Countdown to Myanmar Part 1: Medical Clearance

Once you receive an invitation to Peace Corps, you may first jump for joy, scream and shout, have a small panic of realization, and then gather your senses because you promptly see the next email from Peace Corps. Thinking they have changed their mind and this was all just an elaborate hoax, you quickly open the email with concise and formal instructions to begin the Medical Clearance process. Peace Corps’ Medical Clearance is part one of two clearance processes, the other being legal clearance but more on that later. To be blunt, the Medical Clearance process is thorough, tedious, and what some might call a form of hellish torture. My own personal medical clearance process was not short of its own ups and downs, but I truly didn’t mind the struggle because when it comes to your health and well being, do you really want the Peace Corps Medical team to take shortcuts??

I began my medical clearance process the day I was extended an invitation on August 6th. I finally received medical clearance a whooping 100 days later on November 14th. In total, I had 16 forms/tasks to complete within a specific timeframe. Some invitees may have less or more forms than I did; it really is contingent on your own medical background and if your pre-assigned Peace Corps nurse requests any follow-ups.

My advice for this period of clearance is to have patience and persistence, a lesson I plan to discuss in another blog post. But for now here are a few tips based on my own personal experience. First, start early because THERE will be hiccups. Let’s first start with the fact that I realized I was missing a glasses prescription task in my medical portal halfway through the clearance process. Also my most important appointment that took two weeks to schedule was canceled the day before my appointment was set. Thus, leading me down a new search for a family physician and clinic that could handle all of the blood work, tests, and paperwork I was requesting. It thankfully all worked out since I started early but I shutter to think how I would have completed my tasks without being prompt from the get-go. My second tip is to LABEL all of your documents. I am too OCD to function sometimes so I did not have a problem keeping up with all my documents. But this is not the time to procrastinate or be messy!

So let’s talk about some of those ups and downs I mentioned. The first up was the fact that I, a 23-year old woman, finally braved the gynecologist and surprisingly it was a very pleasant visit. This visit was quickly followed by a sleuth of ovarian cysts scares that were tackled with medication, messages to my PC nurse, and a few ultrasounds along the way. My positive gynecological visit was also brought down by another scare: a slightly enlarged thyroid, which thankfully ended up being totally normal with a follow up ultrasound. Another down was receiving a positive tuberculosis skin test; yes you are thinking of the right tuberculosis that is highly contagious and at one point in US history was an epidemic that caused thousands to die. TB has been largely eradicated in the United States but that doesn’t mean you are immune to TB. A positive TB skin test promptly gets you rushed to get a chest exam and blood test. Oh and the State Department of Health gets notified of your case because extreme precautions and steps are taken if you are positive for TB. Have no fear though because my blood test was totally normal, I do not have TB, I REPEAT I DO NOT HAVE TB. Apparently, it is quite common to have false positive skin tests and I just happen to be one of the few. By and large though, the biggest frustration when it comes medical clearance is that so much is just out of your hands. I mean I can’t will my body to be perfectly healthy.

Here’s what I learned about the Peace Corps Medical Clearance: It is important to have patience and peace of mind for what happens. Things will come up in your medical clearance process that you weren’t expecting and it is important that you react calmly and be prepared for all types of outcomes. I had to be prepared that any of the hiccups that came up might have resulted in Peace Corps not happening at all for me and I had to be ready to come back from that. Truthfully, I am ultimately healthier and more aware of how much time (and money) it takes to be healthy. I am now caught up on vaccines and tackled some women’s health issues. So I come out of this clearance process better than I started. However, it wouldn’t be fair to leave you without my version of the 12 Days of Christmas à la Medical Clearance style, I mean it is blogmas isn’t?

The 12 Qualms of Medical Clearance:

12 headaches
11 nurse messages
10 appointments
9 blood tests
8 co-pays
7 breakdowns
6 release forms
5 x-rays
4 months of stress
3 ultra sounds
2 nurses
1 final clear!!