Medical

Somewhere hidden inside my genetic code lies the dormant "Procrastination Gene". At times in my life it was fully active. At other times it is utterly dormant. It has required a lot of self discipline to keep it dormant. Some people think that this sort of condition can be influenced by people constantly reminding or nagging you to take care of things. I beg to differ...

For me - it's very simply. If there is something that I WANT to do, it usually gets done. If there is something that I DO NOT WANT to do, it falls on my priority list. Wait, it gets more complicated than that. If there is something that I WANT to do, but someone else is TELLING ME to do it, then it moves over to the column that records things that I DO NOT WANT to do - even though I actually want to do it. Hope that makes sense - I know it does to me because it's one of the things that keeps me ticking away.

People warned me that I should get the medical examination out of the way as soon as possible. Some said that I didn't want to come up on that magical solo time and still not have it. Others suggested that since it needs to be processed by Transport Canada, a government agency - that there was the potential for me to get caught in a paperwork or administrative blockage. Still others told me that if I don't meet the requirements, I shouldn't bother training at all since I can never solo.

It was the last type of comment that bothered me most. What if I didn't meet medical requirements? What if I had some sort of dormant heart defect or even some sort of inner ear imbalance or my eye sight was messed up? I just needed to get this taken care of and out of the way as soon as possible - for better or for worse.

It wasn't as simple as I thought setting up the appointment. The list of doctors I found from my local flying school was incorrect and incomplete. Some of the Doctors on there were no longer certified or had moved offices while many entries were simply missing. After an exhaustive amount of googling I located a list on the Transport Canada website and started calling them all. To my annoyance - only once operated in the downtown core (which would have been most convenient for me since I work downtown). After speaking with the nice lady on the phone and telling her I need my Class 3 Aviation medical certificate she immediately said ".. and I suppose you needed this done by yesterday?". Well I guess many pilots leave it too late, but that wasn't the case for me. I booked an appointment for the following week and asked what the fee was. "$250.00 plus GST". OMG - that seems WAY more money than I was expecting. I decided to phone some others - I finally found one that was on my way home who offered the same service for only $150.00, so this was booked (and other one cancelled).

In the mean time I went to an optometrist to get my eyes checked. Apparently I have formed a slight astigmatism in my right eye that needs a correction and new contacts are thus on order. The Doctor got very excited when I told him I needed to get this done for an aviation medical - turns out he's always wanted to fly so we chatted about this at length. Hopefully I didn't cut too far into his next appointment.

I thought about all the terrible news I could hear during the next week. Somehow I managed to completely forget about the physical until my blackberry started reminding me about the appointment. After arriving at the clinic and checking in the nurse too me for my eye tests. I had a LOT of trouble reading some of the bottom lines with each eye alone AND with both eyes. She kept jotting stuff down on her charts. Now I was nervous. It was then they asked me to put on my glasses. "Glasses? Umm ya I haven't worn glasses in 15 years". After some discussion they asked me to take out my contact lenses - OK this is another thing they should have told me about. Her and another nurse said they would let the Doctor decide but there was a chance I'd have to come back to complete the medical - woe is me!

After this they measured and weighed me, took my blood pressure, and then I met the Doctor. She was extremely personable and I immediately felt very relaxed with her. We did some more eye tests, some audio test, some examination, an ECG, and a review of my medical history. I was relieved when I realized there would be no "Moon River" as part of this examination.

The end result was that my major risk factor has to do with heart disease where she wrote "Brother MI @ 41" which translated means my brother had a Heart Attack at age 41 (for which he received bypass surgery for and made an amazing recovery). Aside from that my audio was fine and my corrected visual acuity give me 20/10 vision which means I can see what the "average" person sees at 10 feet from 20 feet. Uncorrected I'd have to be at 20 feet for what that same "average" person sees at 20 feet!!

The paperwork is signed and sent in. I suppose I get some official documentation from Transport Canada sometime in the near future. Since I'm under 40 the certification is good for 5 years so I'm fine with my medical (unless something changes) until the end of August 2013.

One less hoop to jump through...