Week three of hearing nothing about my medical review has arrived, and I've just done my weekly prodding. I called my person to ask about starting a new medication after everything has been sent in, she seemed less than interested in my individual case and just told me to have the doctor fax something over saying what it is, how much I'm taking, and when I started. I was half (ok three quarters) hoping she would pull up my file and be like "oh yes, Elizabeth, I have you right here. Let me just go ahead and clear you since your nomination is coming up so soon! And while I'm at it I'll just go ahead and request your updated resume since your PO will need that too. Your invitation should be sent out tomorrow."
Ok, that was a huge exaggeration, but it would have been nice to get more than "fax it over". I called a little tiny bit to prod, but mostly to figure out if I want to start back on BCP before I go. The more and more I think about it, the more I feel like having 100% predictable periods that are light and last 3 days would be nice while living in a place that is possibly pretty unpredictable. I decided to just go ahead and call my doctor and let them know I'd like to start on the pill again, but of course they didn't answer. Tomorrow is Veterans' Day so I'm wondering if they're just closed till Monday. Probably.
11 comments:
Sooooo I'm now in the middle of week 9 of waiting for my medical clearance. I've been talking to the nurse assigned to my case for a month now and she keeps saying "within the next two weeks" but I'm still waiting. I do know that they are open on Friday though because the last time I checked in I got an automatic response email saying she would be back to the office on Friday November 12th. I wish they would operate on my time and get this show on the road! Good luck!
That's nuts - how come the nurse who is reviewing your file can't actually review your file? I haven't gotten the contact information for the nurse yet, I've just been in touch with my MRA (who is terribly generic and not helpful.)
Liz -- have you ever tried talking to your placement officer about it? I read on another peace corps blog about someone who was in a serious time crunch and needed their clearance within a week or something (they medical review office had sent some stuff back for them to re-do). Anyway, the placement officer apparently put this person's file on high priority and it got done immediately. Just a thought if you starting getting really nervous!
Thanks Tim :) I don't think I have a placement officer yet, I'm not even medically cleared yet and they haven't requested anything from me to indicate that they've started looking at it. While I AM antsy today, I know it'll all work out the way it's supposed to. The close of invitation for beginning of February won't be until the middle of December - which is still a month away.
Oye, too bad your MRA isn't being more helpful! Mine gave me my nurse's information at about the 4 week mark and I've been in contact with her since. Obviously it isn't helping that much. I'm giving her until Monday and then I'm going to get in touch with my recruiter because she had said if I didn't feel like I was getting heard by the office in DC that she would try to help me. I'm guessing that's what Tim is referring to. I'm just trying to be as patient as my RAS can handle! I mean, I have a lot of time before April but sheesh! :)
Week three and you're getting all worked up about waiting?
Everyone, from my recruiter to RPCVs, have told me to expect a wait lasting several months.
My medical packet was received at PC Headquarters on 08/06/2010. I am still waiting. A nurse reviewer called me two weeks ago and informed me that I should expect to hear "in a few weeks, or so."
I would honestly hardly call myself stressed or worked up at this point. When is your nomination for? The toolkit says that they're reviewing medical packets for those nominated 4 months or sooner, while those further out will take longer. Since mine is only 3 months from now I would just think I'd be in the stack that they get to sooner. And it doesn't hurt anything to ask... if I start calling daily and being rude to people, that's when I know I've gone off the deep end :) Note my other comment: "I know it'll all work out the way it's supposed to. The close of invitation for beginning of February won't be until the middle of December - which is still a month away."
Good clarification. Your mention of "close of invitation" intrigues me. In all of my searching for information/clues, I have not come across that factor. Where did you find that? I have not heard of that until now. Some RPCVs have told me of applicants receiving invitations at the "last minute" while other applicants nominated for the same countries have received nominations more than four months ahead of staging.
Now, with this being Veterans' Day, I guess I'll have to wait and hope my latest e-mail gets answered on Friday (hopefully Tija's information holds true for my nurse reviewer).
Good luck! Perhaps I will get vicarious enjoyment when you receive an invitation while I am still waiting.
From the Peace Corps website: "Invitations are typically sent out two to three months (but at least six weeks) in advance of the program starting date" - http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.howvol.stepstoapply
PC Wiki also draws attention to the 6-week date suggesting that there's a window of 6 weeks prior to a staging date during which people will not be invited
http://www.peacecorpswiki.org/Timeline
I don't remember where I first heard the term "Close of Invitation" but I found this to prove to myself I'm not crazy :) http://www.scribd.com/doc/28532017/Peace-Corps-VLMS-Glossary
http://www.peacecorpswiki.org/FOIAdocs/MCSIG0808E.pdf
term search "close of invitation" within that document - it explains how some medical stuff is done "FIFO" (first in-first out), and some is done based on placement needing to fill soonish "COI" (close of invitations)
I keep seeing people getting invites for June, April and such and it gives me a jump (I'm nominated for early April 2011) seeing as I have yet to be medically cleared. I'm not too worried as that is still a ways away, but I think everyone knows the feeling.
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