9 Health Fair...

In the last couple months I have found myself to be among the uninsured Americans, so this year Jesse and I decided to attend a 9 Health Fair. What is 9 Health Fair? you are probably asking. Well, 9 News is a local News station here that 30yrs ago decided to educate the public about their health and offer free or low cost medical screenings to anyone, not just the insured. Since it's humble start the 9 Health Fair has turned into it's own non-profit and expanded to cover the entire state and it's even beginning to trickle into neighboring states. While working at the museum I had an idea about bringing a Health Fair to the Children's Museum put on by older kids. I had the pleasure of partnering with the 9 Health Fair education department on making my dream a reality last June. I'm hoping they keep up the relationship and start educating the kiddos about their health from an earlier age. Anyhow... Since I am with out insurance this year we hit up the Health Fair in Golden (and yes it was @ the Coors Brewery). For $45 each we had 2 blood draws for intensive special screenings that should give us a full range of results and a good idea of our current health. We also met with a nutritionist, did the height, weight, & BMI testing, blood pressure, and a few other things. All of our results will be sent to us in the mail in the next couple weeks. There are many people here in Denver that have benefited from this wonderful program and I'm so glad that we could take part in it too. A friend of mine and her husband went a few years ago and he learned he was diabetic. He had been speculating that he was, but he had lost his job and they were with out insurance at the time as well. I am happy to report that he has a new job, insurance, and has is diabetes under control. 9 Health Fair is mainly volunteer driven program, so next year or maybe even later this fall when they do their family fairs I can give my time to help others with the program as well. I've also been really lucky in that one of the family's that I do childcare for has offered me essentially free health care. The father is a cardiologist and he said as soon as I get my results in he would go over them with me and help me out in anyway. If I am ever feeling sick and in need of a prescription he will write me one, but of course I will be paying full price for the actual prescription. Still... it's a really good deal and I feel lucky to have such great support and resources. Luckily though, for now at least Jesse and I are both feeling pretty healthy, but it will be nice to have the extensive results to prove it.