London Medical - Knightsbridge Doctors

[Jeannie & Al 18]

So, my medical is tomorrow morning. AGHHHH! I'm so anxious. My chest has been a bit wheezy (I think due to hayfever) so I'm worried something will be on the x-ray. I don't think I have a chest infection as I actually had flu at the end of June and was on a strong course of amoxicillin afterward and haven't been ill since, but bleh. Got to be up at 4am to get on a coach.

:'(

I'm with LAS - I think you'll be okay. I remember my fiance having to get up a similar time to get from Wales to London..are you in England? Good luck with everything - can't wait to read your post tomorrow saying it was smooth sailing! Good luck!!

[QueenOfBlades 224]

Thanks guys. Really nervous. Just want to get it out of the way now.

[Kiwinyc 62]

Thanks guys. Really nervous. Just want to get it out of the way now.

Don't be nervous about the medical, there's really nothing to worry about, its very standard.

We had ours this morning, me and my two children (10 & 7), I had told them what to expect and we were all together for the dr's exam part of it, and they waited by themselves a couple of times while I had the additional chest x-ray and immunization review. Everything was run very efficiently, there was barely any waiting from arriving and filling out the initial form(s) through each step of the visit. Everything was working fine too, x-ray machine and credit card terminal, as there were reports that the former wasn't working last week and the latter earlier this week.

I had a couple of jabs because I couldn't prove I'd already had MMR (last time was for grad school in the US) and a diptheria + tetanus booster which is required ever 10 yrs and I decided just to get those over and done with so they'd be put on the official vaccination record you use later for AOS. They give you copies of that form for you to keep and use once you're in the US and the original goes to the Embassy.

The most painful part is paying for it all. £523 in my case.

[B&L 19]

Medical was today! Not much to say that hasn't already been reported. Man doing the x-rays was nice and friendly, everything was working and there weren't any issues. Was in and out fairly quickly with little waiting.

Now to just wait until Friday to see if I hear anything, as other people have said, no news is good news.

Next step here we come!

[Azsara 110]

I'm with LAS - I think you'll be okay. I remember my fiance having to get up a similar time to get from Wales to London..are you in England? Good luck with everything - can't wait to read your post tomorrow saying it was smooth sailing! Good luck!!

Im also travelling up from Wales for my medical! Its a long old bus journey thats for sure lol

Thanks guys. Really nervous. Just want to get it out of the way now.

You will be fantasic xx

[Jeannie & Al 18]

Im also travelling up from Wales for my medical! Its a long old bus journey thats for sure lol

Yup - but I know he said it's so much more economical than the train..odd that the UK train system is not very good considering how good it is in the rest of Europe. you're getting close to your medical too!! yay!

kiwi and B & L - glad the medical went smoothly for you guys. nice that the x-ray machine was fixed!!

[Azsara 110]

Yup - but I know he said it's so much more economical than the train..odd that the UK train system is not very good considering how good it is in the rest of Europe. you're getting close to your medical too!! yay!

kiwi and B & L - glad the medical went smoothly for you guys. nice that the x-ray machine was fixed!!

The train company in the UK is juust way over priced! Tuesday here i come!

[Azsara 110]

Dying to know how Queens medical went!

[Anna Grant 169]

Dying to know how Queens medical went!

Same here - I know she was going by coach but I would hope she would be home by now.

[Azsara 110]

Same here - I know she was going by coach but I would hope she would be home by now.

I know right, i messaged her fiance too, no reply

[Jeannie & Al 18]

The train company in the UK is juust way over priced! Tuesday here i come!

that's what he said..and you have to book it in advance...here in NJ, you just hope on the train to get to NYC with no notice.

I know right, i messaged her fiance too, no reply

hopefully she'll log in and give her update soon!! maybe she's celebrating somewhere.

[rjm_cmyk 75]

I do have one problem though (apart from not being able to edit my own message) and that is the tdap.

I only got my full vaccination print out on Friday and only scanned it . This morning sitting in the coffee bar like you do I notice that that the sodding tdap looked damn well like tentanus diptheria and polio. I questioned this with the doctor and said - no that's all find "the nurse has signed off your vaccination record and you're good to go". We even looked through reference guides to have a look at the different vaccines and the doctor stated that pertussis was age related.

Soooo - given that I'm pretty damn sure it should be pertussis and not polio - anyone know what this is going to mean ? I could ring up tomorrow and say HANG ON and try and see if I can come in for another jab as it's only £37 or wait and see......

Yayyy - got my vaccination worksheet back today and TDAP is ticked and even states "next due in 10 years"......

Edited August 8, 2013 by rjm_cmyk

[QueenOfBlades 224]

Hey guys!

So today went well as far as I can tell. The worst part was the waiting and the nerves before any of it actually happened. We got to Marble Arch on the coach about 8.30am (my medical wasn't until 10.50am and it's about a 10 minute walk away.. oops) so we just messed around for a bit and went to some Italian deli/coffee place on the corner of the big road connecting to Marylebone lane. Fratellis? Something like that. I had a bottle of coke and was so nervous that I kept squealing at my fiance and singing along loudly to Madonna - Like a Prayer that was on in the place to try to distract myself.

About 10am, we walk up Marylebone Lane and see 4 Bentinck Mews on the corner. It's like a big building full of flats with a locked door. We walked up the steps and I'm pulling on the door like "How do I open it? D=" before noticing a buzzer on the right hand side and pressed the one saying "Flat 4 - Knightsbridge Doctors". One you go in, it's the door literally on the right. Got to reception and the blonde lady receptionist was like "You're a bit early - do you want to come back later or do you want to hand your paperwork in now and wait?" and we decided to just wait the 50 minutes. She then said "Ok, can you pass me your paperwork, everything we ask for on the phone" and I handed it all over. Passport photo, passport, police certificate, questionnaire, doctor letter, vaccination records. She then hands me a board with another form on and asks me to fill it in. DS-2054 or something. It's an official US form that asks pretty much the same questions as the Knightsbridge questionnaire. Was a bit confusing, as the top says "Past Medical History" but then has a note underneath saying conditions that will require medication after settlement or something. I asked at the main desk and they said just do it for my medical history same as the other one. Some of the questions are worded a bit differently. For example the Knightsbridge one says "Have you ever used tobacco" and I said yes, and the USCIS one says "Do you have a history of tobacco use" to which I put no. I've used it before, but a handful of times and am not a smoker. So we fill this form in and hand it back to reception, and we wait for what seems like ages.

They finally call me in 20 minutes late or so, at 11.10am. People have been coming in and out all morning and kept getting called in, going back to waiting room, going back in again. I expected to have to do the same but I didn't. One dude even got sent away because his mom hadn't brought the right paper work for him. Some jolly photographer chap took me into a back room and gave me a grey robe to change into and there was a little curtain that you can pull round to change, and he had to give me an elastic band because I needed to tie my hair up. I then walked in front of this big plate thing and he put some thing under my chin to rest it on and said told me to take a deep breath when he asked. I didn't have to take my robe off for it. The X-Ray came up on the screen and he told me to keep the robe on and he would take me into a second waiting room, where the doctor would call me in.

I spoke to some nice lady in the second waiting room who was also waiting. I had to hold my coat/bra/top etc. I even suggested VisaJourney to her for useful information and she said she'd check it out. She was emigrating on a family visa and everyone else was already in the US. Eventually, a woman doctor called me in, she had brown hair in a pony tail and I guess she was in her 40s. She was very friendly and shook my hand, I shook hers and said it was nice to meet her. She led me into the room and asked me to sit down, then began looking at my forms. First off she saw my doctor's note regarding my depression, and said "Thank you for bringing this, it's saved us both a lot of time and hassle". She asked me some very basic questions. Where did I self harm, confirmed that the only medication I take is the contraceptive pill. She said "I have to ask these questions to everyone", then asked have I ever been arrested/cautioned, ever abused drugs or alcohol etc. She then asked me to stand up and do a visual exam, and cover one eye at a time and read different lines of a chart. She then got her light magnifying thingy and looked in my eyes far away and then close up, then inside both my ears.

She asked me to take my jeans and socks off and get on the medical bed, and she was chatting and very friendly through all of it, asking why I'm going to America and about my fiance and how we met. I said on a video game website, and she goes "Which one?" and I said Resident Evil, and she said she's a bit addicted to the Hobbit video game and it's a bit like Age of Empires, and I'm like I LOVE AGE OF EMPIRES! I PLAYED IT THE OTHER DAY! Lol XD. We were just casually chatting for a while, while she did what she had to do. During this, she'd felt my lymph nodes, my legs, squeezed my feet and did this funny scrapy thing on both soles of my feet that tickled, and was hitting me lightly with this rubber hammer thing testing all my reflexes which felt funny. She then asked me to drop the top part of my robe and she used a stethoscope and placed it at 4 points on my back asking me to breathe in and out deeply, and then lay back (boobs still out) and did the same thing for the front. She asked my age again and then said at 22, she doesn't think I require a breast exam. She then apologised and asked me to lower my knickers XD and said she's sorry she has to do it and she put some gloves on, then checked my bits. The last thing she did was take some blood from my right arm. I asked if it mattered for the blood test if I took an anti-allergy pill this morning, she said it doesn't, they only take it to test for syphilis, and that taking an anti-allergy pill in this weather was a good idea. She chatted a lot about my fiance and me.

She asked me to get dressed and I sat back down again and popped the robe in the dirty laundry basket for her. She asked if I remember what pills I took when I overdosed and I said I don't know, then asked how old I was when I had depression. I said 14-16 and she rolled her eyes and said "the age most people get that sort of thing then". She then said, in a more casual way, it's probably because of that why I got treated so quick/well when I had a brief, mild bout last year. I said I agree, I recognized the symptoms and that low feeling, and went straight to my doctor who treated it and I've been fine since. Then she was writing notes down and said "I'd hardly call that a major mental illness, it's a shame they make such a big fuss over it" and she said a lot of people can get that sort of thing. She told me everything seems normal and wished me luck with the rest of the process. I asked her if my vaccinations are all good for AOS, and she looked at them briefly again and said yes, they seem to be. She led me out to reception, where I paid (235 quid.. ouch), they gave me my stuff back - my passport, original doctor letter, police certificate and DS-3025. The receptionist told me to call them if I need anything, and if any abnormalities come up in the blood work or chest x-ray, they will contact me within 2 working days so if I don't hear anything by Monday, assume everything is ok. So fingers crossed my chest x-ray is fine.

All in all, the waiting was by far the worst bit and once I'd been called in, it actually wasn't too bad at all. Sorry for the huge post, I just wanted to list everything that happened in detail so people who go after me know what to expect a bit more.

My only question is this; on the DS-3025, she marked it as "vaccinations incomplete" and then ticked the box on about a waiver because it isn't medically appropriate. The only one she didn't tick was flu and put "not flu season" on it. Varicella is marked "Varicella History", DTP is "every 10 years" and my last was 2005, and everything else is all good. Is this good for AOS?

Edited August 8, 2013 by QueenOfBlades

[lost_at_sea 995]

My only question is this; on the DS-3025, she marked it as "vaccinations incomplete" and then ticked the box on about a waiver because it isn't medically appropriate. The only one she didn't tick was flu and put "not flu season" on it. Varicella is marked "Varicella History", DTP is "every 10 years" and my last was 2005, and everything else is all good. Is this good for AOS?

Hooray! Good job. That all sounds great.

Don't worry about the "vaccination incomplete" thing. I actually asked the nurse there about it when I was there. Basically, everyone should end up with that box ticked because your vaccinations will NEVER be complete because you'll always need that 10 year booster of tetanus.

That sounds totally fine for AOS (they've marked it appropriately to show you don't need a flu jab and had chickenpox). Yay!

[QueenOfBlades 224]

Hooray! Good job. That all sounds great.

Don't worry about the "vaccination incomplete" thing. I actually asked the nurse there about it when I was there. Basically, everyone should end up with that box ticked because your vaccinations will NEVER be complete because you'll always need that 10 year booster of tetanus.

That sounds totally fine for AOS (they've marked it appropriately to show you don't need a flu jab and had chickenpox). Yay!

Awesome, thank you . I just hope I don't get anything show up on the chest x-ray. That's one of the other things I was worried about, so fingers crossed.

Oh and I forgot to mention, because we were bored after the medical, we decided to walk down to Grosvenor Square and scope out the US Embassy. Police with machine guns and everything outside. One building for Americans and one for visa services. I thought it'd be this huge building with American stuff everywhere, but we couldn't tell it was the US one till we got right up close and saw "United States of America" on that symbol on the gate. When we walked back towards Oxford Street, we even saw the famous "Goulds Pharmacy" where we can store all our ####### when we go for the interview XD.