You ain't a beauty, but hey you're alright - Bruce Springsteen

Medical clearance.

In order to qualify for the Foreign Service, I have to pass the medical clearance.  I need to receive a rating of "Class 1 - Worldwide available".  They want to make sure I'm healthy enough to send me anywhere in the world without chancing a medical emergency.  Some embassies are remote and the nearest access to quality medical care may be hours or days away.

When I passed the oral assessment at the end of July, I was told that the medical exams needed to be completed within the next 30 days, which was Aug. 27th.  I tried to schedule an appointment with doctor in Boston, and was told that the next appointment was in mid-September.  I was a bit concerned about whether or not my local doctor could handle coordination of all the tests smoothly, so I wasn't too disappointed to have to call up the medical office in DC to have them do it.

I talked to a woman named Angela to schedule my appointment.  I love her.  Going from the unhelpful scheduler at my doctor's office to Angela was really a wonderful change of pace.  She didn't imply that I was crazy to hope for an appointment in the next month.  In fact, when I told her I'd be coming down from Boston, she immediately began to act as my travel agent.  She offered to schedule the two needed appointments on a Friday and a Monday so I could have a nice long weekend to spend time in DC.  I called on a Monday, and ended up scheduling for that Wednesday and Thursday.  

G. and A. were willing hosts, even though I had just stayed with them two weeks earlier for my oral assessment.  Thanks.

The Medical Office wanted me to fast beginning at 8pm the night before the first appointment.  I couldn't remember if I was allowed to drink water, so I didn't.  When I got to the office, I was very happy to hear that I could drink some water, and I downed little paper cup full after little paper cup full.  Not having been hydrated made me a little worried when I was asked to give blood and urine samples.  I thought my results may have been changed by dehydration.

The first appointment consisted of a questionnaire on my medical condition and taking my blood pressure, height, weight, blood samples, urine samples, giving a TB test shot, and a voluntary DNA sample.  The DNA sample is supposed to go into a vault somewhere and only come out if they need help identifying body parts.  Kind of a gruesome concept, but if it comes to that, speedy and definitive identification sounds like a good idea.

The nurses asked me if I would mind moving my second appointment up to that same day, which was fine with me.  I went for something to eat, and then went back for my second appointment.  Appointment number two was like a basic physical.  I met with a very nice nurse practitioner.  She went over my medical history and entered anything relevant on the computer.  This was one of the great benefits of having gone to DC.  She knew what was important information to the process and what wasn't, in a way that my doctor in Boston wouldn't have known.  I think going over the lab work is supposed to be part of this appointment, but I had just given the samples a few hours earlier, so there was no lab work to review.  We then did the standard physical exam.

With the exams over, I was given a list of three local walk-in clinics that offered chest x-rays.  I went to one that was a few blocks away at George Washington University Hospital.  This was the only point in the whole process where I had to wait, and I only waited for an hour or so.  The procedure took a few minutes.  I was done and off to walk around the DC Mall for the rest of the afternoon. 

A few days later, I checked the TB test injection site and there was no reaction.  If it had become swollen, I was supposed to measure the width of the affected area, but mine never reacted.  I faxed a form back to the medical office and I was done with my medical exam.

Fifteen days later, on August 27th, I got an email from the Office of Medical Services saying I have been cleared for worldwide availability.  My medical clearance is good for two years or until the end of my first tour, whichever is longer.

Nice to have another stage of the process checked off the list.

Next up, security clearance.