the doctors visit

Just came back from my medical examination / vaccination appointment. Whatever I expected from the heavy word " Medical Examination" - it is actually not that bad.

The main purpose of this requirement for immigration seems to be to determine whether I bring any contagious diseases into the country (Never mind that I live here already for almost 5 months). So the actual examination is minimal, the main thing is the testing for antibodies for all kinds of nasty diseases and the following vaccinations. The matter of expense is 275$ for the examination by the way. At least for me it was, I don't know if it is a standard fee or if every doctor has his own price. Here the procedures in chronological order:
1. The doctor looks at you. Are there any ugly looking skin rashes? Does she / he looks sick in general? Any gangrene (medical for pestering wounds)?
2. Then he tests your reflexes with the little hammer (I apparently don't have any?!)
3. The listening to your heart with the stethoskope (through the clothes).
4. Pressing on your lower back to see if you have any pain there.

Then comes the fun part for anyone who hates needles:
5. A substance is injected under your skin - that is the test for tuberculosis. When I go back there on thursday and that skinpatch is red - no good. If not, I don't have tuberculosis.
6. A vial of blood is drawn from your vein. That would be for the HIV-test.

Up to here it is probably the same procedure for everybody. Now the doctor looks at your records for vaccinations you had in the past, if you have any.
So here is a tip: If you come from an orderly country such as Germany, where they record everything, get your vaccination records from your doctors, ideally in an "International" format, meaning it is translated into english. (Otherwise you have to translate the whole thing BEFORE you go to the doctor). If you don't have those records, here is the list of vaccinations which you can expect:
1. Tetanus (80$), probably in three steps with a couple of weeks inbetween.
2. Measles/Rubella/Mumps (90$). If you had all three diseases as a kid, they can do a bloodtest instead to see if you have antibodies. But that would be 100$ and in worst case you have to get the shots then anyway.
3. Then if you are over 50 and it is flu-season - the flu-shots.

In my case and since I come from an orderly country, it turned out that I got pretty much any possible voaccination when I was little (Hell, they started poking me with needles when I was a day old! Good thing I don't remember this), so the only shot missing is the mumps-shot. I had that as a child, I remember that just too well. So I decided to have the bloodtest for the antibodies in that case (testing just for mumps is 15$).

On thursday I will be back in the doctors office to see if I have a) HIV or not b) tuberculosis or not c) mumps antibodies or not and d) to get my INS-form I-693 if all tests turned out to be satisfactory.

I forgot to mention how to find a doctor, because of course you can't just go to any medical place. Only INS-approved doctors are allowed to officially examine you. Use this link: https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=offices.type&OfficeLocator.office_type=CIV and type in your zipcode or you can call their service center: 1-800-375-5283 and do the same over the telephone.

Will she find out she secretly had tuberculosis the last years? Will she get medically approved? Stay tuned for the next update on thursday.