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| Calm: But you can’t tell what’s under the water. |
Is everything OK. Yup. It looks fine to me.
We recently met up with some friends and were reminded that quite often it’s necessary to check more thoroughly as you can’t tell what’s really going on.
It was a year since we caught up with them properly and in the meantime the dad had a heart attack. Fortunately, because he’d just done a first aid course he knew the symptoms and got treatment quickly and he’s now well on the way to recovery.
But the point is that he wasn’t especially overweight, didn’t smoke or drink too much. In short, he didn’t look like a heart attack waiting to happen.
Those of us in our, ahem, middle years need to be particularly diligent about doing all those tests and monitoring things they tell us to – from breast checks to cholesterol levels. For the sake of our kids…
Elsewhere too, checks might be boring, but they really do matter. MOTs for example are not just an annoying legal necessity, they are about making sure your car is safe for you and other road users. That irritating clunk for instance, are you certain it’s not a harbinger of doom?
In the house, did you get the wiring checked when you moved in? I did and discovered that one of the fuse boxes was in a dangerous state and needed replaced pronto. It’s also why we have carbon monoxide detectors and smoke alarms scattered strategically.
You can’t judge a book by its cover, or a website by a quick glance. Only recently I felt an utter fool when I got scammed. I was applying for a replacement passport and ended up paying £35 to a firm to do absolutely nothing for me. The passport people only suggested I should have been more careful and only used a .gov website. Well yes, I know that now.
Books that aren’t all they seem on the other hand, I can roll with.
What else? Food harbouring stomach turning bugs and bank records saying something you didn’t expect… That’s where knowing best before dates and credit scores come in. If you proceed to website or look at the label, then you’ll know.
Perhaps those intense few “am I pregnant?” days count too. Which ever way you want the outcome, you can convince yourself your body is saying one thing or the other. However, there is no alternative to waiting to see what the blue lines say.
Backtracking in relationship terms from pee on a stick (hopefully). Can you always tell if he’s the one at first glance? I know I’ve mistaken the one for the one I need to run away from really quickly more than a few times. But that’s a whole other story… There isn’t really a test for this one though, or even an app for it.
The point I’m trying to make, without getting too preachy or sparking panic is that you can’t just assume all’s well. If there’s a test, you’d be a fool not to take it.
I can’t help thinking that we could have just as easily had a different annual catch up with our friends if he hadn’t insisted in getting his symptoms checked out.
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