So Close to Medical Clearance

But yet so far... My parents received a letter from the Peace Corps Office of Medical Services requesting 2 more medical tests literally like the day that I arrived in Singapore. Absolutely ridiculous. So I finally got ahold of the PC Medical Officer handling my file, and she sent me a 1-page word document with tips on how to obtain the necessary medical documentation while outside of the United States. Basically nothing useful except that they may not accept my TB test since it may not be up to "Stateside standards".

So yesterday I spent an hour and a half in the NUS (National University of Singapore) Health Center, explaining my situation to the receptionists behind the registration desk and the doctors. And in the Q. Not the queue, the Q. I love how they call it that here. And I have to pay for everything up front in cash, they acknowledged that I have medical insurance but they said that I will just have to request reimbursement when I get back home.

I have to go back to the Health Center on Friday to get my TB test, apparently they need to check it within 72 hours so they could not administer the skin test yesterday. And then I have to go there again on Monday to get results from everything.

I asked the receptionist if they could fax the results for me to the PC Medical Office, and she gave me a blank look. Apparently they do not do that sort of thing here. She proceeded to tell me that the closest fax would be on some train stop in a post office. That is ridiculous as well, they better have a fax that I can access somewhere on campus-I know for a fact that the faculty have to have access to fax because many of them have fax numbers listed. Hopefully they have fax services available in the library, or I may have to ask a local student to help me out.

After I spent my quality time in the Health Center, I ran into Annie and a group of the people from my program about to go swimming and lift in the campus gym. So of course I just joined them, since I carry my swim suit, cap and goggles around in my school backpack now. I ended up getting thrown into the NUS Triathlon team's swim practice, since they all jumped into my lane. Fact-I hate recreational lap swimming time and especially hate when people get into your lane without asking if they can. I did about 2500m with the triathlon team, including 3x400 pull with paddles. Again, the pool was overwhelmingly hot and I felt like I was going to overheat and pass out after swimming the first 400 haha. Its been so long since I've used paddles, haven't touched them since around February! Its nice to get back into the swimming routine, but my shoulders are going to be roadkill for the next few days. If only they had ice and a training room here too.