Krankenhaus Waldfriede
I’ve just finished two days of doctors appointments to complete my health screening for the State Department. The embassy recommended the 7th Day Adventist hospital south of Berlin, so that is where I went to find “one-stop shopping” for all of the tests I needed (who knew 7th Day Adventists were in Germany!) Between my German and a bit of charades, the appointments were fine. And I learned lots of new vocab:-) The only bummer was that the nurse had to draw blood twice because she didn’t realize how many different tests had to be run (HELLO, read the forms twice, poke once!)The slight surprise came when the doctor questioned whether I really needed a TB test. He asked if I had been vaccinated against TB. Do we vaccinate against TB in the States? Do you in Germany? Anyway, instead of the “three-poke test” they did a “results in 15 minutes” blood test. That’s a new one to me!
This was the second hospital I have been to in Berlin. I find the hospital experience in Germany a bit strange… since it’s Germany, the land of certifications and regulations, I have the feeling that the doctors and nurses are highly qualified and really know what they are doing. On the other hand, the inside of the buildings are more run-down than US hospitals I’ve been to. This is really more of an observation than a judgment. Pretty waiting rooms with fish aquariums don’t necessarily equal better care in the States.
I have to meet with the Embassy’s doctor in a week or so to go over all the results of the tests, but hopefully I will be “cleared for worldwide assignment” and then it is on to the security background check!
posted by Erin @ 5:02 AM
2 Comments:
And you thought the vocab from the chapter on the doctors in Burkino Faso would never come in handy!! :)
People at work love Burkino Faso and talk about it quite often for some reason. I can't help but get a smile on my face everytime they do.
I remember random stuff about my college and high school German text books all the time. Bird flu has hit Germany, for instance, "auf der Insel Ruegen," which as memory serves was a place we learned about in high school.
Just the other day I was thinking about "Rollstuhl Basketball."
Post a Comment
<< Home