stool too?

I went for my annual health check on Monday. I have been postponing it due to various reasons; all of them work-related!

Right after I came back from Amsterdam with some prescription for the mouth infection, I thought it should be a good time to do the health check. Anyways, it's part of the company benefits for the employees, so I should make the most of it.

I went to the same clinic last year and had quite an enjoyable experience. Enjoyable, not like going for a pleasant tea party with your grrlfriends, but enjoyable in terms of atmosphere and service. I hate going to anything that makes me think twice about my health and mortality, especially if it involves something like drawing out blood from my veins.

So I was relieved I was finally able to make time (I had to catch up with work/emails after that!) for this. They had sent some forms and "gadgets" in advance; see if you can guess what it's telling me to do :

It's quite obvious to those who can read Japanese, but just as a summary, these 2 instructions are actually for collecting stool samples. I never had to do this in Malaysia as part of any health checks, so I found it quite an experience!

Basically you're supposed to line the toilet bowl with the soluble paper (pic above), and then after your poo comes out, use the pink stick given to collect some samples and then insert back into the tube.

How nice of them to decorate the instructions with colourful illustration and cute images.

I'll write more about the actual day's experience later, but it's something I hope you all don't have to go through!