As a mandatory part of the visa application process, one must make an appointment with the panel physician to make sure everything is OK in the physical department. I somewhat expected this to be no more than a simple check on vaccinations and get the ones that I’m lacking. I couldn’t be more wrong. My medical took place last week(October 28) and here’s what happened.
I left for Amsterdam at around 9, my appointment was at 11 so that turned out to be plenty of time, and arrived half an hour early. The doctor’s office seems to be an old house, which you could tell by the fact that the small reception-ish area had a sink and looked remarkably like a kitchen. Made the place look somewhat charming, really. After filling out some forms and handing over my passport and vaccination records I had to wait for a while for my turn to come up.
When it did, I joined the good doctor in his office. To start out with, he took some of my blood. I’ve never had my blood taken before, so it was quite the interesting experience. It didn’t hurt, but it looked kind of funny to see my blood flowing into the little tube. Next he asked me to take my shirt off, so he could take my blood pressure and pulse, followed by my height and weight. Then he gave me a booster DKTP(Dyphteria, Kinkhoest(Pertussis), Tetanus and Polio) shot, because it was over 10 years since I had that one last.
To finish things up he tested my eyes by making me read letters off one of those old-fashioned charts and then we sat down to go over my medical history(I’ve never really had anything serious, so that was done pretty quickly). After some advice about my weight he sent me on my way to pay(145 for the medical, 35 for the shot) and off I went to get my lung x-ray. This took, at the most, 10 minutes. Pretty much got in, took my shirt off, had the picture taken, put my shirt on, paid for the thing and left. I imagine it’s how it feels to visit a cheap hooker.