White coat fever...
is a fact of life that the bureaucrats (DOT) make no provisions for. Your trucking company just declared bankcruptcy. You're on one of those 21 hour Greyhound "treks" to your next orientation. After sharing a room with snoring Bubba over the weekend, at 5:30am, the company picks you up in their "van" and takes you for a physical with Greta "occupational" somewhere in downtown Birmingham. Greta, fictional photo to the left, is a nurse practitioner who gets $65 for every "new hire" she touches. Her office is in a strip mall next to Bunny's tanning and nail salon. A Chinese buffet is on the other side. You sit there with 25 other tired smelly poor out of work truck drivers hoping to get through the next 3 boring days into a truck to make some money. Even before you see Greta you work yourself into such a state that your blood pressure beings to rise, and rise, and well, there is no way you're going to meet the DOT requirements for a medical card. And two hours before, and three hours after this ordeal, your blood pressure is NORMAL! You (and I) have white coat fever. I hate going to the doctor. I hate getting weighed. I absolutely detest getting my blood pressure taken. And, unless I'm doing it - even my regular family doctor doesn't count - my blood pressure is ALWAYS high. This whole process sucks. I'm all for health, but once again my government has its business right up my butt, literally. It is embarrassing and a violation of my personal and private business. OOIDA can't even answer my e-mail about Florida ag inspections stations, so I don't expect them to deal with this issue that effects THOUSANDS of drivers.
is a fact of life that the bureaucrats (DOT) make no provisions for. Your trucking company just declared bankcruptcy. You're on one of those 21 hour Greyhound "treks" to your next orientation. After sharing a room with snoring Bubba over the weekend, at 5:30am, the company picks you up in their "van" and takes you for a physical with Greta "occupational" somewhere in downtown Birmingham. Greta, fictional photo to the left, is a nurse practitioner who gets $65 for every "new hire" she touches. Her office is in a strip mall next to Bunny's tanning and nail salon. A Chinese buffet is on the other side. You sit there with 25 other tired smelly poor out of work truck drivers hoping to get through the next 3 boring days into a truck to make some money. Even before you see Greta you work yourself into such a state that your blood pressure beings to rise, and rise, and well, there is no way you're going to meet the DOT requirements for a medical card. And two hours before, and three hours after this ordeal, your blood pressure is NORMAL! You (and I) have white coat fever. I hate going to the doctor. I hate getting weighed. I absolutely detest getting my blood pressure taken. And, unless I'm doing it - even my regular family doctor doesn't count - my blood pressure is ALWAYS high. This whole process sucks. I'm all for health, but once again my government has its business right up my butt, literally. It is embarrassing and a violation of my personal and private business. OOIDA can't even answer my e-mail about Florida ag inspections stations, so I don't expect them to deal with this issue that effects THOUSANDS of drivers. 