The Medical Visit

I had my medical visit today and aside from feeling like an actor in one of those 1950's proganda films it was a relatively painless experience. I had an 8:30AM appointment and arrived 15 minutes early along with 20 or so others and I actually ran into an assistant that I met at orientation the first week of October. When they finally opened the doors to let us in I showed the woman at the front desk my appointment slip and my passport. I then proceeded into a room labeled "Medical". I waited about 5 minutes before my name was called by some official looking technician person. He asked me a whole bunch of questions such as "do you wear glasses", "do you wear any medical devices" and "are you pregnant". Mind you he could have asked me if I was from mars because all of the questions were in French and my French hasn't improved much in the month that I have been here.

After answering the initial set of questions correctly I was told to wait again in a different section of the medical room. I was then escorted to a different room where I was given an eye exam, weighed and had my height measured. The eye exam was a little difficult because the woman administering the exam had managed to fully cover the letters with her fingers thus preventing me from reading them. After all of that it was time for some x-ray fun. I was escorted to a private room where I was instructed to read the instructions posted on the door. So I had to remove all clothes from the waist up and all jewelry and wait for the xray technician to come get me. Within a minute it was my turn to have my xray taken. I've heard horror stories about how they don't provide a gown and how's your completely naked when you take your xray but it really wasn't that bad at all. I was exposed for all of 15 seconds if that.

After that I waited a bit longer and I was seen by another official looking technician/doctor type guy. He asked me a bunch of questions, took my blood pressure which is perfect by the way, and then listened to my lungs. And within an hour I was sent on my merry way with my Autorisation Provisoire de Travail and my Certificat de Controle Medical. Which basically means that I passed with flying colors and I can stay and work in France.

All in all the paperwork and administrative process has been pretty easy and straightforward for me and I'm about 80% finished. I hope I didn't just jinx myself.