Medical check up

It was the fourth time I went to the Hospital Sultanah Bahiyah for medical check up in this morning. My friends and I had made a wrong decision to choose this "old hospital" instead of Kedah Medical Centre which could have completed our check up within two days.

We were ordered to fill in the forms beside the counter in the first visit which could be frustrating as we needed to repeat writing our names, IC numbers, home addresses which were the longest and all of us got fed up and started blaming about what we could think of. We peed into two urine containers and got our blood extracted on the same day. I could feel the pain when one of my friend was torturing by a nurse who could hardly find his vein and poked the needle in and out for about 6 times. When we were going for our Mantoux test ( test if we acquire tuberculosis ) , the nurse appointed us to visit the TB department on the next day, therefore I thought the whole process must be complicated and time consuming, but I found myself wrong in the second visit.

The whole Mantoux test ended up within 5 minutes by injecting a small amount of tuberculin beneath our skin that would be swelling for a while after that. I wondered why the nurse ( or medical officer ) wasn't willing to do the same easy-looking task during our first visit. I was shocked when I accidentally saw that there was a bruise at the part where my blood was extracted. My friend told me it was normal.

It was our third visit to Hospital Sultanah Bahiyah to examine whether we did have the possibility to acquire TB by measuring the diameter of induration which was explained that it was due to our natural immune respond towards the bacterial protein. My induration showed 6mm. According to the medical officer ( or nurse ) , those whose induration size exceeds 10mm are in high-risk category. We were then joking with another friend who had his size greater than 10mm by not socialising with him anymore. My bruise was getting more serious.

Today we got our reports for the urinalysis and blood test. However the report for the blood test was not completed. We have to take our next visit, which is the fifth visit, which I didn't expect, to another hospital in order to complete it. Everyone had measured his or her height, weight, blood pressure and sight ability. After that, we headed to the clinics and consulted another medical officer respectively. Actually this was the last step to certify our medical check up forms. Ahah! My bruise can still be seen clearly.

I wonder if there will be the sixth time.