For my rotation in Addiction Medicine in Hawaii next spring, I have had to jump through hoops of fire in order to have my application "complete." They have needed letters of good standing, transcripts, board scores, and... proof of immunizations. Flea shots, distemper, ... yadda yadda yadda.
Ordinarily this is no big deal: this is the usual stuff you need to go to pretty much any school in the US. And because I am thorough (OK, a tiny bit OCD), I actually had new titers drawn in June to prove that I was in fact immune to the things I am supposed to be immunized against. (Turns out I had blown through all my HepB antibodies in 3 years -- scary stuff -- so I am restarting that series... but I digress.)
However, for my rotation, the school in Hawaii wanted DATES from when I got my ORIGINAL vaccines. As in, the kind I got when I was 1. Yes, 40-year-old info!
Are they serious??? This is age discrimination! I don't even think paper existed when I was a child!
As you can well imagine, I only mildly flipped out ... where the hell was I supposed to get THAT info?? As it is, I think I blew through 3 pediatricians as a child (all died during my reign of terror - ages 2-4), and was cursing that no way in hell would I ever be able to find that out.
All was lost, I thought. I'm going to be stuck in Pomona for the spring.
Praying that my mother quite possibly could have been OCD enough 40 years ago to have saved that info JUST IN CASE SOMEDAY HER BRILLIANT DAUGHTER WOULD NEED THEM FOR MEDICAL SCHOOL ... I emailed her.
Honestly, I thought there was a higher probability that monkeys would fly out of my ass than my mom having that info. The woman throws out EVERYTHING (except my prom dresses - which is just spiteful, really). I hadn't even been living in my first apartment after college for 15 minutes when she had my old bedroom repainted and refurnished as her own personal walk-in closet and bedroom. Trust me, if it isn't nailed down (in a very linear, orderly fashion), it gets tossed.
Yet, not 30 minutes later, my iPhone chimed -- Marge had sent me a list of my immunization dates!
Astonishing!
Tucked away inside my tattered and dusty baby book (chiseled from stone), which holds such precious items as my first teeth, hair from my first haircut, and other sentimental items, were my immunization records! The very same woman who 2 months ago was rearranging pillows I was napping on at the time because she "needed order" had actually saved something!
All is not lost! I rejoiced. I called my mom immediately to thank her... and in the middle of my tirade about why any school would need 2,000 year old info she said:
"Laura, stop ranting. You have the info. Now shut up. So.. how is school?"
You rock, mom. I love ya! Even if you're freakishly OCD.
Posted by LA at September 03, 2008 09:21 PM