So before Hannah and I can go to Immigration we have to get some things done at the hospital first. Easy stuff, height, weight, hearing test, eye test (one of the basic ones, not in depth or anything), minor dental thing (just looking at our teeth), blood work (to make sure we're not diseased), pee test (to make sure we're not on drugs), and a chest x-ray (no freaking idea). We decided to go on Friday, but that didn't work because that's when the guy was coming to fix Hannah's water heater, so we changed it to Monday.
Mr. Lee told Lori to take us to this one hospital near our apartments. We went there, Hannah and I had forgotten our passports so we had to run back to the apartments to get them, then go back to the small hospital. Then they told us that they couldn't do what we needed done there, we had to go to a bigger hospital. We still had time before work so we grab a taxi and go to a bigger hospital. But the taxi took us in a big circle like thing because he didn't understand Lori, or was just a *insert swear here* and trying to get the "stupid foreigners" to pay more. Anyway, we get to the bigger hospital and get our height, weight, eye test, hearing test and dental exam. But we didn't have enough time to get the blood and pee tests, and we didn't know about the chest exam thingy, so we decided to finish it on Tuesday (today).
So today Hannah and I went alone to the hospital. While yesterday we found a fair number of people who spoke passable English, today we found very few. And even fewer who knew where we had to go. We got sent in circles a couple of times. Got sent back to the dental exam where we explained we already had it done yesterday to this nice (cute) male nurse (who spoke English and went to UMass Amherst). He sent us back to reception, but while we were waiting for the elevator to go there they called us back because they couldn't find the paperwork and couldn't prove we had gotten the exam done. They told us to call them at the end of the day (we asked Mr. Lee to call for us as we don't speak Korean). Reception sent us to another building/ward thingy. Ended up in a sketchy part of the hospital where there was dim lights, no people, dark offices and no signs (it was creepy and very scary movie-esque). We figured out we were on the wrong floor, went to what we thought was the right one, asked a nurse who didn't speak English (and was also leading a patient who looked kinda beat up, and had half a cup taped to his face for some reason I couldn't figure out), and she had us follow her through this basement level (cue more creepy things, and scary movie feelings) back to where we started. Guessing we had to pay first, or something, we paid and then got sent up to get the blood and pee tests. Neither of us do well with blood tests, Hannah is a bit needle-phobic, and getting blood drawn makes me woozy (I have been known to faint briefly because of it). It was a very interesting process. We got numbers (614 and 615 I think, random memory...), sat in this waiting room like area. Up front is this desk separated into section/cubicle things like sign in desks with numbers over them. When your number comes up, you sit in front of the desk, put your arm up, they tie the tourniquet thingy, stick you, draw the blood, then hand you the pee test cup. It was kinda weird getting blood drawn in front of everyone like that. Hannah had a moment where she had to cover her eyes before her test because she caught sight of the needle a little girl was getting blood drawn with. Picking on Hannah (ponies and rainbows!) aside, I got a little black around the edges of my sight, but all in all relatively good experience.
So we go to school, got there pretty early which was cool because we thought we were going to be late. Hannah got herself a treat for not having too bad a time with the blood drawing thing. I got my students the candy I promised them yesterday. At the end of today Mr. Lee told us that while the hospital had found the records for the dental exams, we didn't get one of the tests we needed. A chest x-ray. No idea why we need it, but we're going to do that tomorrow. It's been one heck of a time trying to get this all done. So much confusion, oy vey. And on top of that, almost all of my classes today were more energetic then normal. I have a sore throat from having to talk over them. I took a lot of points...hopefully they'll behave better tomorrow, if not I might go insane. Not really, I'll figure it out. Especially for those Grade 7s, both Hannah and I have problems with them. Something about that age group...hm....oh well, I'm exhausted and can't think of anything else to write. That's all for now!
~Lyn
Wow, so hospitals and bureaucracy are annoying and confusing no matter what country you're in. Good to know! ^_^ You and Hannah should plot to turn your Grade 7s into minions and then use them to take over the world! BWAHAHAHAHA!
ReplyDeleteI am 99% sure the chest xray is for TB, because it's kind of a scary disease the world over. This is my brief contribution to this blog so far.
ReplyDeleteALSO <3
Ah, yes. I was going to post the same thing. The chest x-ray is probably for TB. I've had the little skin-prick thing, but they enjoy doing more drastic stuff to aliens. Swee Kee had to get a chest x-ray to get a green card (or was it for work?). It actually showed a tubercle. That's a sign of past infection; the body walls off the bacteria and it's visible because of scar tissue and calcification, I think. It was latent, but if she was weakened in the future it could become active, so she started taking the medication. She stopped that on becoming pregnant, then forgot about it for years. Years later she had another x-ray for something different and it was gone. That kind of thing doesn't disappear so actually they'd just misread in the x-ray a turn in a vein (or button?) or something.
ReplyDeleteMichael