The Slovak Doctor Visit

(Actual Date: August 24)


Today Maria took us to the Slovak doctor to get them to say that we are not carrying any communicable disease and we are healthy enough to live here…at least that’s what I think we went for. We were not supposed to eat or drink anything, so I was really glad we got there pretty early, because this girl loves her breakfast. The first stop was a very nice and bright and clean office, similar to a Public Health place where you might go to get vaccinations for tropical adventures or just updated shots. The plan was to see the doctor, pee in a cup, and give blood. The problem was I had not had anything to eat or drink, and was pretty dehydrated.

I saw the doctor first and she asked for my weight and height…She was a bit upset that I couldn’t convert it into kilograms and centimeters, but she just put down the pounds and inches instead. (Melissa was able to convert this for her using her handy Slovak phone.) It was a little weird to me that they didn’t want to weigh me or measure me themselves. (Note: if American doctors would do this, the overweight problem might disappear. “And how much do you want to weigh today?”)

I waited while the doctor saw Melissa, and then they wanted to take my blood. Apparently, I was out of free blood. I’ve never had to fast before giving blood before, so I’ve always had plenty. But not today. They tried the right arm first, and found a vein, but only drops were coming out. Then they tried the left and couldn’t get anything. I was sent out to drink as much water as possible. By this time I was pretty light-headed, and really wanted to eat, but tried to fill up on water instead. I think I probably drank about a gallon of water, then they made me try again. This time they went for the top of my hand, pushed the blood down my arm, and used a suction-type needle, like you would to inject your meat before barbequing, but not quite so big. They managed to get 5cc and called it good. I ate a banana and some dried fruit I had with me for breakfast to help with the light-headedness. I had finally had enough water that I could pee in the cup, and we were off to location number two.

We had to have chest x-rays done at the hospital. If you can imagine a creepy psycho ward, you would be pretty close to the hall we were in. It was the x-ray/ sonogram/ultrasound hallway, and I really hope the rest of the hospital wasn’t like that. The one major difference from America: no paper gowns. Just strip down and walk into the x-ray room. There was a changing room, and you were the only one in there with the x-ray tech, but it was still pretty weird. I think this part was worse than the blood part, just because it was awkward. It actually went very quickly though, and then we were finished. Melissa and I made it back to school about 11:30, after stopping to have something to eat at a restaurant near the school.

We spent the rest of the day doing school stuff and came home for the evening.