Medical - Basil St Docs

[Jaylen Brit 0]

OK so, as you may know I was stressing big time about getting there on time. My appointment was 11:15am on May 24th (today) and I don't live far from London (15-20 mins on a fast train); but I have this 'thing' about being late..so me and my 10 year old set off early, around 930am.

We actually got to Knightsbridge tube by 10:20am - way too early - but really i just wanted to find Basil Mansions (which isn't #15 Basil street - its a building opposite a hotel about 1/4 of the way down Basil Street).

We found it fairly easily after a quick diversion looking in Harrods food Halls (lol) and went in, early, at about 10:45am.

The Docs offices are on the ground floor, and were clean and neat - the receptionist was friendly and there were a couple of forms to fill in after she took passports, birth certs, medical questionaires and the photos.

I completed and signed my daughter's forms as she's only 10.

We weren't waiting long before they called us thru to be seen by a Doc called 'Rudolf'. He never gave me his surname, and I can't read it on the form, but he had an Aussie accent, tho he said he was South African. We had a little chat about Australia as I used to live there as well. He was really nice, very smiley (but Im quite smiley myself and I think it's catching,lol), and the actual exam was pretty straightforward.

Eye exam, ears checked, heart listened to, BP checked..belly palpitated (plus he had warm hands, always a bonus, most docs have hands they seem to keep in the freezer), height measured, (I haven't shrunk, which was good), and weight taken (56 kilos, I thought I was 60, we laughed over that but I said I wasn't complaining). He did my reflexes in my knees which I wasnt expecting and almost kicked over the lamp (lol), and a breast exam, then he drained about 3 pints (OK maybe not that much) of blood.

For my daughter it was just height, weight,eye test, ears, look in throat, belly palpitation and that was her done.

I had the chest xray after that - all clear apart from old 'proof' from when I had pleurisy as a child - the radiologist said it leaves 'tenting' on the lung and is like 'scar tissue' or 'fingerprint' of that illness. It's not a 'shadow' though and I'm not worried or bothered about it. Nor was he.

By now it was around 11:50am, and we went onto the nurse for vaccination check. My daughter needed Hep B - dammit, I could've got that free at the GP, but I thought it could wait til we got to the States. Apparently not tho; it has to be at least 'started' before you can emigrate - so that was £35 for a shot for her; one of 3 she needs to have within the next 8 months for Hep B.

After that we were done - just the most painful part of the experience - the cost!

£270 ($504) later we were out of there, with copies of the vaccination histories, and back into Harrods food halls

All in all - faster than I thought and a lot more interesting

As a post-script - this morning's post which arrived an hour before we left, brought my packet 4 and an interview date of June 14th - much faster than i was expecting..been an eventful day!

[LenJayUS 0]

:-D

Glad it was relatively pain free, except on your pocketbook.

So... when you flying... June 20th? :-D

[gym 0]

Great info about the medical, i will not be so worried about my son having his now. And CONGRATULATIONS on your interview date and the best of luck to you