The last time I went to the hospital was in 2023 November. No, I wasn’t ill, I just went for a check up. If I’m being honest, the majority of people from where I come from would barely go to the hospital when they are sick than to even go for check up. Why? Healthcare is expensive here. They say you can go for free health care services if you have a national health insurance card but trust me, the amount of money you’ll pay? That’s a story for another day. People self medicate anyhow because as I said, they can’t afford to go to the hospital.
I don’t remember the last time I fell sick. If you’ve been following me from the beginning, I said the last time I went to the hospital for check up was in 2023. Does it mean I don’t do check ups anymore? I do. How? With my phone and some health devices at home. These things called mobile phones are so powerful than we think of. You could literally regulate your whole life from your mobile phone at home with no “Wahala”.
For iOS, there’s a whole health app on the phone and for other phones there are health apps you could download. Talk of apps that would remind you to drink water, to sleep, to walk, to talk, to eat, to do everything that a professional health worker would tell you to do. People even have workout apps that they use instead of a fitness coach and it’s been working for them. There are apps where you can even book consultation with professional doctors. You might be wondering how will these apps be able to do all this. “No be juju be this?” No it’s not Juju.
Have you realized that, when you go to the hospital, they take your health information? From your temperature, to your weight to what again? Yes, I believe those are very important things we all should know about ourselves so just like the hospital taking these information about you, you input these information in the app. Trust me when I tell you that, if your weight is too much and you need to burn calories or have to be put on diet, these apps will do justice to you.
The health app on my phone is one of the most important apps I cherish the most. It tells me how many steps I’ve taken during the day. How many calories I’ve burned. How much sleep I get. I’m not discouraging anyone from visiting the hospital for check up but if you can’t afford monthly check ups then of course, you can bring the hospital into your phone and make use of these apps at the comfort of your home.
You could also just get these important health devices to be checking yourself at home. It may come off as expensive but trust me when I say the benefits you’ll reap is more than the amount of money you used.( I know pizza money can’t buy a car but it can eventually buy a thermometer or oximeter so save up). I know people that died on their way to the hospital and the cause of their death was high blood pressure. If they had the sphygmomanometer at home, they could have checked their blood pressure at home and even taken their medication before going to the hospital.
It’s sad when we use technology for so many things but forget the most important part of our lives that could benefit from tech; our health.
First 4 images are screenshots from iOS health app
All other images are mine