One thing that is frustrating to me is that I can enter the US as a Canadian tourist and stay for up to three months with no problems, but because I am going down to take a class it changes everything. I am going to be in the US for a grand total of ten days. Because I am going to study I have to pay the US Department of Homeland Security $100. That's not Canadian dollars I might add! It really seems rather ridiculous to me that I am paying the same amount to the US government as someone who is going down to do a complete degree. It's ten days for crying out loud!!!
The most recent request I've had from the school is that I provide immunization records that prove that I meet the Texas Department of Health requirements. No Problem! But the very last page of the Health Record form is a tuberculosis risk questionnaire...Question number 1. To the best of your knowledge , have you ever had close contact with anyone who was sick with tuberculosis? No. Question number 2. Were you born in one of the countries listed below? (insert alphabetical list of countries with high rates of tuberculosis that I'm sure includes every country except Canada and the US here.) No. Question number 3. Have you traveled or lived for more than one month in one of the countries listed below? (insert above mentioned list again.) This question got a big fat YES... Shoot! Ukraine, 6 weeks. Estonia, 6 weeks. And Brazil, a grand total of 27 months. If the answer to ANY of the above questions is YES, the ACU Medical Clinic requires that you have a tuberculin skin test to check for latent tuberculosis infection...blah, blah, blah. Ok, so without getting back into the fact that as a tourist I wouldn't need any such test but as a foreign student for ONLY TEN DAYS I do, I went and had a TB skin test (Mantoux test) done today.
How do they test for TB?? I'm glad you asked! The info page they gave me says this: 1. A small amount of liquid containing TB proteins are injected under the skin of your forearm to make a tiny blister. "You're telling me that you're going to inject me with the disease that causes more deaths than any other infectious disease in the world??? Ok, sure just let me just roll up my sleeve!!" 2. A blister will form. "Oh my goodness, my arm has a big swollen white thing where you just stuck me with that disease filled needle!!!!" 3. The blister will go away in a short time. "That's a relief. Why didn't you tell me that before you stuck me and I swelled up like a marshmallow??"
Anyway, I get to back on Thursday for them to "read my arm." They will be looking for and measuring any reaction that I have to determine whether I am infected with tuberculosis. Really why can't they just do a blood test or something?? My common sense tells me that I really shouldn't let anyone inject me with a disease no matter how small of an amount it is. But I guess these are health professionals who know what they are doing...or at least I hope they do!
I've come to the conclusion that I could never be a junkie. I don't like needles in the first place but I would much rather have someone taking liquids out of me than putting them into me. It really gives me the willies! I can't help but look at my forearm and wonder what those little disease proteins are doing in there. I can't decide if the ache that I feel is just a paranoia thing or if it really does hurt. I have a small dark red spot on my arm saying, "look at me, look at me!" and I don't know if it's some kind of reaction or just some bruising. Maybe it's a bit of both, I guess that's the professionals job to decide on Thursday.
Oh and by the way, just because I've posted again doesn't negate my previous post. I still want to know who is reading my blog. I thank those of you who left comments on my last post. I don't think I would call any of you "lurkers" because you have commented in the past. Except maybe Alicia, I'm not sure if I knew that you read this before or not. Either way it is good to know that you all are still reading. For the rest of you lurkers, come forward and show yourselves! :)
8 comments:
I know the feeling. I also had to take said test. The stupid part about it is this. The test could cause you to contract it. Second if you ever get treated for it, you will always test positive on the skin test. Sounds like fun doesn't it? I think they have their priorities messed up. I also had to pay (out of my own pocket) to prove to them that I was in fact telling the truth. The funny part about it is this: If you are American you don't need to take the test.
I don't remember ever taking a TB test. Maybe you're just lucky.
It's funny the order that I read things in sometimes. When I glanced at the poster at the bottom of your entry, I read it as "Prevent Disease. Spread Influenza and Tuberculosis." Then I went back up and read the red text.
I'm an occasional lurker. I don't read very many blogs daily, but I wander around them every once in a while.
I think the TB test is a Texas thing. My mom had to take one to teach pre-school. What can I say, in Texas we're clean and we wanna stay that way. ;) hahaha... joke people. But in my own application to ACU I noticed that I'll have to do a TB test. But I must say that my six months in Brazil was worth a mini shot of a communicable disease. :) Hope you're negative! Who knows what you caught from walking by that dead dog every day, though. ;) hahahahahaha
I had forgotten about that poor dead and decaying dog! I'll blame him if I get a posative result!
Hey Pamela...I was going to lurk forever, but I changed my mind....what a difference a new brain makes!! Kidding..I haven't lurked that long, maybe a couple of weeks. Since Jenn sent me her blog site I started one too and clicked your link...interesting adventures you've had. I think I took a TB test somewhere along the way...the procedure sounded familiar...maybe when I joined the military.
Hey Pamela,
I must admit that I am one of the "lurkers" you refer to...read often, comment seldom. But I do appreciate getting to hear what is going on back home.
That sucks about the TB test. Rules are stupid sometimes (okay, a lot of the times) as we have found out with our experience of being students here in Abilene. And about the SEVIS fee - I'm glad you found out about that before you got to customs. Mike didn't pay his before we arrived at the border, and we were turned back, had to go somewhere with an internet connection and pay it online, print off the receipt and then proceed back to the border crossing. I can't believe that they make you pay it for a block class though. That's ridiculous.
When are you headed this way...we may still be here depending on when this baby decides to be born!
Most of the TB comments on this blog are ridiculous. I feel that people should be educated on the subject they speak of before they spread inacurrate statements masqueraded as fact.
Dear "R"
You'll notice that this post is not meant to be a source of information on TB it is simply an expression of frustration at the hoops I was required to jump through in order to enter the US to take a class. I am not "masquerading inaccurate statements as fact" I am simply venting. I feel that if a person is going to publicly criticize another they should at least be willing to put their name on what they have to say.
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