SoapZone Community Message Board

The good: As always, I got a LOT of free stuff* from the folks there peddling their services. Almost every table had pens and chip clips...I got ONE pen and ONE chip clip. I also scored a mini sticky notepad, two bottles of hand sanitizer, two lip balms (could've had three but since I have lip balm at home, two will last me till next year's health fair <g>), a fun-size bag of M&Ms, a snack size bag of Smartfood cheddar popcorn, a bottle of water, a can of cherry-lime Poppi soda, three granola bars, a fun-size pack of gummy fruit snacks, a stress ball, a small American flag, a very pretty worry stone shaped like a heart, a mini gel pad that you can heat or cool to soothe headaches or boo-boos, a travel size toothpaste, a travel size mouthwash and a collapsible bowl on a keychain (I might give it to my bff; it would make an excellent pet travel bowl for food or water), plus a reusable bag to haul it all around. Plus I picked up a few flyers here and there.

* Dad teases me about accepting free things. I assured him I only take what I can eat or use (or pass along to someone who could use it), and I won't go TOO out of my way to get free stuff. I also don't take anything someone else needs or take more than one of anything. I told him when I worked at my previous two jobs, I liked to treat myself to small things--a meal out, a new pair of socks, whatever--but now that I make so much less, I don't get to treat myself as often, so the free stuff makes me happy.

The (kind of) bad: In addition to handing out info (and free stuff!) for health-related services, the fair provided free medical tests. Some you had to pre-register for (skin cancer check, gut check, some kind of aortic imaging, etc.) while others were walk-ups. In years past, I've always gotten my blood sugar and cholesterol checked; this year, I decided to do the bone density test as well, since it's been a while (maybe 10 years or so?). Bone density has never been a worry--a dentist once told me I had great bone density in my jaw which was good for my overall health but made pulling wisdom teeth a bit challenging--and the last time, I scored a +.2, which the health worker told me was the "highest score of the day". I told her I was the youngest person there by 20 years (the seniors love the free medical tests at the health fair...and the free stuff) so I'd better have the highest score. This time around though, my bone density was a -.4. Still well within the acceptable range for my age but now it's something I'm going to be keeping my eye on...

The weird: As I mentioned, I always get my blood sugar and cholesterol checked at the health fair. Generally speaking, problems with either don't tend to run in the family, and I'm no exception. My only problem is while I have low cholesterol, it's mostly bad cholesterol :-/ Anyways, I sat down, got my finger poked and waited for my results...the machine said there was an error. The tech switched machines, poked another finger...got another error. She said my blood wasn't soaking into the test strip but was instead just kind of...hovering atop it. She got a new container of test strips, poked a third finger...same thing. She was reluctant to try a fourth time but the tech sitting next to her had no such issue <g>. She told me "I can get blood from a turnip", which is great but getting enough blood wasn't the problem. Apparently the viscosity of my blood was? Because she had the same result. The tech told me if I wanted to know my blood sugar and cholesterol levels, I'd have to go to a lab and submit a blood sample...which I'm not going to do unless my doctor strongly recommends it (and since it's not a problem for me usually and I feel fine, I'm not going to see my GP). When I came home and told Dad about my non-absorbent blood (really it was more the test strip), he was fascinated and hauled out Mom's old blood sugar reader and test strips (she was once diagnosed as "pre-diabetic", so her doctor recommended she get a machine and test her blood once a day). The strips for her machine had no trouble accepting my blood (and my blood sugar--non-fasting--was 112, which is great...but the strips are also about 12 years old now, so I doubt they're all that accurate). I was wondering if any of you who are still reading this have ever had this problem or known someone who did?