The longest stretch

At the moment, I’m hunkered down in Havana on my longest stretch “home” until I leave for Minot.

I got back after visiting Lafayette (and two Bass & Pro Shops) on Monday, and this week has been all mucked up as a result. I kept thinking it was the wrong day. So confusing when there’s no job to guide your weekends, but it’s not like I’ve had one of those kinds of jobs for awhile anyway.

Telling time is easy, it’s telling day and date that’s complicated.

My big task this week was doing my physical for the State job. I think it’s really more intense than the one for PC, but it really was easier to do.

Much, much easier to do, in fact. For PC, you basically had a ton of forms that said something like, “List every time you ever got sick, tell us how it won’t ever happen again and go to the doctor to have him or her also verify it will never happen again.”

You also had to have a recent eye exam, a dental checkup with complete X-rays and if you had ever been to a specialist, you had to go back to them and essentially get notes promising whatever little thing was wrong will never, ever happen again, so help you God.

So honestly, even though this one consisted of extensive testing that hadn’t been required by PC (such as a chest X-ray and an EKG), it was just so much easier.

Prior to leaving for Louisiana, I went by a Patient’s First to see if they could do it all in one visit and with one bill, and they said they could.

Since the State Department will (allegedly) reimburse me for all costs, I hoped for minimal bills, so I made an appointment there. Since I have no insurance at the moment and no primary care doctor, it seemed like a likely spot.

When I arrived for my appointment, I realized I’d forgotten to ask about one test – it was on a separate page – and when I asked if they could do it, the nurse hesitated. She left, then returned, telling me that while they did offer the test, they couldn’t do it on a walk-in basis on a routine physical.

I said, uh, hold up there. First, I did make an appointment and second, this is NOT a routine physical. I guess they lost sight of that between the sign-in sheet and calling me back. So once that got re-adjusted, everything went OK.

It took forever – like an hour and a half. And it seems so unnecessary, really. I mean, I had to have tests for HIV, HepB and HepC. Beyond the fact I’ve been tested for at least one of those in the last two years, I am at NO risk – not low risk – for two of them, and the other I’ve been vaccinated against.

I see the relevance of needing to be medically cleared worldwide, but hello. What a waste of tax dollars.

And it is your tax dollar at work. The State Department says it will reimburse candidates after their insurance companies pay that share. Well, as I don’t have insurance, my share is a boatload of money.

Going in, I’d tried to mentally add up how much it’d cost and figured on about $600, tops. I hadn’t, however, taken into account the useless-for-me tests, and I honestly don’t know if I’d added up the costs of the other tests correctly.

Even though I am perfectly healthy and have the test results to prove it, I almost dropped dead at the price tag: $1,050.

One thousand fifty dollars. Holy smokes.

I have not yet gotten all the results to send to DC, but you better believe I already sent them money claim. Hello. My American Express is slightly insane right now.

Monday morning, I need to call and verify I’ve submitted the proper paperwork thus far.

It’s just one of a million things I need to do during this long stretch of being in town. I managed to knock off a lot last week but have a bunch left.

Today, however, was pure fun. I visited church for the first time since I’ve been back and saw some of the people I’d met (somewhat briefly) on my last stop in town, then hung out with my niece all afternoon.

Mac and I went to Lake Ella and wandered around, then had ice cream before meeting Barry.

It might be my only shot at seeing Mac while I’m here, so I was really happy to sit on a bench and count turtles and geese with her.

Hopefully I get to do the same with Nic and Zac at some point. My time is short.