Medically Disqualified from serving in Asia on the basis of nut allergy

In November 2010 I interviewed with my recruiter and he nominated me for University English Teaching in Asia, which he told me would probably be in China. I was pretty ecstatic because I am interested in working in China as a career, possibly with State Dept. I have learned some Chinese, I am half Chinese/Thai, and I have lived, traveled, gone to school and worked in Asia half of my life. So I was thinking this was a perfect fit. Of course, I knew this wasn't certain, so I took great pains not to get too attached to the idea of going to China. I purposefully kept myself in the dark. I didn't do any research because I didn't want to develop any expectations for where I was going to be serving.

On Monday this week, Placement called ready to offer me an invitation. The officer started off by telling me I was medically disqualified from my original nomination and from serving anywhere in Asia. I knew exactly what the problem was and I voluntarily brought it up with her as I don't think it's an embarrassing medical issue. I asked if there was any way i could appeal that disqualification. She said I could call Medical and appeal it with them. I asked how long that would take and she didn't really answer, but "if you do go through with this appeal, you will likely miss your original nomination date."

I have a very mild allergy to cashews and pistachios. I've never had any serious issues with it. I've never had to be hospitalized or carry around an epinephrine injector (Epi-pen) or antihistamines for it. When I eat these nuts, all I get is a stomach ache that goes away within an hour. Worst case scenario is vomiting, but I haven't vomited since I was around 5 years old. I know some people with nut allergies have horrible, life threatening respiratory reactions. Mine is not of that nature and nowhere near as severe. As I said, I have lived in Asia, specifically Thailand, for half of my life, and it has never been a problem for me. I always eat the local food on a daily basis, which does include cashews sometimes. I felt that I had a good case for an appeal considering this.

I called the nurse assigned to my application and discussed this with her. She told me to submit a personal statement including everything I had just told her and she would forward it to the physicians in Medical. I asked her how long the appeal might take. All she said was that she would forward my statement by the end of the week and "if you do go through with this appeal, you will likely miss your original nomination date." She wanted me to fax the personal statement, but I don't have a fax machine. I asked if I could email it because I thought that would be faster, and she agreed. I did that within an hour.

The next day, I called to confirm that she received my statement. She said she did. I asked if there was anything else I could do. Should I see an allergist? Is there any more information she needed? She told me to wait until the physicians retrieved my medical paperwork and looked at it. I asked again how long that would take. All she said was that she would forward my statement to them by the end of the week.

Yesterday, Friday, feeling antsy, I emailed my Placement officer thanking her for her patience and apologizing for the inconvenience. As a last ditch effort, I asked if there was any way I could reserve my nomination seat until I got the results of my appeal back, at least maybe another week or two. I'm not even sure that's the way it works. It was toward the end of the day, so I figure I won't get a response until Monday.

I also clarified that I am not opposed to going to another region like Eastern Europe as she mentioned. And I mean this 100%. I'm really excited that I'm going to be serving in Peace Corps. I know I will be happy wherever I go, and I will work hard. I have a history of adapting to new cultures easily. I just think Asia would be best suited to my experiences, career interests, and unique qualifications. It's kind of disappointing that the only reason I won't be able to go there is because of such a minor medical issue. It feels like they are saying I can't go home. I have also worked so hard for this nomination. I've done everything I can to try to secure it. I even sacrificed an opportunity with AmeriCorps because they wanted me to serve until a date that was after my PC nomination date. The one thing I didn't think of was how significant my allergy was in Placement.

It's Saturday now. I plan to call the nurse on Monday to confirm that my statement has been forwarded. This is all I can really do at this point.

The officers I've talked to about my appeal keep repeating "If you go through with this appeal, you will likely miss your original nomination date." I feel as though this is an attempt at discouraging me. But if I'm disqualified from my original nomination, then I've already missed it haven't I? I have to try. It's not like it's going to disqualify me from Peace Corps altogether. I can only gain from it. Even if I miss the nomination for China, and I succeed with the appeal, I will have opened up the rest of Asia (indeed all regions of the world) for service.

I also want to clarify, that I'm not criticizing Peace Corps. They have a good reason for being careful about medical issues, specifically allergies. It's not just a liability issue. Peace Corps has a responsibility for the safety of its volunteers since we are putting a lot of trust in their support. I don't blame them for their caution. I do wish I had been informed about the issue earlier. Maybe I could have resolved it much sooner.

Since Monday, I have been frantically researching this issue online. A Google search of "Peace Corps medical disqualification appeal" and similar search terms kept yielding a particular applicant's blog in Peace Corps Journals, Facebook, and other blogs. She has the same allergy to cashews and pistachios as me except more severe. She managed to successfully appeal her medical disqualification and get medically cleared for service. I managed to get in touch with her through Facebook and she gave me some very encouraging advice and showed me her appeal letter. I'm very thankful for her help.

I'm writing about this in detail in case someone now or in the future has the same difficulty with medical disqualification for certain regions. It helps to know what you can do about it.