Hallelujah! This means that I no longer have any more Peace Corps tasks to complete before my June 4 departure. Today is the 7-week mark!
Please add me on Instagram! @peacecorpskathleen
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| After 13 months of paperwork, you'd be jumping too! |
TL;DR (too long; didn't read): Peace Corps Medical Process and story of when I received my invitation.
Medical History Form:
13 months ago, immediately upon submission of my Peace Corps application, I had to fill out this legendary medical history form. You thought filling out the medical history update form at the doctor's office was bad? Each time you click "yes" to having a history of the said illness, you open a can of worms to a whole other flurry of specific questions.
Examples of the medical history form.
- Allergy
- I have an allergic reaction to 1+ of the following: (long list of allergies). Oh boy, here we go.
- Yes. Seasonal Allergy (Pollen, Trees, etc.)
- Yes. I have/had symptoms to this condition (List of symptoms, date of last occurrence, frequency, ongoing or not and severity)
- Yes. I require medication for said symptoms (med name, dosage).
- Personal statement about how this will not impact my ability to serve 27 months with minimal access to western medicine.
- Gastroenterology
- Yes. I am able to tolerate lactose. Yes. I am able to tolerate gluten. What if I had said no?
This continued for every body system.
Pre-Medical Clearance:
11 months ago, upon receipt of my nomination for science education from the San Diego region, I was contacted by the Medical Applicant Portal (MAP) to complete tasks for my medical clearance. For e v e r y body system in which I had seen a doctor in the past 2 years, I had to contact that physician and upload the documentation to MAP. So that meant my pediatrician and allergist in my hometown and my current physician and neurologist (due to a series of migraines in 2012) in San Diego. Needless to say, I got the documents and received my pre-medical clearance on the last day of July.
Once the nurse pre-cleared me, my application was then sent to the placement office in Washington DC. At that point, the placement people (nice alliteration, huh?) look at my nomination and qualifications and place me in the country and assignment that they deem I will be the most successful. And success is mostly measured by my ability to follow the core expectations. If I can follow those, I have the flexibility and open mind to make a difference.
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| The core expectations were brought up in every interview and all paperwork. |
Invitation:
4 months ago, after 5 months of absolutely no correspondence whatsoever from Peace Corps, I received an onslaught of emails. Don't get me wrong, the emails were all great, but anytime you receive multiple emails from the same sender, you have a moment of brief panic. Or maybe that's just me. But I let the adrenaline flow right on in, took a deep breath and opened the email entitled, "Peace Corps - Invitation!".
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| Burkina Faso - Junior High Science Education - June 4, 2014 |
What's the first thing I did? I looked up the country's location on Google Maps. Then I looked it up on Wikipedia. Then I skimmed through the 58-page Welcome Book attached to the invite email. What did I absorb other than that I would be speaking French? Absolutely nothing. Why? Have you ever tried reading detailed information after receiving a burst of adrenaline? The last time I'd produced that much adrenaline was during the CCAA Track and Field Championships in May. But I sprinted it off. In fact, I ran one of my best times in my career. But, you're talking to a cognitive science and neuroscience major, so let's get into a little more detail for a second.
- In those fight or flight situations, the sympathetic nervous system sends out a burst of epinephrine, aka adrenaline. At this point, the body ignores all other minor systems in order to let you survive (You have to use the restroom? You just ate a big sandwich? Well, you no longer have to pee and don't worry, you'll digest the sandwich later when you're safe.). However, the parasympathetic nervous system, which regulates those autonomic functions, doesn't really work as an antagonist. So, when I realize that I received my dream placement, it isn't as simple as mentally telling my body to calm down (or ctfd as my friends and I so eloquently say). Nope, the parasympathetic system is just going to wait for the storm to pass. It's helpful in athletics and ya know, saving your life. But, it's not so helpful when you're sitting in a desk chair staring at a computer screen. Awesome. TL;DR: Science. Adrenaline takes a while to be eliminated from the system, so that's why I didn't absorb what I read.
Final Medical Clearance:
This is the point when most volunteers get nervous. Luckily, I had 3 months to complete all of the medical tasks. This meant immunization records and a doctor's note from my pediatric office that I had chicken pox as a child, two dental cleanings and two fillings and a filling correction since I hadn't seen the dentist in over a year (that's what I get), a prescription update on my glasses (I got transitions so I can see well when I'm biking during service) and a full physical exam. I also had to get the yellow fever immunization and immunization updates for polio and tetanus. Good thing I have no problems with needles!
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| Yellow fever. My boyfriend is Thai...get it? I thought it was funny... |
Clearance Issues:
The only issue I had with my clearance was that my creatinine levels were too high out of the healthy range. Why would this be? In my proactive brilliance, I scheduled my appointment 6 weeks in advance. Then I was not-so-brilliant and made a last-minute trip with my boyfriend to see our favorite artist, Zedd, in Vegas. Well, I'd never been to Vegas post-21, so I was in for a treat. When I looked up what can affect creatinine levels, of course after reading that I probably have high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney failure (thanks WebMD, you never let me down!), I realized that I did everything I shouldn't do before that test. I ate excessive amounts of unhealthy meats (worth it...Vegas buffets are unrivaled), I was dehydrated (no excuse) and I drank diuretics (worth it...I love my coffee).
Solution:
Two weeks ago, MAP told me that I needed to get a re-test of my serum creatinine. Just to be sure everything turned out alright, I went almost entirely vegan for two days. Talk about torture. I eat some kind of meat (mmm... bacon) almost everyday, I eat a greek yogurt every day and I drink coffee everyday. But, Peace Corps service is way higher on my priority list than what I eat. So, I sucked it up.
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| I grabbed the wrong juice. This was liquid death. |
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| A small band-aid would've worked, too... |
I got the blood results back and I was .04 below the highest allowable value. Phew! My Peace Corps nurse cleared me for service and told me to be nice to my kidneys and stay hydrated. I shall!
TL;DR: Peace Corps Medical Process and story of when I received my invitation.
