My Return To Work

Greetings all,

I’m perhaps a tad premature in writing this, but I just received the results from a fasting blood test. My A1C dropped by nearly 2 points!

I have a doctor appointment on Monday and then to fax the results to the medical examiner. He assured me that he will issue a full year card with a drop like this.

Overall I feel great. Getting a lot more exercise and eating well. I’ve been studying the pretrip and reviewing the study material in the High Road program.

Thanks again for all you do.

Cheers,

G

Greetings,

A few hurdles working with the medical examiner. The MA was really rude and condescending and attempted to stall my recertification.

She learned that, yes they will recertify with an updated test and that another provider can do it if the original person is on vacation. She had initially suggested that I wait until October for a new cert and that my original card was good through November. I said: “I need it to be at least 6 months. “ she said: “who told you that?” “ the company hiring me.”

Per the recommendation of my recruiter I had the DOL add my new information to my record. Faxed the certificate to the company. Yesterday the program manager called to welcome me (again). I’m waiting for the “all clear” from the coordinator.

Fingers crossed, I head from Bellingham, WA to Lewiston, ID Sunday! I’m super excited, a tad terrified, and eager to move on with this change.

I’ll update accordingly. I’m reading everything I can put my hands on here.

Turtle, your trainer blog is fantastic!

Cheers,

G

That's a good update to read, so good luck!

I was just through your general area two days ago.

Good evening,

I arrived at Lewiston this evening. All checked in. No roommate as of yet.

I’m exhausted and am turning in. 3:30 will come quick.

Cheers,

G

Congrats on getting to Day 1

Thank you Army and Packrat!

Day 1 was a whirlwind of videos, paperwork, UA, and being way too tired and overwhelmed to do much after school.

Some point Sunday night at the hotel I was bit by an unknown (spider?) on a few spots on my right arm. Monday it was itchy and swollen. I showed the classroom instructor.

Today we started at 0500 on pretripping, mostly identifying parts. More videos.

Around 10, I checked in with the instructor and showed him the bites. 2 on my ring finger, 2 on my forearm, and a new one on my index finger from last night. Purple and blistered. Pretty unpleasant.

They convinced me to go to the ER. I did and was seen quickly. (Nothing like a small town ER!) They lanced the finger bites and wrapped them. Gave me a script for antibiotics.

I’m eager to keep going in school and certainly don’t want this to interfere with my progress.

I picked up a roommate last night and the hotel just moved us to a new room.

We did some in cab pti this morning. Being around the trucks definitely made it more real!

We started with 6 students yesterday and had 5 today. We are scheduled for bobtail driving all day Saturday, I’m pretty excited.

Time for dinner and I see another early bed time tonight.

Cheers,

G

Not to scare you, but keep a close eye on those bites. I've been bit by a Brown Recluse and Black Widow, both. I've seen more BW spiders in California than anywhere else.

Eek, spider bites on your first night!

Continued good luck to you!

Hello all,

Day 3, 5am start. No new spider bites and the antibiotics are working!

We started on pretrip for about an hour, working with the second week students. My 20 y/o WA pretrip started to come out of my deep storage and began to click.

A few atlas/mileages/route planning exercises and a test. More videos. After lunch company orientation and more paperwork.

Last thing was more pretrip.

I’m not quite as exhausted today. Seems I’m getting used to the schedule. I imagine that when we start the backing next week I’ll be exhausted all over again.

I’m enjoying the program.

Good night,

G

Greetings,

Day 5 today and we got in the trucks for driving! Initially backing bobtail and coupling. Then straight backing with the trailer. Then towards the end of the day we attempted offsets.

My first offset was a blind side that I nailed with 1 pull up. Then when I was getting ready for my second I got seriously confused and misaligned. Eventually a student with more experience sorted it out and we uncoupled the tractor and trailer.

I’ve got my pti pretty much memorized and am looking forward to stringing all the parts together.

My spider bites have been healing well. I’ve taken to putting bandages on them. Out of sight, out of mind. The motel keeps asking how they are. I will be forwarding my medical bills to them.

Tomorrow we are starting at 0430 with more pad work.

Good night all,

G