Sunday, March 02, 2008

My Sunday

After an early meeting with some friends, I spent the rest of my morning getting a periodic (read, pre-deployment) health screening. We're not deploying yet, just have to be ready.

The "lab". The lab has smelling salt poppers taped to a cabinet door, in case someone gets woozy.



Blood draw. The soldier with the blues gloves said to her boss "This is my first real miss of the day. It wasn't just a wobbler." So, she stuck the guy again, this time successfully.



The EKG machine being prepped to EKG my tender heart. I passed.



I learned that I need glases to read (already knew that), that I've sustained hearing loss (I was a tanker for a decade, what do ya expect, knew that also), that my teeth are okay, and various more personal facts.

Have you ever taken the beeper hearing test? You go in to a small sound proofed room, put on headphones and press a button every time you hear a tone. The tones vary in register and loudness After straining to hear the really faint ones, you start to hear things and start pressing the button at false alarms. I was doing that and a recorded voice came over the headphones and jacked me up for it. Told me to wait for a tone. (Some guys try to game the system by just pressing the button hoping to get it right.)

3 comments:

slfisher said...

deployment? you in the Guard?

Alan said...

Yep. Already been to Iraq once. Got back in Nov 05.

slfisher said...

wow. I didn't know. thanks for your service, and may all this shit be over before you're in line to go back.