Friday, April 29, 2011

FIVE MORE MEDICAL FORMS AHHH

So, yesterday morning, my impatient self decided to call the person assigned to answer my medical questions (via the Peace Corps telephone number provided in the medical kit), as I was curious whether I should expect to have more doctors appointments this summer. My toolkit still just says I have a hold and only need to further info if requested by Medical Services.

Luckily, a Ms. Georgianne both answered the phone and was friendly, but told me...

Not good news. I expected a form or two to be missing/needed, but not FIVE***. Lord. I was in shock. Apparently, I need:

- A post-operative form filled out by the doctors who performed my appendectomy EIGHT YEARS AGO

- A personal statement regarding this appendectomy [wtf? Perhaps they mean emotional attachment problems? I'm not dying, I've got a sweet scar I tell people was caused by a (baby) shark bite] + my original appendix, preserved in formaldehyde and sealed in a Mason jar (just kidding. So far. SO FAR)


- A form regarding my "mango allergy." The bizarre mango allergy I've experienced exactly 1.5 times in my life. Back in high school, I bought a fresh mango trying to be healthy/experimental and accidentally tried eating the skin before peeling it. A day later, I had this gnarly herpes-looking outbreak on my lips that itched like poison ivy, just a week or two before graduation. After much googling, it turns out the skin of mangoes is related to the poison ivy family, and if you're allergic to poison ivy, you have a chance of being allergic to just the skin of mangoes. Anywho, I went to the doctor in 2007, and he gave me some sort of antihistamine thing. Peace Corps wants all this who/what/where info about the mango. "I want to know where the mango at!"


- Missing Polio records... Somehow, my proof of Polio 1 & 2 vaccines have vanished. I swear they were there. I mean, I had the booster shot. Both my doctor and I checked them off the list. Bizarre. I will have to get titers showing I've had them.


- And.... another CBC due to my low iron. Which is what I expected in the first place. I'm a bit worried about this iron thing because I donated blood Monday (four days ago), and despite my taking an iron supplement with 100% of my needs, my levels were at the exact minimum to be eligible to give blood (12.5). It's so weird.



So there you have it. I will now begin writing the sequel to my novel Peace Corps Medical, A Girl in Tears. Just as soon as those forms actually arrive in the snail mail. Ms. Georgianne told me that the forms had been mailed to me on April 21 from D.C., but for some 7 days, haven't arrived in NC. I expect they are enjoying their time drinking martinis in the Caribbean. Weather's getting to be quite toasty there this time of year.

And I am left feeling like a loser for A) Not graduating on time - hello Summer Classes at UNC... again. B) Having no idea what I'm doing after actually, hopefully, probably, most likely graduating in July...... C) saying good bye to all my friends here. Sigh.

My plan so far looks like this:

Graduate, at all costs, in July. If accepted to Peace Corps for August/September, stay in Chapel Hill. If rejected/deferred/or invited for a position beginning October - May 2012 (will the world be here?), buy a car and move to a random city in the U.S., while trying to find a job abroad. I'm so tired of the Southeast U.S. Even the Northeast. I want to go out West.

And there's the plan. Solid gold.

***I'd also like to make a note that I do appreciate the Peace Corps' diligence in ensuring the safety of its volunteers. Seriously. Because if contracting a deadly flesh-eating disease from eating a mango that affects only the anemic, appendixless, Polio titer-less American were to happen to anyone, it would happen to JADE THE BLADE ***


Friday, April 22, 2011

Final Transcript Question?

I was wondering if any volunteer happens to know if I have to send in my final transcript to the Peace Corps before I can receive an invitation? I will not be graduating until late July, but want to leave as soon as possible after graduation, in August. I had originally said I could depart in May, but received a nomination for late July/August, and was planning to change my earliest departure date to August when asked for my updated resume.

Does anyone know whether I can be invited before mailing a final transcript? I know I will need to show them at some point before I actually depart.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Medical Update

Yesterday, I received another e-mail notifying me of a "status update" on my Peace Corps Application Tool Kit. When I went to the application site, I read a message informing me of a hold on my account. This message also said all applicants have a hold on their account while their medical forms are being processed, and unless I am contacted by Medical Services, no more information is needed. I've not yet been contacted by anyone, so, once again, fingers crossed, I'll hope I don't need to drag out this process much longer. Of course, it's quite doubtful that anemia thing will be swept under the rug. We can hope though.

It's been exactly three weeks since I sent off my medical forms, so I guess it hasn't really taken too long thus far. I am just getting fairly frustrated with all this waiting. I know I should have patience, but it really hit me about the time commitment involved with this when I was reading another volunteer's blog. She mentioned she'd spent over a year just on the application process, for this two year program.

But nothing has deterred me. Every day, I am more certain this is what I want to do right now. I am not hesitant even when my friend mentioned one her friends, a volunteer, who had been shot with rubber bullets by a police officer in Kazakhstan and had been sent home.

I always laugh when people think the Peace Corps is like the military, but you know, maybe it is after all...

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Dental Review Completed

I received an e-mail this morning saying that my physical exam results were received on April 5th, and that my Dental Review has been completed (I got a little check on my ToolKit page).

That took just a little over one week. I suspect the medical portion will take a lot longer, but I am thrilled at this step! I had already resigned to assuming it would take months to complete this whole thing.

Fingers crossed!

Monday, April 4, 2011

As the months roll on. . .

I've still not heard from Medical yet, I'm unsure whether the office has even received my Medical Kit yet. I submitted it last Monday, so today has been officially a week since I sent it off. I live in NC and the PC headquarters are only in D.C., so they definitely should have gotten my envelope just two days or at the most, three, after I sent it. I'm trying to be patient.

There's really no reason for me to be impatient, seeing as I'm not even sure when I'm graduating. There's the possibility that I am graduating in the middle of June, but in all honesty, I probably will end up having to take another summer class in July. Not cool, but I've been having a pretty rough semester with life outside school. Although I've been stressing about this school thing for weeks now, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter at all because I'm worried my current counselling will defer me from Peace Corps service. If that happened, I think I would be honestly crushed. That's not to say that the only thing in my life right now is the Peace Corps, but not having the option of going would be devastating.

It seems like a great portion of my life has revolved around the Peace Corps for the past year. Even though I didn't submit my application until this past Thanksgiving (a little over four months ago), I was already Googling every PC-related question imaginable and volunteering/joining clubs months before that. Throughout this entire process, I have tried to be realistic. My grandfather keeps telling me he is certain I am going to get in, and he's almost basically accepted that I *am* in. This is stressful because I feel (and know) it is definitely NOT a sure thing, as my grades or medical might cause a problem. All this time since beginning the application, I have had so much time to consider the pros and cons of joining the Peace Corps, if actually accepted. I guess I am trying to deal with the possibility of rejection but also still entertain those wonderful daydream delusions of receiving an invitation, having a departure date, and going on another adventure.

Since one of my close friends went through the medical process, with a few delays, and decided to not join after all, I have naturally really questioned joining. Two years seems like a long time, and then, it seems like such a short time. I've of course never been away from my friends and family for so long, but I really think I could use something like this in my life at this point. The thought of getting on the plane, landing in another country, and teaching English to kids is seriously a dream. When I was a lot younger, maybe eleven or twelve, and thought about my future, I always saw something like the Peace Corps in my mind, although I had never heard about it, had no real reason for wanting to teach in another country. I get this funny feeling thinking about it, kind of like deja vu. But then there's that part of my mind that thinks, Two years is a really long time to go without a pack of Twizzlers. Or episodes of the Nanny. Or, you know, the people I care about... And two years is a big commitment. I'm currently undergoing my four year college commitment, which has been rather hellish to fulfill.

Do I really want to take on so much responsibility for two years? In all honesty, despite the current semester's shit, I DO want this responsibility. Because this matters to me. I could hardly care less anymore about reading much of anything. I never thought I would see the day when I would think this thought, as books were my life up until I was fifteen, sixteen, but I've found the only way to keep my sanity is to be honest with myself. And honestly, I have become a person who wants to DO things. I hope one day I can reconcile this part of myself with the part of myself that likes to read and learn from books, but I've seen so many people, really great and intelligent people, spend so much time reading and seemingly preparing all this knowledge for *something, someday* but never using it. Maybe I've gathered what I needed to gather at this point in my life, and I am ready to do something useful with it. I suppose this is actually a good position to be at in my life right now, with (hopefully) graduating in a couple of months.

Here I am, writing all of this, and wondering why I am even thinking about NOT doing the Peace Corps, since This is what I want to do keeps flashing through my mind. Like I said before, I am trying to be realistic. I will either be accepted, or not. If I am accepted and leave at the end of the summer, then that's the most exciting thing in my entire life to happen. Ever. Seriously EVERRR. If I am deferred for a couple of months, I will just look for a temporary job in the area and enjoy hanging out with everybody for a few extra months, which will definitely be a good thing. And if I am completely rejected, well, I'll find something else to do overseas and that's that.

What a rambling jumble of thoughts. I guess the Peace Corps has a method to their madness with all this bureaucratic nonsense. You really force yourself to think about why you are applying and what happens if you are or aren't accepted. It's a good thing, though. I am confident that my seeming whim isn't really so spontaneous after all.