And Another Health Fair

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I finished my last health fair of the summer, and tomorrow is my last day of work before VACATION!!!!

I. CAN'T. WAIT!!!

The health fair today was very different than the past 2. Rather than a majority of Spanish speaking families, this one was at the Polish American community building. And, the kids came by themselves. So, it made for collecting the history section of their back to school physical form near impossible...but quite enjoyable!!

Case in point: I asked one 9 year old if he was allergic to bees. His answer: Oh Yes!! So I asked, "What happens when you get stung by a bee?" His reply?... "I get swollen huge and die!"

I tried so hard to not laugh!! I wanted to say, "so this has happened to you before!?" but instead I asked if he'd ever been stung by a bee...to which he replied no. So then it was all about trying to figure out how or why he thought he was allergic to bees. Long story short (kinda!) he heard this information from someone at school. So scratch out my check mark on the YES box for "allergic to bees."

Another little girl I was examining asked if I was Polish. I said No. She said, Wow, you really should be. The way she said it was like "Maybe next Halloween you can become a Polish girl-it's the way to be...everyone around here is Polish!" Funny!

And lastly: I asked one 6 year old if she had asthma. She said "Uh-huh" ...paused for a few seconds...and then said, "Wait, what's that!?"

Yeah....trying to ask kids if they have hypertension, polycystic ovarian syndrome, a family history of diabetes mellitus or asthma can give you some really creative answers!! But it will definitely NOT give you answers to properly fill out the health history questionaire.

While these back to school health fairs have been a lot of fun, they have taught me that the adventure of a PNP (Pediatric Nurse Practitioner...works in an office/clinic setting) is probably, scratch that... definitely not the type of adventure that I'm drawn to.

I'm in the acute care peds. nurse practitoner program (ACPNP-can work in a clinic, but usually specialized, and can also work in the hospital setting) for a reason...there is an adventure in the PICU that just cannot compare. So I will continue my journey in the fall seeing kids with sore throat, earaches, and runny noses at the offices...but I look forward to the adventure that follows the 3 quarters after!!