Interview delays due to sputum exam

[Elsevier 0]

First of all, I'm glad that after two months of agonizing waiting for my sputum culture results, they turned out negative. Recently, I received my medical clearance from St. Luke's Extension Clinic so they rescheduled me for interview at the embassy next month.

Just a few months ago, after my medical exam, I was asked to go to the laboratory to be told that I have chest x-ray findings that requires me to do sputum smear for 3 consecutive mornings and wait for the culture results after 2 months. I was disappointed that my interview will be delayed but at the same time I wasn't surprised. I had negative smears before and had prophylactic treatment for latent/inactive TB many years ago so I was confident the tests will turn out negative again. There it was, the 3-day smear were all negative and recently, the culture results were negative as well.

The sputum exam was no joke. I live in the province so I had to travel early at dawn so I could arrive at the clinic before 6 am. It was awful to cough out phlegm when I don't have cough nor sore throat. In fairness to the clinic's staff, I haven't encounter any rude treatment from anyone during the course of the medical tests.