Health checkup

Transcript

Every summer my colleagues and I have an annual health checkup. Our health insurance carrier dispatches a team to the university for two days. They check all the women one day and all the men the other day.

Groups of men go through the checkup together. We carry charts that show our results from the two previous years, and many of us compare our charts and show each other our weaknesses. We form a weird sort of brotherhood as we share a series of unpleasant experiences. We get chest X-rays, and they check our urine, weight, blood pressure, hearing, and eyesight. They measure our waists and check our hearts with an EKG machine. Then we each have a chat with a physician and a final meeting with a nurse who interviews us and then draws blood.

The blood drawing is the last stage. I don't know how women react when their blood is drawn, but for some men it's pretty traumatic. Many of us older guys don't mind needles, but all of us are very relieved to get the little round bandaids the nurses stick on our arms after drawing our blood. A bandaid signals the end of the process.

I dread going through the annual health checkup, even though I know it's a good thing to do. Of course, it's wise to get regular checkups, but it also seems to build solidarity among colleagues. After we're done, we men greet each other in the hallways, showing off our little bandaids like badges of courage.