Medically Cleared!!!!!

I never thought I would see the day. My toolkit has been updated:
Complete. Peace Corps has completed your medical review. There are no medical holds on your account at this time.

All that's left on my toolkit is the dental clearance and I already have the appointments set up for that. Also, dental clearace doesn't hold you back from being invited to a program (you just have to have the work done before you go). 

Medical, Round Two, Begin

The PCMO called this morning and told me to watch my toolkit for the next couple weeks because they will be reviewing my medical packet again.

Come On!

I talked to some people at the PCMO and they said I still had to get them my second urinalysis! I would like to blame my doctors office for not including this with all of the other forms I picked up Friday but ultimately, I should have combed through everything and asked questions. Anyway, I went and picked up the results and it showed negative on the ketones. This is good. I faxed it a half hour ago so now they can finally give my medical file a second shot at medical clearance.

Extra Forms Sent

Peace Corps likes to send just about everything FedEx. I decided to use a better service so I sent my extra medical forms back to them via UPS.

Dental Clearance… Almost!

My dentist office overlooked two cavities that needed to be filled. About six months ago, we noticed them and thought they would go away but apparently they didn't. I will be getting them filled and some other things taken care of to satisfy my dentist and the Peace Corps. It's a good thing that dental clearance doesn't hold up the application process because I won't be having this work done until mid June.

Blood Pressure? Ketones?

So I spoke too soon about waiting to hear anything back from the Peace Corps. Today I got a letter from the medical office with more forms saying that I had high blood pressure and ketones were present in my urine. I went to my doctors office and found out that ketones can show up in a urine test if you are fasting when the urine sample is taken so I'm not worried about that. Another thing I have to do is have my blood pressure taken on three seperate days so I had the first one done today. My blood pressure today was below the Peace Corps blood pressure max level of 140/90. I've never had anyone tell me that my blood pressure was too high so hopefully this is just a fluke.

Waiting.

I'm now waiting for something to happen with my medical and dental clearance. This process seems to take about a month but I've heard stories that it can take as long as three or even four months. Hopefully the wait won't be too agonizing. Because of this, posts here will probably be much more sporadic since I'm trying to keep this blog related solely to the Peace Corps.

If you have questions about Peace Corps, email me or post a comment. It will give me something to write about.

No Holds?

I woke up this morning and much to my suprise, my toolkit updated. It now says: Complete. Peace Corps has completed your placement review. There are no holds on your account at this time. I find this a little strange because I'm still not medically cleared or dentally cleared. Maybe this has something to do with the call I got yesterday?

False Alarm

My Placement Officer called me a little bit ago and asked if I could leave any earlier than September because she had a position that left in July that matched me perfectly. Unfortunately, I don't finish my undergraduate classes until August 4th so I had to say no.

Fax It

I talked to my medical adviser and he said I would be able to fax him my missing BMI form. He also wanted me to fax a summary of the physical that my doctor wrote for me. For all of my doctors patients, he writes a summary of the results. This isn't something required by the Peace Corps. I've read that sending more information than necessary isn't a good idea but this letter mentions Peace Corps service and how there isn't anything the Peace Corps will throw at me that I can't physically handle.