and then underwent an ultrasound examination. The professor, who had already opened the door to his heart, showed a proactive attitude by saying that since it was difficult to perform a single examination and the patient was old, he should examine not only the chest but also the armpits and neck. I was so confused by her different attitude that I wondered if it was the woman who had sighed before.

Anyway, when I meet a patient with a similar type of disability as mine, I feel like her heart will slide open like an automatic door.

After completing my first breast examination with my mouth shut and my eyes tightly closed, the professor pushed me away and suggested that I move to the next room and get a mammography, so I went through the inner door. I was able to film while sitting in a wheelchair, but I also had to get the angle and posture right. After passing the time of shame and pain, the professor suggested that we do another ultrasound scan in 6 months.

I thought there might be something there, but after 6 months, I rushed to the conclusion that it would be difficult to do surgery even if something came out, so I left the hospital. It is said that health checkups are conducted to detect diseases early, but even if a disease is discovered, it is important to consider that not only the surgery, but also the recovery process and recovery after surgery are not the same as non-disabled people.

My husband, who went to a rehabilitation medicine clinic for shoulder pain, discovered thyroid cancer and underwent surgery, has been recovering for nearly a year, but is now in a situation where he has torn his shoulder ligament and needs surgery to insert an artificial ligament. Early detection was late, but for my wife and I, who have severe disabilities, the rehabilitation process after surgery is more worrisome. It will be necessary to change from the current life on the floor to life in a bed and wheelchair, and additional activity support service hours will need to be secured. These days, I feel pitiful and heartbroken over the tilted right shoulder of my husband, who helped me up and took care of me when the activity support service was not able to provide it.

I wish we could live in a society where convenient facilities erase disabilities, and the right to be sick and receive treatment heals the affected area. I want to live a life worth living in a society that promotes resilience and vitality by prioritizing various conditions such as an individual’s gender, age, needs, and cost rather than disability.

Do you think you can live the rest of your life like that?

[더인디고 THE INDIGO]