The phrase ” hurry up and wait” seems to apply to my life. I try to do as much as I can in a timely manner, just to sit back and wait for the others to make decisions. As my application for the Peace Corps sits on some nurses desk, I have hurried up and done something to keep myself busy until I know what is next in life.
I am currently working as a Rehab Tech at Craig Hospital with spinal cord injury patients. I have been there for three months or so and have learned so much! I couldn’t ask for a better place to start my journey in health care. I get to meet some wonderful people from all walks of life and take a journey with them. Spinal cord injuries are life changing, and my patients are often starting from square one to relearn simple day to day tasks such as getting dressed, brushing their teeth, or writing an email. Often the journey is a roller coaster filled with accomplishments, pitfalls, and realizations. Everyday I walk away from my job exhausted, but appreciative of what I have and what my patients share with me.
In addition to my job I am volunteering with a local ESL organization Intercambio de Comunidades. Originally, my Peace Corps recruiter advised me to gain experience in ESL, but later told me it was no necessary since I qualified for a health care position. I had already trained with the organization and was set up to start teaching a couple in my neighborhood English – it didn’t make sense to just stop and waste all of our time. We are half way through our level four ESL book and it is a learning process for the both of us. I am new to this teaching thing, and well English is new to them. But one step at a time we will figure it all out.
The rumors are true, medical clearance is a tedious process that will test your patients. In the initial application there is a thorough questionnaire that needs to be filled out. A “yes” to specific questions throws up a red flag no matter the severity of the situation.With that being said I needed to fill out some initial paperwork, prior to my medical packet, to prove I was healthy and nothing significant was wrong.
After many weeks of wondering if they actually got the paperwork I followed up with the nurse assigned to my application. She called me back after reviewing my paperwork and notified me I would receive the rest of my medical packet in the coming weeks (a word of advice a reasonable amount of follow up and pestering is acceptable to keep your application moving along).
It took me about three weeks to complete all the medical paperwork after receiving it. That was also with some lost results and paperwork mishaps. It was an additional three weeks for the Peace Corps to receive and process the paperwork, at which point they notified me they were reviewing my file and if my departure date was not within the next four months it was going to be a while. And so the wait began…
