First, from the Prefecture, you receive a piece of paper that has a date on it with two doctor's offices listed and times that you have been assigned an appointment. Then another piece of paper with a certain number of stamps on it and a dollar amount that you have to pay in order to get the stamps. In my case, 275 euros. Yeah, that's a lot.
The first medical visit was for an x-ray...an x-ray of my lungs. This is necessary to make sure that I don't have some illness (I forgot which one). Anyway, the process to accomplish this is quite interesting. You go to the doctor's office give your piece of paper to the lady at the front desk because it proves who you are and that you are there, then you sit in the waiting room and wait. They call your name and take you back into a room. There, the nurse tells you to "take off everything on top, and wait here" ... yep. So I stand there, with nothing on on top, and wait. Then another nurse comes in and grabs my arms and drags in into another room...very awkward. While speaking French she asks me if I'm pregnant (to which I say "no") and then tells me where to stand. As she smashes me up against the x-ray machine she tells me that I have to take a big breath and hold it whenever she tells me to. She then goes back to her "post" says big breath really loud takes the x-ray and says voila. I go back to my room, dress, and go back to the waiting room to wait for my x-ray. This is what it looked like by-the-way.
Pretty cool huh...you can even see some of my intestines! HeheheNext, I had to take my x-ray to another doctor's office so he could evaluate it. But, I had 15 minutes to walk to an office that was a 30 minute walk away! Luckily, I stopped by the nearest bus stop to check what time the next bus might come and saw it would come in 2 minutes (it really came in 4, but it was ok) I was able to make it to the next office on time. At this office I had to wait much longer. First I was called back by a nurse who weighed me, checked my height, and then my vision, and then made me go back to the waiting room for the doctor. Then the doctor came and began calling patients. When he called me back he asked for my x-ray, took my blood pressure, and listened to my heart. Then he told me my x-ray looked good and that I should find a general practitioner near our house to check my vaccination records.
The next day I went back to the Prefecture, bought the 5 stamps that cost me 275 euros and waited for over two hours to turn in the stamps and doctor's form. When my number was finally called it took me 3 minutes, at the most, in the office, and I was done! Good thing I had my Harry Potter book with me so I wasn't bored and the time flew by. But now all I have to do is wait for the carte de sejour to come in the mail. This should take about a month or more. Why? No one knows. But finally! I'm finished! Now I can live in France with no worries.
On another note, David is in need of another hair cut. See:
Although he really did like this hair-do it needs to be cut again. I cut his hair now :o) And you can ask him, I do a pretty decent job. :o)
1 comment:
Nice Lungs!
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