Medical Self Care – are you up to date?

As mother’s we spend a huge amount of time and energy caring for the well being and needs of our family, often neglecting to take care of our own needs along the way.

This was on my mind this week as I finally made it to the dentist for the first time since moving to New Zealand … almost 3 years ago!

In Australia I was really good about regular dental checks because we had a great denitist and so they would set up automatic reminders for us which made it easy.

Then when we moved to New Zealand seeing a dentist became a job in my to do list that I never made a priority. The kids were easy as the school has a dental clinic attached so they were put into the system there and the dentist just pulls them out of class a couple of times a year for a check-up! But I kept putting off sorting out a dentist for my husband and I.

At the end of last school term I sat down to update my list of “things to do” – I like to have one place that I record all the things on my mind, even if they are not urgent, so that I don’t have to use extra mental energy keeping track of them. “Dentist” was still on the list and I decided that enough was enough and I needed to make an appointment. So I rang the local clinic that very day to make an appointment for the first week back at school this term. Easy as that … “dentist” was no longer on the list.

I am wondering how many medical self care things you have on the list … for one day, some day, another day?

• Dentist
• Pap Smear
• Eye check
• Hearing test
• Breast examination
• buying another bottle of vitamins/herbs that you used to take but ran out of weeks/months ago
• Skin check
• a trip to the doctor to discuss some small matter … that could actually be a big matter …

This week I encourage you to take action on at least one thing on your medical self care list. You matter. Your health matters.