{"id":29,"date":"2016-12-31T19:43:20","date_gmt":"2016-12-31T19:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.science.loriz.ca\/antarctica\/?p=29"},"modified":"2016-12-31T19:43:58","modified_gmt":"2016-12-31T19:43:58","slug":"29","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.science.loriz.ca\/antarctica\/2016\/12\/31\/29\/","title":{"rendered":"Prepping for the journey: medical evaluations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Antarctica is a dream destination for many. But travelling to such a remote location also comes with its risks. You are closer to people in outer space (space station is ~250 miles away) than you are from civilization. Sure, Antarctica may be a continent, but is does not have the amenities of the rest of the world. There may be\u00a0two ATMs on the continent<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0a three bed hospital\u00a0but that is all at one station, on one side of the continent. Just to give you context, I am travelling to the Princess Elisabeth Station, which is 2000 miles from McMurdo Station across the continent. McMurdo is closer to the station where I am travelling to than Cape Town, South Africa (2700 miles away). Due to the remote nature of the station, one\u2019s medical condition needs to be thoroughly evaluated before going to Antarctica. If something medically goes wrong while we are at the station, we are seven to ten days away from evacuation. Some of this depends on the weather conditions. Some depends on where the few planes are located.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So what goes into a medical evaluation for travelling to Antarctica? That depends a lot on who you are travelling with. Thirty countries operate research stations<\/a> on the continent. The two of the biggest research programs on Antarctica (British Antarctic Survey<\/a>\u00a0and United States Antarctic Program<\/a>)\u00a0have very prescribed medical testing that participants must pass. Each participant has a medical assessment that is reviewed on a case by case basis depending on the individual,\u00a0the destination and the length of the deployment. If you are curious, you can read more about the British Antarctic Survey medical clearance information\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

For travelling to the Belgian station, both myself and Steffi has to undergo a similar evaluation. They wanted to make sure we were healthy enough to minimize the risks of a medical emergency when we are so far away from civilization. This testing included an amazing number of blood tests (e.g. CBC, Hep A, Hep B, Hep C, HIV, other indicators such as renal and hepatic function and endocrine system), an ophthalmology report, complete dental exam and treadmill stress test. Also because we are travelling to the station via South Africa, we had to prove that my vaccinations were up to date (Hep A, Hep B, measles mumps rubella and polio).<\/p>\n

As a female participant, you also need to prove that you are not pregnant two weeks before you departure. I have to say that going to the doctor\u2019s office for a pregnancy test earlier this week was quite the experience. The doctor and nurses tried to access my emotional state depending on the test results (e.g. would I be excited to be pregnant? Was I trying to get pregnant?). Since I knew I was not pregnant and I wanted the results to be negative, I was an odd patient. Once I peed in the cup, I went back to my exam room to wait for the results. When the nurse came back to the room, she came in and said \u201cCongratulations, you are pregnant!\u201d Then she quickly added \u201cJust kidding!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 We all had a good laugh!<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the medical examination component of the trip was very time consuming and also made you realize how lucky you are to be in good health!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Antarctica is a dream destination for many. But travelling to such a remote location also comes with its risks. You are closer to people in outer space (space station is ~250 miles away) than you are from civilization. Sure, Antarctica may be a continent, but is does not have the amenities of the rest of… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s8gMFS-29","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":210,"url":"http:\/\/www.science.loriz.ca\/antarctica\/2017\/01\/26\/life-is-everywhere-even-in-the-driest-places\/","url_meta":{"origin":29,"position":0},"title":"Life is everywhere, even in the driest places","author":"Lori Ziolkowski","date":"January 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Humans need water to live, so do any other organisms on this planet, even the tiniest microbes. Therefore one would expect the least to find life in very dry places. In order to find out what the limits are here in Antarctica, we went to a so called \u201cdry valley\u201d.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.science.loriz.ca\/antarctica\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Green-band-endolith.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.science.loriz.ca\/antarctica\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Green-band-endolith.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.science.loriz.ca\/antarctica\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Green-band-endolith.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.science.loriz.ca\/antarctica\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Green-band-endolith.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.science.loriz.ca\/antarctica\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Green-band-endolith.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.science.loriz.ca\/antarctica\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Green-band-endolith.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":140,"url":"http:\/\/www.science.loriz.ca\/antarctica\/2017\/01\/12\/and-so-it-begins\/","url_meta":{"origin":29,"position":1},"title":"And so it begins\u2026 -Dr. Steffi Lutz","author":"Lori Ziolkowski","date":"January 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\"It feels like it was only yesterday that Lori asked me to join her on her adventure and today I am about to get on the plane to Antarctica. Having been to the cold north several times but never to the south, I didn\u2019t hesitate to say YES! I am\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14,"url":"http:\/\/www.science.loriz.ca\/antarctica\/2016\/12\/28\/why-go-to-antarctica\/","url_meta":{"origin":29,"position":2},"title":"Why go to Antarctica?","author":"Lori Ziolkowski","date":"December 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Growing up, there were many warm summer nights when I laid in the grass and looked at the stars in the night sky. 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