Medically Deferred, but not for the reasons I thought…

The “letter” arrived today. Good, Bad or Ugly. It has arrived.

My mom read the letter over the phone and once I heard the word deferred I knew I was in for a bit of trouble. Maybe not trouble, but a couple of hurdles.

I was deferred for two reasons.

The first is high triglycerides. Mine is at 258 and the Peace Corps will not approve me without being somewhere in the 27-150 range. What does one do about this? Well after hanging about the deferment I made a quick call to my family doctor and got in for an appointment this afternoon. He tells me that this could mean as little as the fact that perhaps I had a hamburger within 24 hours of my test. I have had the same test every year for the last three years and scored under 100, so the doctor thinks this issue is an easy fix. Diet and exercise. Hard core diet and exercise. I am now off all high fats and dairy with plenty of daily cardio workouts. He is hoping this issue will be corrected in a week minimum, 30 days max. Excellent News!!!

The second is an abnormal pap smear. This is even less of an issue according to the fine doctor. A second test should clear up any issues. I guess women have abnormal paps all the time. Anything from inflamed tissue to a small sample can lead to odd results.

So, I have additional tests set up for next Wednesday and I will go from there.