Aye Eye.

I scheduled a consultation appointment for LASIK for Thursday evening.
I'm incredibly excited. I've wanted this operation since middle school when I first heard about it. I've been wearing glasses since I was about 5 years old. I am the only one in my family who's ever needed glasses so young, besides my aunt who was born deaf and with Usher Syndrome.
I am incredibly nervous too. Because my vision has always been so impaired, I've always been incredibly sensitive when it comes to taking care of my eyes. I am absolutely petrified of having this operation because if there's complications, it's my vision. I can't imagine living a live where I can't see (well, less than I already can). But no matter how nervous I am, if I want to go into the law enforcement field, I have to get it done because my eyesight is too poor to pass any vision test they will give.

In other news, I'm about 99% sure that I passed my physical fitness exam for Customs & Border Protection on Monday! I took the day off from work (well, I "worked from home" so I still got paid), and headed down to one of the hangers at JFK. I was there for about 2 hours. Their vision test was very basic and I was wearing my contact lenses, so I'll probably be getting a letter shortly, stating that I need to have an independent eye exam and send them the results. But anyway, I had a vision test, a hearing test, then an EKG with a basic physical. When the doctor came in to read the EKG she asked me, "Wow, you exercise often don't you?" And I replied, "Well like 2 - 3 days a week." "High intensity?" "Yes, for an hour each session." She goes, "I can tell. You have a low resting heart rate." I was really happy when I heard that!

Then came the physical fitness test.  The room I was in was actually a physical therapy room, and there were two people there receiving their treatments. They were nice. The first section was push ups--the one exercise that I have a lot of trouble doing. I've never had a lot of upper body strength, and since I weigh on the closer side to 200 lbs., I obviously can't support my body weight with my upper body. So these are difficult for me. I was really afraid I was going to fail this section. I needed a minimum of 12 to pass, and I cranked out 20! I couldn't believe it! Then came sits ups and I passed that. Then there was a "lift/lower" test where I had to pick up a crate with 50 lbs. of weight in it off the floor and set it on the table a total of 8 times. I did that with ease. Then came the agility part where I had to side touch three separate taped lines on the floor. It's hard to explain but I basically had to shuffle side-to-side without turning my torso. It reminded of the exercises the football team would do in high school. Thankfully, I do this sort of "shuffle" in kickboxing every week so I aced that.

 And then FINALLY, it was the dreaded "Step test." For five minutes straight, I had to step up onto and down off of an exercise step at the rate of 120 bpm. That's about a light jogging pace. There first two and a half minutes went fine. Then my legs started cramping. The next minute and a half was TORTURE. I was almost crying and I actually started yelling to myself, "C'mon! Keep going!" The patients in the room with me were cheering me on too! I pushed hard through the last 30 seconds and finished strong. I was so happy I passed! After my leg stopped feeling like jelly, I went downstairs and called my mom and Kerstin. I get an official letter in the mail in about 3 - 4 weeks but I am sure that I did it!