Philip Cu Unjieng
At this juncture, beyond the lingering COVID pandemic, if there’s something I’ll remember 2021 for, it’ll be as the year I was diagnosed with Stage 1 prostate cancer. And I’ve heard all there is to hear about how it’s a slow-growing cancer, how it’s eminently curable, or that if left alone and ignored, it’s more likely you’ll die of something else than prostate cancer. But the fact remains that being told you have it leaves strong intimations of one’s mortality. And while yes, it is slow-growing, there is the medical fact that it can spread from the prostate, and ‘invade’ your bones and other parts of your body, to complicate matters.
Philip Cu Unjieng
Here’s a cautionary tale for today. Like a number of you out there, before I turned 60, I never had an executive check-up. For me, it was a case of if I’m feeling fine, then why tempt fate? An “if it ain’t broke, why tinker or fix” attitude. It was Issa (Litton) who literally dragged me to my first St. Luke’s BGC Golden Health Screening five years ago; and I joked back then about how they were trying to sugarcoat the process with this Golden adjective. And sure enough, I was given a clean bill of health, with the confirmation that I possessed High Cardiorespiratory Fitness; so while I half-felt that it was a waste of time, if it made her happy, then sure, I’d sign up for the ride and do this annually. And it did become something of a ritual, one of our early January “play dates.”