I am off to the Norfolk clinic, again. I'm going to get there early, have my PPD read and finish this nonsense. Between me and the clinic is the NIT (Norfolk International Terminal). I catch the train.
Blergh! It's going 2 feet a minute. Now it's going backwards! I'm going to be late, they're going to cancel my appointment and I will fail again! Why?! Why train why?! Silly me is ranting. We could just call the office. They have to be used to this. Rational me comes to the rescue.
I call, they think I have an appointment for my son. I don't have a son. I am confused; the receptionist is confused. I'm not the service member, I explain. Oh. Is Daniel your.....husband then? Yes, I say. She says okay and that she'll let them know I may be late.
I've been at the train for 8 minutes now. SIGH.
3 minutes later the train clears the road. The light hasn't changed, but traffic doesn't care. I race to the clinic, I show my ID, I climb the stairs, I dodge Aviation Medicine and I get to my appointment with 2 minutes to spare.
Luckily, the lady in the Operational Screening with whom I am meeting can read my PPD and sign off on my immunizations. I do not test positive for Tuberculosis. Weeee!
She glances over my paperwork again. Asks if I have any major medical problems or prescriptions. I say no, but that I wear contacts. She laughs and says they just care about medicines. I shrug.
She takes me to sit in the glass waiting room. Apparently Operational Screening shares a waiting room with Aviation Medicine. I am the only one not in uniform.
I wait.
I listen to some service members talk about their friends who washed out for being a pilot during junior year of ROTC.
I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb. Silly me is convinced everyone is staring at me, trying to figure out what I'm doing there.
A doctor calls my name, Mrs. Justice....? Only Navy people call me Mrs. Justice. It takes it a second for me to register that he means me.
We go to his office and he looks over my paperwork. I don't see a recent physical in here.... It's there. I know it is, but I don't want to be rude and reach across his desk to show him. We can't clear you if you haven't had a physical. Politeness goes out the window. I reach across his desk and start flipping through pages. "It's right here." Oh, yes I see..... Good. This happens again with a few other items. I don't understand how, the Operational Screening lady put tabs on my different records. The tabs tell you where things are. SIGH.
He looks at a few more things, asks me where I'm going, and signs off on my paperwork. He tells me to go back to Operational Screening. I am confused, I thought this was the end, but I take my papers and go back down the hallway.
Back at Operational Screening, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. The check in guy asks if I'm done. "I think so? They told me to come back here." He takes my stack of papers, tells me he has to copy them, and it will be a few minutes. I take a seat.
I wait.
He calls me to his desk, hands my my papers in a red plastic folder labeled "OUT".
Okay.
"Okay.....what? What do I do now?"
Go home. You're done.
I'm done? I can't believe it. There's no way. There's some other person or form I have to fill in for this, right? RIGHT? Silly me is almost delirious with excitement. I shove the folder in my bag and hightail it out of the clinic.
I get home, I scan my approval sheet, and I email it to Dan. My approval sheet is not the page with the signatures and check marks and all of the hard work I have put into passing my screening. It is this single piece of paper, with an X through the Yes bubble next to my name. All of that running around and confusion and screwiness for this.
Level Completed! - Medical Screening Completed!
