Hurry up and Wait

Well, this isn't the good news post I had hoped for... just more of the same 'ole waiting. I decided that since it had been 3 weeks since we've been medically cleared, I would e-mail our placement officer (PO) to ask about sending in my final transcript to prove that I actually graduated from college (his name was listed on the nomination letter we got from our recruiter). He e-mailed me back promptly at 9:00 the next morning, answered my question, told me that we should hear from the placement office between 2 and 4 weeks after being medically cleared, and also told me that he wasn't our PO and gave me the name and e-mail of the woman who is.

I'm not really sure why we switched POs... at first I was worried that our nomination had changed and that we were no longer headed to Latin America, but when I got an e-mail back from our new PO, her signature said that she's in charge of the Middle East, North Africa, and Central and South America, so that keeps us on target. Unfortunately, her e-mail also said "Once your files have been screened here in Placement, I'll then review you for invitations. Our placement assistant may contact you if any information is still needed. We usually arrange placement six to eight weeks after medical clearance."

That part was a disappointment... the first PO told us it would be 2 to 4 weeks, and now it's 6 to 8. I'm hopeful that since I sent her my final transcript the placement assistant won't need any extra information and there won't be any extra delays.

Eight weeks from the date of our medical clearance puts us at March 8, so we'll try to be patient until then.

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Clear!

Well, the short version of our most recent news is that we're both medically cleared! However, we had quite a few more things go "not quite right" before things started going our way and we received that coveted Application Status Update.

Dental
Our dental packets did eventually make it to DC and the tracking number worked. Miraculously, Paul was then dentally cleared a day later. I knew since I wasn't cleared at the same time, something was the matter. A few days later I received my entire dental packet back along with a letter saying that (1) I needed to submit a panorex that was less than a year old. I did submit a panorex from about 6 months ago, but it was a copy and the label on the copy was difficult to read; and (2) that they were able to tell from my x-rays that I have bruxism, meaning that I grind my teeth at night, and that I needed a night guard for that. I was already aware that I have bruxism and also already have a night guard... for some reason, my dentist just didn't mark the bruxism box and didn't write in that I have a night guard; I think he figured that he was doing me a favor by not admitting that I ever had a problem. To solve these problems, I had to get another copy of the x-ray that had a label that was clearer and have my dentist write a letter saying that he knows I do have bruxism but that I have a night guard and no further treatment will be needed. The PC sent an overnight Fed Ex envelope for me to mail my packet back, so I mailed that ASAP and was then also cleared a day later.

Medical
We did eventually receive our medical packets back from Fort Leonard Wood and they were completely and correctly filled out and signed! It took 19 days for the packet to travel about 120 miles round trip and get a signature, but we were so thrilled to have it that we temporarily forgot how irritated we were. We got those packets on December 7, overnighted them the next day (we were tired of messing around with slow mail!) and our toolkits were updated on December 12 to state that they received the medical packets.

Then on January 4, Paul received a letter stating that he needed to have a Hepatitis B Core Antibody test done and that he needed to document his use of Alavert, the over-the-counter allergy medication that he wrote he takes approximately once or twice a week.

First, the Hep B: after looking more closely over our copies of the lab work, we discovered that we had both had Hep B Surface Antibody tests (The PC requires a Hep B Core Antibody and Hep B Surface Antigen). I called our screening nurse after I had called around to some clinics in town to make sure that Paul was going to have the correct test done. I was also curious why I hadn't received a letter since we had the exact same lab work done. The screening nurse was really nice and double checked our files and said that the (incorrect) Surface Antibody test was okay for me because I have had my Hep B immunizations. Because of this, the Hep B antibodies showed up on the surface test (which I guess is a good thing) and so I wouldn't need to have the Core test done. So, Paul went to a walk-in clinic in town and had his new Hep B Core test... surprisingly, only $26!

Second, the allergy medicine: we learned yet another lesson the hard way after Paul admitted that he sometimes takes Alavert to stop a sniffly nose. The letter required our doctor to fill out a form stating what Paul is allergic to (pollen? ragweed?), the severity of his reactions (sneezing and sniffling?), if any emergency room or other treatment has been necessary (uh, no), and the date of last reaction (who knows). I can see how a form would be important if Paul took an important, prescription medicine, but it was a little unnecessary for his allergy medication. We decided to fax that form back to Fort Leonard Wood (it would have been at least $170 for an office visit here, and the PC letter said they wouldn't reimburse for this information)... we were worried it would again take weeks to make progress through the military bureaucracy, but we actually received the fax back a mere 48 hours later and then immediately faxed the Hep B labs and the Alavert form back to the PC medical office.

On January 11, we both had the application status update e-mails in our inboxes and saw we had both been medically cleared! Needless to say, we were very happy since that is probably the biggest hurdle and since we were always worried that some irregular blood test or some undiscovered illness would make our clearance deferred or denied.

Overall, we learned a few lessons from the whole process: First, don't trust your doctor (however nice or helpful he or she is trying to be) to fill everything out and get everything right. Double and triple check everything and don't leave until you're sure it's all right. Second, although it's important to be honest on the medical forms, volunteering extra information is probably not a wise idea--Paul hasn't even remembered to take Alavert for months now. We were lucky that the doctor in Fort Leonard Wood was willing and able to fill out the form so quickly, or it could have been an even bigger hassle and delay.

Now I think all the hard stuff should be done... we hope to receive contact from our placement officer or just receive another Application Status Update informing us that we're invitees with an invitation in the mail. We still think we're headed for Nicaragua; we've found some other Nica PC blogs and I've e-mailed a few of those volunteers and one person confirmed that they know a new TEFL group is coming to Nicaragua in May and someone on the peacecorps2 Yahoo! group already received an invitation for small business development in Nicaragua leaving April 30, 2007, so I'm sure that would be the same group as TEFL.

Obviously, we're still trying to be cautious in our optimism... even though we've cleared the medical hurdle, it's hard to tell what other unexpected things can happen. I'm still hopeful that our next blog update will be a really happy one!

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Top Ten Things to Go Not Quite Right with Medical Clearance (So Far)

1. We were caught in a Catch-22: The PC requires we get married six months before we are ready to depart, and we had to show that before we were nominated. Once we got married, we lost our parents' insurance and so would have to pay for medical clearance out-of-pocket.
   
2. We tried to contact VA Hospitals to get our medical clearance done there since (in theory) they are partnered with the Peace Corps and will do it for free. But the VA hospitals in St. Louis, Kansas City, and Columbia, MO showed no interest in helping and were actually pretty mean.
   
3. We finally contacted the DOD hospital in Fort Leonard Wood, MO. The woman there was really nice and agreed to help us, but they couldn't see us for two months--until October 20 at 8 am.
   
4. Since the appointment on Oct 20 was at 8 am and I am about 3-1/2 hours away, we decided to go to Ft. Leonard Wood the night before and make a reservation at a hotel. But I had a night class the night before the appointment that I couldn't miss and so we didn't arrive until about 12:30 am. By that time, the hotel had given up our reservation to someone else and had no rooms left (we felt like it came straight out of an episode of Seinfeld); the hotel owner assumed that we would have arrived earlier if we were going to come because he saw that my cell phone's area code was from an area code not very far away. Instead of using my cell phone number to call and ask if we were coming, he just assumed we weren't.
   
5. Neither of us had ever been on a military base before, and did not know that, post-September 11, it's a pretty big deal. We were required to show the original proof of registration for my car (which was at home) and proof of insurance (and I hadn't gotten my new card yet--the old one had expired not two weeks before). But we eventually made it inside after calling my insurance agent to get the insurance verified and looking up the car registration... that only made us about 45 minutes late for the appointment. :)
   
6. The blood work took a few days to be processed, so the doctor kept our paperwork at the hospital and said he'd mail it to us, along with the blood work, once they received it. We did receive all the paperwork a week or so later, but failed to noticed for two additional weeks that he had forgotten to sign both of our packets and forgot to fill out the box on my paperwork that says I'm negative for all the infectious diseases.
   
7. We mailed back the packets (after making photocopies of everything) and included Post-It tabs everywhere that the doctor needs to sign, a cover letter kindly explaining what was missing from the forms, and a self-addressed, stamped envelope for them to mail the paperwork back to us. We did not know that it would take 10 full days for them to receive the packet because of enhanced security or that they take an extended Thanksgiving holiday.
   
8. I had received a dental checkup recently, so the dentist was just able to fill out my paperwork and include my x-rays from that. Paul, however, was due for a checkup and found out he had a cavity. The checkup, x-rays, and filling cost a whopping $488. Yikes!
   
9. We mailed in our dental packets on Monday, November 27 and for some reason the tracking number isn't working...
   
10. We haven't received the medical packets back from Fort Leonard Wood yet and still don't know if they're filled out completely. Then we have to mail them in and hope they arrive safely...
    

And then we actually have to get cleared medically. There's a long road ahead...

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We're Not Procrastinating (anymore)

All right, it's the middle of November and we haven't even sent in our medical packets yet. We got them at the beginning of September and after a month or so of fruitless calls to the VA hospitals near us, I finally had some luck at a military base about 2 hours away. We had to go to a federal facility because we didn't have the $1500 or so that it would have cost to get the tests done on our own (no insurance--sorry mom!). We had our appointment set for the middle of October and after an undue amount of bureaucratic fervor we made it onto the base late but in enough time for our blood to be drawn for the labs and for the doctor to see us before lunch. We considered ourselves lucky to be back home before dark, but we still had to wait for the lab results to come back before we had our forms filled out and mailed to us.

After we got our packets back Holly noticed (after I failed to for a week or so) that our forms weren't signed by the doctor. We are going to have to mail them back and cross our fingers that we can mail them to the Peace Corps sometime next week. Now I really regret waiting at all after we got the forms, but maybe this way we won't have the months of waiting that punctual volunteers complain about ;).

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No reservations

JERRY: I don't understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation?
RENTAL CAR AGENT: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars.
JERRY: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.
RENTAL CAR AGENT: I know why we have reservations.
JERRY: I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to hold the reservation and that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.

To be continued.

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