Med Hold Update

Getting official news from Peace Corps HQ is … difficult. Like pulling teeth. With rusty pliers. While drunk. I’m all for serving with the PC, and I’m still looking forward to June 7th. I’m just saying, this is how things do (will) work. I’m trying valiantly to get used to it.

So in light of that - I’ve finally gotten a definitive answer regarding my medical standing. Up until this point there has still been the possibility of Medical deciding to postpone my staging date (due to the hand surgery). My unofficial word had been saying that wasn’t likely, but it was still a distinct possibility. According to the rumourmill* SOP for PC (woo, acronyms) has always been 6-12 months after surgery before clearance for staging — no matter what the surgery (exception: wisdom teeth extraction). So I’ve been worried.

Today I got a white envelope in the mail. Peace Corps logo for return address, big blue letters saying OFFICIAL BUSINESS. Inside:

In order to remove your HOLD status for continuance of placement and departure for service, you must submit letters of discharge and return to regular activity from both your surgeon and your physical therapist.

SWEET! I already have the required letter from the surgeon; I see the PT next Tuesday for my final session. So knowing how slow things go in DC, I should be fully cleared again by… um… May? Regardless, I am super relieved to finally have some type of answer. I’m guessing if my departure had been delayed/suspended, this is the letter that would have mentioned it.

*The aforementioned “rumourmill” is really the only method of information exchange among PC-hopefuls. As I’ve mentioned before, there’s a freaking huge air of secrecy over all of the official machinations. RPCVs and fellow applicants are essentially the only sources of information available to people in my (our) position. Mailing lists, emails and blog searches helped me a lot during my application, which is why I’m putting all this here now. If I’d gone into the process cold last October, without scrounging for advice each step of the way… I’d probably still be waiting on an invitation. No lie. So all you people who got here searching “Peace Corps Medical” (and holy crap, there’s a lot of you!): hang in there.

You’re KILLING me, Smalls

GOOD NEWS: As of this afternoon, I have officially been cleared for service in the Peace Corps.

THIS IS AWESOME.

However. There is a reason this post is more coherent than that kind of news suggests: I have been “medically cleared with an applied ‘accommodation’“… I am clear, but an accommodation is now attached to my file. I’m in but not.

THIS IS NOT AWESOME.

So anyway, I’ve been on the phone a lot today, and still don’t quite understand it all. The general idea is that the Peace Corps Cerberus* has decided to stick the “Asthma”** label on me, and their fear of my imminent collapse consequently affects the geographic locations in which I’m allowed to serve. Apparently, off-limits countries include Uganda. The WTF MATE factor is that, with the news of med clearance, I should at this very moment be celebrating official word involving Uganda & February. I should be bouncing off the freaking walls with glee (yes, glee!). As it is, my Placement Officer (who is really very cool, despite the system in which she is forced to work) is pulling out all the stops to try and find a (new) placement that I’m qualified for ASAP, but the reality is that I’m on hold - again - for a while.

Since my opinion is still, regretably, my own, I’m able to link an RPCV’s description of this whole process. Long read, certainly biased, but gives an idea of what applicants like myself are dealing with.

I was told it’ll be after the first of the year before my PO’s search for a new placement will produce anything. I’ll keep you posted.

*© Dan

**In case you’re wondering “wha? Asthma?” - I’m not. I don’t have it. My doctor refuses to write the A-word in my chart. Unfortunately, over the past few years I started growing asthmatic-esque symptoms, and finally had to get an inhaler - which in the spirit of full disclosure was included on my workup. My doc calls it bronchial something-something, triggered by environmental factors (read: smoke allergies meet China, nation of unholy pollution, in which the concept of “no smoking” is utterly foreign). The irony of it all is that sites I’m now “cleared” for will by definition be closer to urban centers, and are likely to have a greater number of environmental triggers than the remote, unpolluted bushland. [Insert humourless “ha ha”].

(Rather long) update

First: no, I still haven’t gotten my invitation. Sorry for getting anyone’s hopes up.

Second: to any currently homeschooling parents, or any soon-to-be homeschooling parents, or to anyone who may remotely at some point consider homeschooling their children, a word of advice. KEEP UP WITH SHOT RECORDS, YO. Apparently the single most useful purpose of America’s public education system is functioning as a handy-dandy immunization record repository. Convincing medical Powers That Be I don’t, in fact, have a school from whom I can request records is a feat to be admired.

So… on to the update.

• PC’s Medical Clearance process is what God gives people who keep bugging him with requests for “patience.” That’s BAD.
  - This week I got a request for “three additional reports” - which, if you haven’t guessed, were actually three shots. So that threw a delay in the system.

• I have a Placement Officer! That’s GOOD.
  - Proper procedure dictates I don’t actually get a PO until Med Clearance goes through, but apparently I get to be an exception. This means that my PO will go ahead and clear me (pending medical) for the job with both TBTB in DC as well as in Africa.

• COI for my nomination is December 27th. That’s BAD.
  - COI = Close of Invitations. The last day to squeeze my file through on the job for which I’ve been nominated. Therefore, the day by which my Medical Saga MUST be complete. If I miss this window, I am on hold for departure until June (JUNE?!) 2008.

• (Assuming I make the deadline) My departure date is officially Feb. 10th, 2008. That’s GOOD.
  - My PO can’t “officially” tell me what country I’m nominated for, only the region (”Sub-Saharan Non-Francophone Africa”). She can, however, tell me the COI and departure dates. So, thanks to the intarweb network of fellow PC-hopefuls, I can check that data against certain “unofficial” lists and come up with a country. Which means, if I make all the deadlines, I know where I’m going… Uganda. Probably a site within an hour of Lake Victoria. Sweet.

So that’s what I know for now. One way or another, I will have a definite answer by December 27th. Cross your fingers.