Just a bit from me

Just take a deep breath and try to relax before you take the test again. If you think about the questions, they are mostly common sense.

As far as layovers and truck stops are concerned. I would try to park in well lit areas and be aware of your surroundings. Some truck stops have nice TV or movie rooms to kill some time. Most drivers are decent hard working individuals, but there are some jerks.

 

(giggles here) I am 5'3...you will be fine..and I dont use ANY air in my seat...good luck...and be safe..it is a lot more common to see a woman drive nowadays than it was when I started 20 yrs ago...but they still look at me like I am a 2 headed alien sometimes when I am backin up or pull in a parking lot..lol ..when in doubt ,GET OUT AND LOOK...even if its for the 100th TIME...TAKE your time...dont let someone on the c.b sway your common sense...dont let another "push" you down a hill...by that I mean, if someone climbs up your butt going down a grade...dont let them intimidate you and cause you to speed up...stay in your comfort zone...you are behind the wheel and responsible for what happens...stay that way, by not letting others push you...be ready to deal with some who feel women shoud be barefoot and pregnant....(yeah they are still out here) be the best you can be, take pride in yourself and your job...and being a female truck driver and becoming #### good at what you do!!!

 

Here's a quick Blood Pressure tip. Your B/P will be taken by the nurse after you are weighed. Oh, yeah, baby...everybody crosses the scale. Take a deep breath, hold it for a count of five, then ssllllooooowwwwllllyyyyy exhale through pursed lips until your lungs are completely empty. Do this about three times over a period of a couple of minutes. Breathe normally between deeper inhalations. With each deep breath, relax your muscles a little more. When the cuff is on your arm, let the muscles go completely lax. The nurse will be just fine without you holding tension on your arm muscles. Let your belly muscles go lax as well. No reason to try to impress the nurse. She's not interested in you anyway. And besides, when your belly is tense, it places pressure on the aorta and, thereby, increases your B/P.

Doing these maneuvers can decrease your B/P by as much as 10 points.

 

You'll do fine.

Don't drink coffee or smoke cigarettes close to your test. Take you an aspirin the morning of your BP check. It'll lower it a few points.

 

Good job on passing Lilbit! And the B/P things, just do what Injun and Condo said. They both have great ideas that should help you lower it.

 

Make sure that you tell whomever takes your drug test about any prescriptions that you have been on recently. It will cover you in case something shows up in the test.

 

Xanax has a half-life of 11-12 hours. That means that's how long it takes your body to eliminate half of the medication from your blood.

So, let's do the math. (I'm going to use a large number to illustrate this...this is not a reflection on how much Xanax to take. The amount I'm using for this example is enough to kill a herd of elephants.)

Now:.1,000mg
12 hrs: 500mg
24 hrs: 250mg
36 hrs: 125mg
48 hrs: 62.5mg
60 hrs: 31.25mg
72 hrs: 15.625mg
84 hrs: 7.8125mg
96 hrs: 3.91mg
108 hrs: 1.95mg
120 hrs: 1mg

So: Five days after taking a single dose, there is 1/1,000 trace amount in your body. Another five days, one-one millionth....virtually gone. I don't think you'll need to worry about it.

Beside that, FMCSR 40.85 states: "As a laboratory, you must test for the following five drugs or classes of drugs in a DOT drug test. You must not test 'DOT specimens' for any other drugs.
(a) Marijuana metabolites.
(b) Cocaine metabolites.
(c) Amphetamines.
(d) Opiate metabolites.
(e) Phencyclidine (PCP)."

Xanax is in the diazepine family of drugs and is not included in any of the above drug groups.



Don't sweat it. Just don't take any more. If you need help sleeping, get diphenhydramine. (Benadryl)