Let's Just Say That I've Never Had a Medical Like That Before

We slept pretty great last night compared to our first night in St Petersburg in June. We woke this morning around 7:30 and showered then walked to Starbucks for coffee.

At 9:30am our driver arrived and carried us and one other couple from NC to the "hospital" where we had our medical exams. We arrived about 10am. There was a lot of sitting around and shuffling from floor to floor. The first thing we did was have our blood draw. I volunteered to go first. I've honestly had much worse "sticks" in the US. My nurse was very gentle, and she only collected 2 vials of blood since we each had already been tested for HIV, Hepatitis A, B and C, and Syphyllis back in the US.

Next we went to the Psychiatrist who asked about our childhoods and how depressed we are. We were asked multiple times if we had any head traumas. We answered an emphatic NO to all. We saw a neurologist next who followed our eye gazes and checked our reflexes. Next was the oncologist who basically only did a breast and lymph node exam. Thankfully it was a female doc, but there were three other females in the room at the time as well...I am not sure of their roles. Then we went to the "therapist". This person took our blood pressure. Next came the dermatologist. She declared that we looked healthy enough so there was no need for us to undress - I wish that would "fly" in the US. After that was the Pulmonologist who examined the chest x-rays that we brought with us. They were not that happy that the results were not in Russian already but they accepted the x-rays anyway. We were asked many questions about exposure to tuberculosis and whether or not we had symptoms of TB. Since we brought all of our lab results from the US, the Infectious Diseases doctor did not wish to see us but signed off on us anyway.

All in all, it really wasn't too bad except that we left the hotel at 9:30am and did not arrive back here until 3:30pm from our appointment. It could have been so much worse though, and I am thankful that it is over.

Since JC and I had checked out of the hotel this morning, we have had 5 hours to waste before our driver arrives to take us to the train station for our overnight train. The weather was absolutely beautiful here today: low 70s, sunny and breezy. We decided to walk back to the Red Square since there were a few more things that I wanted to buy for Emma. It is much further than our first hotel. It took about 40 minutes to walk there. It wasn't bad because of the weather, but we really want to take Emma there when we return, and I am not sure how the weather will be in three weeks. On the way back we stopped and ate at McDonalds. Again, these have to be the busiest McDonalds in the world. It is unbelievable. They have about 25 registers open with a constant line at each.

We have made it back to the hotel lobby where we will meet our driver in an hour. We are anxious to get to St Pete, but I am not expecting to get much rest on this train tonight. We arrive there at 5:53am tomorrow. I am not sure what we will do if we are unable to check in right away.

I will post hopefully tomorrow night once we are settled. So far so good here in Russia.

One more day down...now court to go. Wish me luck!