Sydney Medical Examination Appt.

[Sas323 0]

Hey guys,

My situation is that we have received packet 3 and the only thing holding us back from sending it back to the consulate is the Medical Examination appointment. Once i have one i believe i can put the date of the appointment & "PP to send results to consulate" on the checklist.

I have rang the George St Medical Centre to schedule and appointment, and they took down some information about me & my case number, and then said they would get back to me about getting an appointment?

Its been a week and I haven't heard from them, so I don't even have an appointment yet - I'm just sitting in an open ended waiting period...just starting to get a little worried about waiting forever and them forgetting about me.

Just curious as to wether this is normal procedure? just for peace of mind sake. I have called and enquired since and they just keep telling me they will call.

Guess were getting anxious about all this never ending waiting!

Also regarding Vaccinations, I have had shots when i was very young and a few throughout school, but I'm really not sure which ones or even if I have any record of them around - Will this be ok when I do attend my interview?

thanks for any quick responses!

[KPea 0]

Hey guys,

My situation is that we have received packet 3 and the only thing holding us back from sending it back to the consulate is the Medical Examination appointment. Once i have one i believe i can put the date of the appointment & "PP to send results to consulate" on the checklist.

I have rang the George St Medical Centre to schedule and appointment, and they took down some information about me & my case number, and then said they would get back to me about getting an appointment?

Its been a week and I haven't heard from them, so I don't even have an appointment yet - I'm just sitting in an open ended waiting period...just starting to get a little worried about waiting forever and them forgetting about me.

Just curious as to wether this is normal procedure? just for peace of mind sake. I have called and enquired since and they just keep telling me they will call.

Guess were getting anxious about all this never ending waiting!

Also regarding Vaccinations, I have had shots when i was very young and a few throughout school, but I'm really not sure which ones or even if I have any record of them around - Will this be ok when I do attend my interview?

thanks for any quick responses!

Hey,

I had my medical done less than two weeks ago. What do they say when you call them to follow up? I had called end of December for an appointment, and they had one available for the first week of January (about two weeks later!) They took down my case number, email etc over the phone, then sent me an email within the same day, to which I had to reply to with some more details to confirm the appointment. If you haven't got an appointment after a week of calling, you might have been overlooked, keep trying! One time I tried calling to schedule an appointment and the lady on the phone said they only take appointments over the phone between 9am-3pm...

As for the vaccinations, if you are under a certain age (I assume you are probably around my age -- 20s?) you only need to be concerned about 3 vaccinations/immunities:

1. dTap - diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough)

2. MMR - measles, mumps, rubella

3. varicella (chicken pox)

My mum had kept the records of all the vaccinations I'd had in school including these 2 shots: dTap and MMR, however they were from over ten years ago.

I went to my local GP to test for immunity to chicken pox as I have no record of varicella vaccine or chicken pox. The doctor also tested my immunities to the other 2 mentioned above as after 10 years, its effect fade and you need a booster.

So I ended up getting a blood test at the local GP and when I went to get my results, I had a record printed that said I was immune to chicken pox, and I got the other two vaccinations boosters done (and making sure I had them print a record for me).

Its much cheaper to get your vaccinations and/or blood test for immunities at your local GP as that is covered by Medicare, and George St Medical Centre, NOTHING is covered by Medicare.

So at the local GP, blood test for immunities was free, dTap only cost about $36, and MMR is actually free (you need to get two shots for this).

I took these records to Dr Waks and showed them to him and he just ticked them on the vaccinations list that he sends back to the US Consulate. Easy.

Hope that wasn't too confusing!

[Sas323 0]

This is everything that I needed to hear.

Thank you so much for all your help!

I'll follow up with a call today and contact my GP about those vaccinations.

Thanks again, your a gem!

[dodgyJim73 6]

Yep. Get a full blood test for all immunisations at your local GP. Also get a blood test for Syphilis as they need this as well and it saves you doing it (and paying for it) on the day.

You may need to get Hep A and B injections but let Dr.Waks call that one. I didn't because I'm 40 so if you're in your 20's you may need it. Also, If you take any drugs you should stop now and make sure there's a few weeks between when you stopped and the medical because the urine test will pick them up and then you have another set of problems.

I would definitely follow KPea's advice and call them back pronto. When I called they took my details and called me back after a couple of hours to book in.

[Sas323 0]

Thanks everyone

Had my medical today and heeded all the advice - went smoothly and results are on route to the Consulate.