Hey, we're on a roll here. This is something I've not talked about all week.

My ordnance-handling medical clearance expires at the end of the month. Last Monday, I went to the Occupational Health clinic along with two of my compadres to get all of us properly certified. There was some confusion when we got there; Gunny had made the appointments, and we ended up on the list for not only ordnance certs, but also humvee driver and seven-ton driver. We got those tests taken off the schedule quick, fast, and in a hurry, because if we had the certs the unit would make us do the driving, and we don't have the people to spare for that.

An ordnance handler clearance test consists of vitals and bloodpressure check, labratory blood work, a vision check, auditory check, EKG, and a brief interview with a doctor. The blood work is still at the lab. The vision test showed that I need glasses, but I'm 20/25 with them, which is good enough. Hearing has degraded somewhat from last year, and I'm not happy about that. The corpsman giving me that test told me not to freak out, because hearing tests are highly variable from day to day, based on earwax, fluid buildup, loud noises in the morning, etc. The EKG was annoying, because the room was cold, and stripping to one's underwear while a (female) corpsman sticks a dozen sticky pads to one is unpleasant enough without it being cold too.

After all the tests were done, we lined up to see the doc. The other two guys went first, they were in and out as the doc glanced over their results and gave them his blessing (and his signature on their certification card.)

Me, he glanced over my results, and paused at my EKG graph. "Hmm..." he said. "Looks like we've got something going on on the EKG. I'm going to set you up an appointment with a specialist, and hold off on your cert pending what he has to say."

Preparing for the inspection has been stressing me out. I've not been sleeping as well as I'd like, and I'm hoping a little heart irregularity is just another symptom of stress. But still, I've been kind of freaking out about it. Ironically, I've been trying to cool out a bit this week, in hopes that the old ticker gets back on it's "A" game. So being stressed about being overstressed is amusing.

Anyway, I've got a followup appointment scheduled for Wednesday, so we'll see how things sit.

As for my injured thumb, it still ain't right. It doesn't hurt, unless I try to use it. Of course, for me that's the classic sign of a broken bone- every time I can recall breaking a bone, it doesn't hurt if I leave it alone. So at this point I'm planning to go to sick call Monday morning to see what they say. I can't justify an ER visit to myself. For Monday morning PT, Gunny's got a kettlebell and sprints session planned out. I think I'll do the sprints and sit out the weights.

Posted by: Boviate at 09:07 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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