Pick a Date & Keep It

It is reported that 80% of Black people who walk into a physician’s office have some kind of insurance, are educated, have a job and, yes, have some common health sense about Cancer surveillance. Yet all of the Cancers indigenous to Black folk are on the rise.

Some of the reasons are that African Americans often are not offered the appropriate tests and as a group we are not taking surveillance seriously. It is very important for Black people to be vigilant of the very Cancers that are inclined to kill us. If you are not going to stop smoking, then at least get checked if you have a persistent cough that won’t go away.

As African Americans we make appointments weeks and sometimes months in advance to get a haircut or to go the beauty shop. I encourage you to set a date every year to get a prostate examination, colonoscopy (every five years and more often if you have a family history), annual breast examination, mammogram and the annual pelvic exam.

If you make an appointment for various health surveillance exams on a specific date annually, your chances of missing those appointments are less. Pick a date & keep it.

I am Dr. Thaddeus John Bell--- Closing the Gap in Health Care.

Bell Update Volume 2, Chapter 49
Copyright December 2007