Leaky Valve

When was the last time you went for a full medical checkup? The last time I went was I think approximately 2002? How could you remember, you may ask? And then, how could you not do this annually!!

I remember because it was April fool's day, it was Chin Wee, one of my ex-colleagues' birthday. It was also the kickoff of the first project we did at my client. I called up one of my bosses and told him I was not able to work for the next 5 days because I wanted to go on MC. I remembered his response was an immediate no problem, then followed by the realisation of why I am taking 5 days of MC.

I walked into a dinghy shoplot medical center the next day, and did a day surgery to remove a small lump found in the most at risk part of the body, fortunately benign. 2002, I remember clearly, after a full medical checkup for my prudential insurance.

Today I went to collect my full medical checkup results from the Subang Medical Center. The physician gave me an almost clean bill of health, except as a last point, she took her stethoscope and did a check and found a potential "leaky valve" in my heart.

What is a leaky valve? It is also commonly known as a heart murmur, after a bit of surfing on the net just now. According to the physician and my current read-up it is quite harmless but needs to be monitored regularly and also got to be careful of infections ie when going to dentist (!?? this part I did not understand, no time to read also, later).

http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/heart-valve-disease

I will be doing a follow up echocardiogram, I guess do it while I am still able to, sometimes I have given my body such an abuse that I got to learn how to take care of it in this second half of my life. Wish me all the best of health and hopefully it is just a harmless murmur. The physician actually said, it is generally ok for those who are healthy like me, but better to check it further.

However, the docter also said, this has nothing to do with the blood into the heart or the heart, it is the mechanics of the heart. I hate things I cannot control or understand, but I have faith that I am both healthy in heart and mind!