I've Been Waiting, I've Been Waiting for This Moment All My Life

Okay, the title is probably a little (a lot) dramatic but this is the face of a very excited Leah dancing through Union Square Park on a Wednesday morning after receiving a signature on her very last Peace Corps medical document (in true PC med clearance fashion, I had to go back one time after this to get another statement from the doctor but you get the idea). It's been a few weeks of waiting since then, but I finally received the email today; "Congratulations!". That's right ladies and gentlemen, I have been medically cleared to serve!

I know that all of you Future PCV's out there are probably wondering exactly what this process entails and I am here to enlighten you...

This might not sound that exciting to those of you that have never been through the PC medical process, but to me, anyone else that has been through this process, and my poor mother that had to listen to more than one phone call that consisted of me hysterically crying after leaving a doctor's appointment, this is a huge victory. Seriously, shout out to my mom for keeping me {somewhat} sane, running around to every doctor I've ever been to in my life for records, and making lots of phone calls for me. You're the real MVP, momma.

Ahem... To start, medical tasks began to populate into my medical portal 200 days before departure. It starts out pretty basic with vaccinations, a physical, and blood work. When I applied, I completed a basic health history form which is long but fairly simple. Applicants are responsible for disclosing their full medical history. I was given additional tasks based on my responses to that form including X-rays and diagnostic testing for a few injuries. As most of you know, I have asthma, an eye condition, and am not the most graceful person on the planet so I had a little bit of explaining to do. I had to write personal statements for all of these things, which I'm sure my PC nurse got a kick out of. I mean, there isn't really a good way to say "I just fell down the stairs because I'm bad at walking". Or trying to explain how I broke my knee doing absolutely nothing. Those were fun. After the personal statements, I had to send all of my old records and have each one of my doctors sign off saying that my injuries would not be an issue during service.

This next part is where it starts to get fun. I went to a total of three doctors appointments for my asthma alone (I haven't had an attack in, like, eight years or something). Eventually, my doctor signed off on all of my paperwork, prescribed me an inhaler that I don't need, and my nurse approved of my asthma. Small victory! My eye condition was a whole different monster. Fun fact of the day: I am blind in one eye. I was born that way. PC liked to refer to it as my "visual impairment", which is bizarre for me because I have never considered myself visually impaired at all. My "impairment" affects exactly two things in my life: which side of a picture I can stand on (because my eye crosses if I stand on the left) and my ability to catch a foul ball at baseball games. That's it. That's everything. It genuinely did not cross my mind that this would be an issue at all, but I WAS WRONG. I went to six, SIX, doctors appointments for this. But, alas, everything has worked itself out and I sit here today writing this with my one good eye, qualified to serve.

That's the basic gist of it. Here's the breakdown of my 2 2 appointments for medical and dental clearance:

Dentist: 4
General Physician: 6 (this includes physical, vaccinations, blood work, titers, and asthma)
Obgyn - 3
Optometrist: 3
Ophthalmologist: 3
Health Center/High School/Old doctors (to pick up records): 3

It's tough to express just how happy I am that medical is over (and I made it out without having to have my wisdom teeth removed!). Now I can focus on more important things like enjoying my last 3 months in New York. 102 days until departure, y'all!

xoxo, Leah

Lazy Eye - Silversun Pickups