[Mike & Nicola]

We had our medicals last week and the doctor noted an "irregular" heatbeat for Nic. She said that this could be caused by all manner of things, but most likely caffeine! Nic had drunk about 1 cup of coffee and 4 cups of tea that day. Anyhow the doc said that she needed to get a ECG trace done by her own doctor to investigate whether there was a problem or not, and for that info to be passed back to her before she could complete the medical.

The ECG trace came back normal to our relief today, but I just thought you should all know that prior to all of your medicals - keep the caffeine intake down.

Best of luck everyone.

Mike.

[jo b]

Thanks Mike

God I drink about 4 cups before Dinner time. :eek :eek

My breakfast is 2 cups of tea.

Jo

[Diny]

That's a good bit of advice !!

I had a 'similar' kind of thing when I had my medical done. Not anything to do with an irregular heartbeat, but my blood pressure reading came out as really quite high.

I've never suffered from high BP so I was amazed.

The nurse said that I was to go back into the waiting room and 'calm down' for a while then she would take another reading.

She was right, I'd got stuck on the motorway on my way to the medical and I get very annoyed if I'm late for an appointment, when I got to the right part of Birmingham there were roadworks so I had to take an unmarked detour round some side streets. When I arrived the receptionist I spoke to said that there was no record of my appointment. Worked out she was looking in the wrong place and we were meant to be there. The kids were abit bewildered and so were quite clingy. When it came to giving a 'sample' my youngest son just refused to perform into a polystyrene cup - it took 3 attempts and alot of bribery to get him to do it. The surgery was hot and stuffy and I was sat next to a 'pain in the neck' young couple who were there for their Aussie immigration medicals and they were talking very loudy and making out they were the only ones who had ever done anything and been anywhere (reckon they'll fit in just fine in Oz).

None of these events were major, but put them all together and couple them with the usual worries of 'oh God what if they find something wrong with me' ...... my BP shot up.

I did sit and calm down, BP came down and all was well. I believe the NZIS are really quite strict about BP levels etc so if you can avoid stress aswell as caffine you'll be doing yourself a favour.

Diny

[Karoline]

I'm glad that i will do my medicals in NZ: the "no worries"-culture of the Kiwis will certainly have some effect on my BP :nice1
cheers,
Karoline

[debnjohn]

Excellent advice, Mike & Diny ! We'll bear that in mind when the time comes. We're both caffeine junkies (Deb for coffee & me for tea :oops: ) so thats very useful info.
On the subject of medicals, can anyone please recommend a Panel Doctor (preferably cheap) fairly close to Swindon (Wiltshire)? I see there are some listed in Bath & Bristol.
Cheers,
John.

[Mike & Nicola]

No worries guys. Dont want any of you to unnecessarily go though that mild panic!

Dont know if Maidenhead is too far for you to travel, but the Bridge Clinic was very good - Meds & Xrays all done together £145 per person (not sure if thats cheap in comparison to the rest).

Mike

[debnjohn]

No worries guys. Dont want any of you to unnecessarily go though that mild panic!

Dont know if Maidenhead is too far for you to travel, but the Bridge Clinic was very good - Meds & Xrays all done together £145 per person (not sure if thats cheap in comparison to the rest).

Mike
Thanks Mike.
I'm reliably told that Maidenhead is about an hours drive from home (approx 70 miles down the M4), so it sounds a good option, as long as we don't hit it at rush hour.
£145 sounds very reasonable (compared to other figures I've seen posted)
Could I just ask approx. how long does the process take? There will be 4 of us, myself, Deb & 2 teenage boys.
Thanks very much,
John.

[Danpoll]

ive just spat out cup of tea number 8 of today while reading this post, ooops


Dan

[Rimbo]

Owd on,
I'm sat here on about my second bottle of wine just chillin' :cool
Your all worried about cups of tea and stuff. My medical is tomorrow at 10:52 in Brum :eek
now.... the reason i'm chillin is cos i just know i'm gonna faint with all them needles un all. Will i pass after passing 2 bottles of Suuth Africaaaan plonk??? :uhoh and have a blood alky count of god knows what. :booby

better go to bed.

John

[Moorf]

Might be good if you could have at least a little blood in your alcohol stream.... :laugh

[Annierobrigado]

LOL guys, you had me chuckling for a bit. 4cups, 6 cups, 8 cups caffeine? moorf is right about your circulatory system having alcohol instead of blood; but at least it's pure, huh?

diny and nic are right. Don't binge the day before your medicals or you'll surely fail the test! and anything nowadays that's not in the normal range will make doctors suspicious, and they'll turn into their defensive medical mode...

remember to BREATHE...Slowly...relax...zzzzz
john, better go to bed now.

after you pass your medicals then you can binge on your alkys and cadburys and flat whites and bubblys and south african wines and blueberry cheesecakes etc...

:laugh
annie

[Mike & Nicola]

The process isnt that long if you can coordinate having the xrays immediately before/after your medicals. We had about a 30min wait between the 2 because they were the only slots left. But basically the x-rays take about 10mins each and the medicals 30mins. You'll be looking at 3hrs in total at a guess.

Mike.

[Rimbo]

I didn't faint or puke during the medical YAY! :clap

I got back about an hour ago and nipped into tesco to buy a feast of cooked chicken. The counter is out of order so i've had to do with a marmite butty.
:(
Oh and upon opening the font door, i found my Police search has come back. And i'm clean! :mrgreen:

Now, all i need is an offer of employment.

John

[markkellaway]

We had our medicals yesterday in Birmingham. All in all it seemed a pretty straightforward process and the staff at the clinic were very nice. We still have some uncertainty because they have requested further information on historical stuff from our doctor. The doctor doing the medical said he didn't think there would be any problem, I think he just wanted to make sure that NZIS had all the information there without having to ask for it.

When we got there Andrew, 10, was so desperate for the loo he had to go. He then had to drink 3 cups of water so he could provide a urine sample!!!

Hoping now that everything will be OK. :hopeso :hopeso :hopeso :hopeso :hopeso :hopeso


Mark. :P