daktc

Filipina ( 24 )

American ( 58 )

Age Difference 34 years and we been Married for 3years

and going strong!

Both of us are 30. We were gradeschool classmates

hi!

just wondering how the medical exam of your fiance went? hope it was okay:)

Hi, Ed and Sue. Thank you so much for your concern. Yes, my fiance had his exam at St. Luke's last Wed, April 30. Everything went along smoothly and he passed all exams, or so it seemed, since they never told him otherwise. They told him to come back Friday, May 2, since May 1 was a national holiday. He was surprised since only then was he told that they need to do 3 sputum exams since they found scars on his x-ray. Shouldn't this be something that they tell him on the first day of exam? Anyway, they told him to come back this Wed., Thurs, and Friday for the sputum exam. They also told him that even if these are negative, he will have to do a culture exam that takes another 8 weeks for the result to come out. This is really quite frustrating for us since it used to be that "scars" on x-rays were considered Class B-2 and got medical clearance until about August 2007 when the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) came up with stricter TB guidelines.

Shakira, if I may ask, when did you arrive in the US? Reason I'm asking is because I want to see how strict immigration really is even for those with inactive TBs after the new CDC regulations went into effect.

As for us, I will speak to the attending physician after my fiance's first sputum exam on Wed. I have gathered the questions below, and I hope that these might be of some help for thos undergoing the same troubling process. I'm quite concerned and hope that St. Luke's will not abuse its discretion and medical expertise and offer "extra treatments" that go above and beyond the limitations of the new CDC guidelines.

When talking to St. Luke's physician ask:

a. What's the next step? After three negative sputum exam, why wait for culture when Class B-2 used to get medical clearance? What to expect after culture? How long until results are in? Why does it take this long for results to come in?

b. Since this is not active TB, new CDC guideline states for treatment either in the home country or after arriving in the U.S. What are the chances of my fiance getting treatment after arriving in the US? What are the benefits of getting treated at home? What would the hassle be in getting treatment in the US? Will there be a lot of hassle at the port of entry (POE)?

c. How will they let USEM know about the change of interview? Since my fiance will not show up for his interview on May 12, will we have to call in the toll-free number and let them know that St. Luke's will be rescheduling interview?

d. The K-1 approval will expire on June 28, 2008. How can we be assured that USEM will auto-extend this K-1 petition so we won't get any hassle at the POE?

e. What are the costs for treatment and how long will it take?

f. My fiance lives in Cebu, so it will take time to secure plane ticket for next medical appointment at St. Luke's. When will you let him know about the next scheduled appointment, and how much time from that notice will he have for the actual appointment?

Same goes for the interview date itself. I am now planning to come home to make sure everything goes smoothly. Upon medical clearance, will you please give us a reasonable amount of time for me to purchase my tickets?

g. How will this medical finding impact our interview and his chance of immigrating to the U.S. at a reasonable time?

h. Is there anything else we can do on our end to make sure this process will move along smoothly?

Other than this, I am comforted by a very nice prayer one VJ'er posted not too long ago:

DON'T RUN AHEAD OF GOD

LET HIM DIRECT YOUR STEPS

HE HAS PLANS AND HE HAS TIME

GOD'S CLOCK IS NEVER TOO EARLY

AND HE IS NEVER TOO LATE

IT ALWAYS STRIKES ON TIME.

I hope you all are well, and please let us know if you've successfully gone through this experience!

Thank you, and God bless!

yes call robbie at delbros 3392761 loc 104, to confirm over the fon that they got your payment, do so until robbie confirmed that they have your payment ok.

then fax a clear scanned copy of the receipt and write your case category, case number, interview date, name, contact number and address, to delbros 3392756 and to usem 3012591

then again call delbros 3392761 loc 104 and usem 3012000 7 loc 5184 or 5195 followed by # key, and confirm if they got your fax.

next week, keep calling delbros if they informed usem about your payment, and keep on calling to ask if they sent the transmittal of your documents to be verified to nso already, keep on calling until they give u an exact monday date.

pls do this to make sure that ur documents are verified before ur interview date to avoid "white slip" or so called AR. hope this info helps thanks

keep the faith-loterly

Oh my gosh, this is SO helpful! Thank you so much for posting these numbers and step-by-step instruction on how to make sure verification is on time. Our interview is on May 12, so hope we have enough time to pester Delbros to make sure it does the job we paid it to do! God bless, and good luck to everyone.

I think it's just all right to check no in your DS156 form because your fiance was not aware of his "illness" and was not diagnosed by a doctor at that time but by a health center nurse. Since he completed the 6 month treatment for pulmonary TB and his xray showed scarring, it is safe to assume that your fiance is indeed non-infectious. However, St. Luke's will still do their standard chest xray and there's a high probability that the "scarring" will show in his xray, so be prepared that your fiance might have to do the sputum test. But also keep in mind that "reading" an xray is subjective and it depends on the radiologist. What might be a "spot" to one might just be a "speck" to another.

Regarding milk, i haven't read any scientific basis on that. There's no harm in trying at least you'll be getting your daily dose of calcium

Maraming salamat for your advice, input, and encouragement! We hope everything will go smoothly as planned. As for mlik, you're right, it does a body good, and he drinks it daily (probably part of the reason he's so tall) He hasn't been told by the doctor not to stop drinking it or etc.

Wishing everyone else good luck!

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if you can help us out with something here requiring TB medical exam. My fiance is set for a consular interview on May 12, 2008. We completed the necessary DS forms, including completing the DS-156 form online last Friday, April 18. Regarding the question asking if he's ever had communicable disease, etc., we checked no since he's never been diagnosed with any communicable disease. In the middle of gathering paperworks for the St. Luke medical exam (that he's planning to take next week) he decided to do a complete routine check-up on April 22. His chest x-ray showed some scarring indicative of past TB. In fact, the doctor said this was likely an old TB that is not active or contageous. He has never been diagnosed with TB by a doctor, but he did remember going to the health center a long time ago for free medicine regarding prolonged cough and flu-like symptom. After chasing old medical records in one health center to another, he finally found his complete medical history of TB pulmonary from start to finish. The current health center doctor signed a certificate stating that my fiance was diagnosed last May 2000 of pulmonary TB and was cured of it in Nov. 2000 after taking prescribed medecine. However, my fiance was not diagnosed by a doctor (only a health center nurse) who failed to tell him that what he had was pulmonary TB.

My question is two-fold: What will happen to him during the St. Luke's interview? Pursuant to the new 2007 TB Clinical Instruction, will he be most likely placed in the category of TB Class B-1, in which the U.S. embassy needs to be alerted, and with a clearnce of 3 months? Secondly, we are very concerned with the answer we gave to the DS-156 question asking if my fiance has had a communicable disease (active TB being one of it), and what if the consul accuses us of misrepresentation (lying about this)? We honestly did not know he had TB in the past since the health center worker who diagnosed him was not a doctor (a nurse) and failed to tell him his complete illness. Also, he has had several medical exams after being cured from TB (rigorous merchant marine training, athletic qualification--he's a basketball player) and not one of them had alerted him to this fact.

Please help us if you have any advice!

Thank you!

Hi thanks for the replies, since posting Ive recieved my interview date later this month. to answer the first reply

No further tests were done during the panel medical , just a recommendation that the chest radiograph showed scarring that COULD be suggestive of TB non active , and possibly old, but on examination there were no collaborating symptoms to suggest TB , classification was based solely on the chest radiograph and the forms marked Class B2 non active tb with recommendation of future follow up to verify. Bit at the panel stage no further action was necessary. So no further tests wre done or askd for no skin test or anything else which would have proved futile anyway as Ive had a BCG in my youth so it would read positive anyways. So again thanks for replying and I'll find out what givs later on this month.

Hello!

My fiance is in a similar situation as yours. A routine chest x-ray showed some scarring but he was never diagnosed with TB. He did have BCG vaccine when he was younger, and past sputum exams (most recent one this week) showed no evidence of actual TB. His consular interview in Manila is May 12, and he is going to St. Lukes on April 29 (bringing his sputum result and chest x-ray). My question is, how did the panel physician's finding affect your consular interview? I hope that you had your visa granted and that all went well!

Please share with us your experience regarding this particular issue, and please let us know if we need to prepare a waiver just in case. Thank you!