Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Apparently, I'm A Good Bleeder?

It's the end of the day. What have I left to do but blog?

Today I went to a health fair at Samford. I'm not much for these kinds of things. I usually just feel like I'm going to a science fair. However, Michelle and Mrs. Wanda asked if I wanted to go. I didn't have much to work on at the moment so I went. And the fun began.

When we got there, we found out there was a contest. And contest? Michelle and I were game. We love contests. It's the athletic department in us. The first 50 people to go around and complete a survey of questions by finding answers at each booth and turn their questionnaire in, got a free tshirt. And as my Daddy says, "You can't go wrong with a free tshirt." And it was grey. Not white. Jackpot.

So Michelle, Mrs. Wanda, Lee and I start out to each booth, butting in line, running over whoever we can. This is a contest people! What are you standing around talking about the economy and who's up in the presidential polls for?! There are tshirst to be won!

After 15 minutes of furious fact-finding, we were done. Teamwork. It's how you get things done quickly and efficiently. We turn in our questionnaires and...TA-DA...free tshirt. Woohoo!

After securing our loot, we head back in to get down to business. We all were curious to see what our medical stats were. So we headed over to the blood pressure table. I'd had some of my stats taken yesterday when I went to the doctor but I never got a look at what they were. Except for my weight. We won't discuss that.

My BP was 112/80. The first number good. The second number not so much, according to the nurse lady. She said, "That 80 needs to be a bit lower." Did I tell her that I had just had a cookie before I came? No. The roomie said that could be why it was 80. Or maybe it could've been that I just walked into my boss's office which is like walking into a trash heap of unorganization. Watch where you step!

Next was the blood glucose/sugar test. I saw one of our former tennis players and headed right to her station. I knew she would take care of me. The first prick of the day. Middle finger of the right hand. Good. Blood sugar - 99. Pretty good. As long as I'm not over 200, right?

On to cholesterol. I don't like this word. It just sounds bad. Two cool nursing students were at this table. They seemed to know what they were doing. Second prick of the day. Pointer finger of the left hand. The non-crooked pointer finger. Prick.

"Wow, your a good bleeder!" says the nursing student.

"Um, thanks? Is that good?" says I.

"Well sure! Do you take blood thinners?" says the nursing student as she puts gauze pad after gauze pad on my finger to stop the blood from dripping onto the table cloth.

"Um, no?" says I, trying to think if Tylenol Cold and Sinus counts as a blood thinner.

After what seems like and eternity later, she announces that my cholesterol is 186. I'm taking that as a good sign since my little sheet said that less that 200 mg/dL was desirable.

So I'm healthy I suppose. The sheet also had a section for body mass index. I decided to forego that experience. After seeing the number of the scale at the doctor's office yesterday, I think I'm pretty aware that I'm a tad bit chubby and I need to do something about it. And Mrs. Wanda made me skip the prostate exam booth. She said I was too young to know about that stuff and there was no need for me to learn how to tell if someone has prostate cancer right now. I wasn't interested anyway. I had my eye on the table with all the Blow Pops.

Oh, by the way, each booth at the health fair had candy. Candy? Candy. At a health fair. I'm singing, "One of these things is not like the other." Where are the granola bars and fruit baskets? All the way in the back. The very back. Hiding.

Did I make it back there? Nope. I grabbed a pack of Skittles (to eat later by in my own OCD way) and Mike and Ike's and jetted. Besides, I had work to do, right. Yeah.

So, all in all health fairs are okay. We learned a little bit and got a free pen and pedometer out of it. Every five minutes, someone walks by my office declaring how many steps they are up to so far today. I know know that it's approximately 100 steps to the women's bathroom. Thanks, Vaughan.

Has my pedometer come out of the box yet? Yes. Have I used it? No.

Maybe tomorrow.

2 comments:

  1. Pedometer's are fun!! I got one for free when MS started the "Let's go walking Mississippi" campaign. Oh, and those scales at the dr's are always about 10 pounds off. I swear.

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