Monday I had a physical for nursing school.  My vitals were good.  Heart, lungs, and belly sounds good.  No tumors noted (phew!).  Eyesight 20/20.  Then came the part where you perform for the nurse practitioner.  She observed my gait to make sure I could walk.  Then she asked me to bend over and reach for the floor as low as comfortably possible.  She was skeptical when I told her I’ve got leftover flexibility from gymnastics, but then I bent over and put my palms flush with the floor and was no longer a skeptic.  Then she asked for a squat.  Surely my 40 year old knees can’t handle that.  So I squatted like a midwife who’s assumed that position through 400 primip births and she declared me capable of performing the basic duties of a nurse.

I also had a chemistry panel to look for how my kidneys and liver were functioning, what my cholesterol levels are, and immunity to childhood diseases and/or vaccine stability.  To finish off the appointment I had a TB test and a tetanus shot.  My right deltoid STILL hurts.

Two days later I went back for the TB test to be read and the blood results.  Nothing was back.  So I had to go back a third time.  All my labs were great and I’m immune to measles, mumps, rubella, and hepatitis B.  Missing was the varicella (chicken pox) results.  I had to have another blood sample taken because the lab assistant didn’t check the box for that one and I had a horrible case of chicken pox when I was 12 that I’m sure I caught from sharing the balance beam of a teammate in a different squad who had them, two weeks after I had Scarlet Fever, which totally ruined my trip to Six Flags doesn’t suffice as satisfactory proof of the disease as far as hospitals are concerned.  Let’s hope I show up immune to that because I’d rather not have another vaccine, especially not one that is in the $100 range for the uninsured.