You should still start with a primary care doctor. They are like your "health hub". IMO it should be a very personal relationship for the best care. They'll probably start with a physical, go over your personal health history, your family health history, and send you off to have some general blood work done. Typically, this is all covered by insurance as Preventative Care, but definitely double check your policy. You should also mention you do endurance sports, and any oddities you've noticed that come from that (low sex drive, low energy, etc). Those can be indicators that something might be off. Or not. I actually just had my physical today my doc is adding Vitamin D, iron, and Testosterone to my blood test this time around. Mostly just for the data points though.

One thing I did when looking for my PC is finding one that specialized in sports medicine and treating athletes. They tend to have a better understanding of the lifestyle and what goes along with it. And when you run into an issue their first response isn't to stop doing said activity.

If you end up needing something special, they will refer you to a specialist. Again, it is also good, but not as important, to find a doc that understands an active lifestyle.

I'm 48. I haven't visited a doctor since I started my new job 8 years ago. (Its was required at my last job to operate commercial equipment)

I feel fine so I roll the dice. The ACA caused me to loose my healthcare so I switched jobs but its still to much out of my annual income so I dropped healthcare and rolled the dice.

Whatever. I can smoke 98% of the people my age so I must be doing fine. If I die I die. I know where I'm going and whose I am.

Recent posts on here about heart health have got me thinking

Please no judge. Im 35 and haven’t been to a doctor in probably 10 years.

Do I just go see a primary care doc and ask for a physical and heart scans?

He did an EKG, a 24 monitor, and then an echocardiogram. Luckily all negative.

Thanks for sharing your experience as a doc and a patient!

How about screening for coronary artery disease? A coronary calcium scan has been suggested in other threads and I'm curious why you didn't go that route. I'm assuming you've had cholesterol blood work, so maybe not concerned based on that?

Thanks for sharing your experience as a doc and a patient!

How about screening for coronary artery disease? A coronary calcium scan has been suggested in other threads and I'm curious why you didn't go that route. I'm assuming you've had cholesterol blood work, so maybe not concerned based on that?

By the way, does HNCsurvivor stand for head and neck cancer survivor???

Yep, stage 4 HPV Tonsil cancer (not as deadly as other stage 4 cancers). The survivor name was a bit optimistic when I picked it, but I just hit my fifth anniversary, so hopefully, good to go!

One lesson for this thread is not to ignore medical issues when if they pop up. Stuff starts happening as we get older. Some of that stuff can be critical to address immediately.

Like the OP, I hadn't been to a doc for a decade, but when I got a big lump on my neck, I did go. If I ignored it for too long, I might not be here now. My cancer treatment was horrendous (surgery, radiation & chemo), but being an endurance sport athlete for decades helped me, well, endure it.

Long story longer, my cancer diagnosis scans incidentally found I had an aortic aneurysm. Then my subsequent scans tracking my aneurysm found a benign tumor (myxoma) had grown on my heart post-cancer treatment. So, I had open-heart surgery to fix both those in 2017. Not fun, but I'm super fortunate. But for my cancer diagnosis, my undetected aneurysm or cardiac tumor probably would have killed me eventually.

I'm glad to be here, and though it's been a long haul, I've been able to get back to a pretty good level of fitness. I even podiumed in a local 5K at 25:30 when nobody fast showed up. I was hoping to do my first Tri post all this crap last year, but you know, COVID. I'm signed up for a sprint in August and on my training plan!

That's great news! 5 yrs is the mark...and I do agree that fit patients do better-always.



My BIL was diagnosed shortly after you (*by me) after I noted he had neck swelling at a party at our house. He had mets to lung by then but it was also a HNC. He is at 4 yrs now and has had clear scans but I can tell you when he told me that he had noticed that 'lump' a few months prior to my noticing it, my heart sank.

People should realize that preventative medicine is best, but addressing concerns that are new and just not right, well, that shouldn't take a lot of insight-just a phone call. Best to be reassured if it's nothing, but if it is something-find it and fix it.

Best of luck in your sprint race. Let us know how it went.

I'm 48. I haven't visited a doctor since I started my new job 8 years ago. (Its was required at my last job to operate commercial equipment)

I feel fine so I roll the dice. The ACA caused me to loose my healthcare so I switched jobs but its still to much out of my annual income so I dropped healthcare and rolled the dice.

Whatever. I can smoke 98% of the people my age so I must be doing fine. If I die I die. I know where I'm going and whose I am.