Medical appointments before moving abroad
Well, you would think we were moving to a place where medical care wasn’t readily available, rather than to the UK, if you saw all the medical appointments we have been getting done before our departure. Our thinking has been to get back in to see the providers that we know and get “tuned up” before we leave, and also use our current health insurance which will cover us for another month. After that we will have a new company that we don’t know much about (Aetna Global) and we will be obtaining services in a country where utilizing private health insurance is not the norm. So – we have both gotten our annual physicals, seen the dentist, had eye exams and got new glasses while we still have some coverages towards glasses, and had our repeat colonoscopies (the fun part!). I had a repeat bone density scan (hasn’t gotten any worse, which is good news!) and got my Shingles vaccine.
I had to go through a big rigamarole to get the Shingles vaccine. Although at age 56 I am considered eligible to get it, my pharmacy, which normally would be the one to reconstitute and administer the vaccine, follows a different set of guidelines and will only do it for those age 60 and over. I had to pay for it up front at my doctor’s office, and then they ordered it and administered it, and I am hoping my health insurance company will reimburse me. After the lab person administered the vaccine, she tells me “You know this is a live vaccine and it can give you chickenpox don’t you?” Ah no — weren’t they supposed to tell me that prior to that poke!! So I keep dreaming that I am getting chicken pox and then the airlines won’t let me on the plane. Luckily I have been fine except for an itchy rash at the injection site for a couple of days.
I have also been scanning important medical records (such as vaccine records) because of going paperless as much as possible before we head to the UK.
