Rough Day at Work

I was supposed to do Express Mail only today. A month ago, I made an appointment with the travel clinic at the base I frequent. The travel clinic was the one that would authorize the shots I needed for my upcoming trip to Egypt. Because of the importance of the shots and the closeness to my upcoming trip, I couldn't possibly cancel the appointment.

To my disbelief, my boss called me at 6:45 a.m. and asked if I could do a full route. She knew of my appointment at the travel clinic. She said I could leave and come back and finish the route. As she didn't have anyone else to do the route, I agreed to come in at once. I managed to get all the mail cased that was waiting at the mail case. Around 8:30 a.m., I departed for the travel clinic. It would take 30 minutes to get there.

In my rush to get to the Post Office, I forgot my shot record. The travel clinic couldn't access the immunizations clinic database so, I had to go that clinic and get a copy of my shot record. By the time I got back, the chief nurse was seeing another customer. I had to wait over 25 minutes. Finally, I got in to see her. She reviewed my shot record, looked at what shots I would need for Egypt and told me some of the things to watch out for there. Then, she said I had to see a doctor to get approval for the shots. The doctor was seeing another customer. Aaargh! I waited another 20 minutes impatiently. By now, it was past 10:30 a.m. At last, I got to see the doctor who agreed with what the head nurse said. Also, I found out I'd have to do a blood test to make sure I was still resistant to chickenpox. I had that as a kid and normally once you've had it, you're resistant for the rest of your life. The blood test would show if I still was resistant or not. If not, I'd need a shot for that. Crap! Luckily, there is a inhale vaccination for the yearly flu shot. I just made the age limit for that. Right now, it's only available to anyone up to 49 years old. Cool, one less shot though I suspect I'll come down with flu like symptoms once I take it. Yuck!

I finally got done at the clinic and quickly got back to the Post Office. I found out no one had been able to case any of my mail. Dang! I would spend the next hour casing mail then, I had to get my packages in order (17 of them) and pull down my mail. I hit the street around 1 p.m. Thankfully, because mail was light, I was able to deliver all my mail in about 3 hours. I returned to the Post Office and, I clocked out about 4:30. It had been a trying day. Hopefully, tomorrow won't be as bad. We'll see.