The Foreign Service Journal, October 2016

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2016 27 could be done to treat it, and no one could be certain just how much long-term damage my lungs were enduring. With a Lot of Help from My Friends Some days I could only manage four hours in the office, and most evenings I was too exhausted to be the engaged mother I used to be. Friends and colleagues sent over cooked dinners and visited to make sure I wasn’t completely alone. My direct supervisor was highly supportive and my staff went to great lengths to ensure that we continued moving forward on our programs and initiatives. But it became increasingly clear that continuing to live in Jakarta was no longer a viable option. So I began to look for an exit strategy, despite the personal and professional disappointment that came along with that. Because the 2015-2016 school year had already started, I looked for ways to plan an orderly departure for the following May, thinking I could survive on meds and sick leave until then and post could find a replacement while we were still in the normal assignment cycle. While my career development officer had never encountered a situation like mine, he was immensely helpful and did everything he could to support my shortening the length of my tour. Yet despite having Embassy Jakarta’s support, we could not find a way to pull off a curtailment within the system. It seemed that only emergency departures from post, either as a compas- sionate curtailment or a medical one, were possible, which meant leaving within 30 to 90 days. By this time, my daughter had moved on to college, but I was increasingly concerned about the impact of a midyear transfer on my son. Despite how hard it would be for me, the best option was to transfer him to join his father at his post. The Human Resources Bureau initially didn’t want to move him frommy orders to his father’s until I had already been curtailed from post. But that would have required our son to return to the United States with me, and then be added to his father’s orders, only to transfer back to another Asian city. Finally, after more than a month, HR figured out how to do a direct transfer for my son from Jakarta to his father’s post. During all this time, I survived on three to four nebulizer treatments daily to be able to function at the most basic level. Concurrently, we applied to the international school at my son’s new post and arranged for his visa. Once all this was in place, the regional medical officer asked the department to downgrade my medical clearance, and I curtailed from post. Next I received a waiver extending the number of home leave days I could take to 45 so I could recover in the fresh, clean air in Kansas and Colorado. Friends and family were aghast at the sounds and fluids coming frommy lungs, but after about three weeks, I was able to take long walks. I have now been off my medication for several months, and I can run again, even though it is followed by intense coughing as my lungs continue to heal. Professionally, I’m very happy to have landed in a great office at State with interesting work. My son is now living with his father and has adjusted well to his new school. Technology has been great for keeping in contact with my son on the other side of the world, and I’m looking forward to an extended summer visit. But every day I miss the opportunity to be a part of his daily life and watch him grow up. His absence is, by far, the hardest part of all of this. Lingering Questions While everything seems to have worked out in the end, the whole experience was more traumatic than necessary. First, it shouldn’t have been such a struggle for me to get the help I needed to make a dire situation tolerable for me, my family and the post. It quickly became clear that the embassy medical unit was severely constrained in what it could do for me in Jakarta. Since I returned to the United States this spring, MED has offered me neither support nor screenings, nor information on what happens to me next. And as I prepare to bid next summer, I have no idea what posts to avoid because of high pollution levels. I still have no idea what the true extent of the damage to my lungs is, although I’m currently seeing a local pulmonologist who is running lots of tests. While I’ve heard that a State working group exists for people like me, I don’t know how or whether MED is tracking cases like mine to determine how pollution affects the health of Foreign Service employees and their fami- lies living overseas. At the very least, additional flexibility within the Human Resources Bureau would lessen the impact on families who need to make arrangements in cases like mine. n While everything seems to have worked out in the end, the whole experience was more traumatic than necessary.