Flashes of Panic

I am faced with an interesting bureaucratic conundrum. The University Health Services is demanding I complete a form prior to enrollment (which, I am daily reminded, is approaching rapidly.) The box on the form which they note (correctly) is un-checked is the one confirming that I have received a particular series of immunizations.

This is, of course, such a painfully basic set of shots that my parents probably would’ve had some interviews with the State DHS had I not had them by, say, age five. It is highly unlikely that I would’ve been allowed to enroll at my undergraduate institution (or, for that matter, high school,) without these shots. I know I’ve had the shots.

The problem is that I can’t prove it.

I have not visited the doctor who gave me the shots in some ten or a dozen years. I did call his office as a sort of pro forma thing, but they just confirmed that they wouldn’t have kept records that long (where “that long” >= 20 years.) My physician in Amherst didn’t give me the shots, so he doesn’t have record of them. Likewise my doctors in Pennsylvania, who I visited so seldom I didn’t even bother calling to check with them.

So, as I stated above, it seems like a logical impossibility that I would have avoided these shots, but I lack a witness, and that’s what they want.

Sometime soon, possibly tomorrow, I’m going to drop by Health Services in person, and see what we can do. It seems likely that the solution will involve them drawing blood and checking for the antibodies directly.

If I can prove these things to the satisfaction of Health Services, I’ll feel ready to take on the Bursar.