No I’m not sick! I had my visa medical yesterday and it didn’t go well. It was a process that lasted almost 2 hours, when really it should have been just 40 minutes. It started with a chest x-ray which was fine – I haven’t managed to get any nasty stuff since my last one 6 months ago. I then went to see a fairly incompetent doctor who I had to instruct on how to fill out the form and what he needed to do. He took my medical history (he wasn’t impressed that I couldn’t remember which of my fingers I fractured when I was nine years old) and tested my ears, eyes, lungs, abdomen and heart. All good.

Then I had to get some blood taken from me so they can do various tests. This took a while as all the nurses wanted to go home and were less than willing. Eventually one nurse offered to do it, however it was a far from pleasant experience. I hate having my blood taken, I can’t stand the thought of it, hence, I’m ashamed to say, I’ve only donated blood once. I’m ok if they just get on with it and I don’t have to look at what’s happening, but unfortunately the nurse seemed hell bent on giving me a running commentary on my veins, switching from arm to arm to locate a good one. Then she stuck the needle in one, but didn’t get any blood out and hit a nerve in the process which was agony, so she went back to my other arm. She found another vein, and this one she got blood out of, but continued with the commentary about veins, blood etc. Then, after only one of the five vials were full, the blood source dried up. The thought of hunting for another vein was too much and I admitted I wasn’t feeling to hot. She laid me down to prevent me fainting and told me that was it - my heart would have sucked all the blood up to it to react to my nearly fainting and she couldn’t get any more blood out of me.

So I’ve got to go back on Monday for more blood syphoning – yikes! I hope I get a different nurse.