Body Check

To work in China, you need to get a workers Visa. To get a workers Visa, you need to have a physical check. From my experience this morning, I now see how communism works.

We were taken to the International Healthcare Center, a facility run by the Chinese government, for, what they call, a body check. We were told that we could not eat before the appointment. Upon entering, you provided a copy of your passport, your original passport, and 3 pictures of yourself (specific pose and size required). You filled out forms about yourself, your job in China, and your medical history; and, you were given a number. Oh yes. You pay $100. We sat in a waiting room full of expats. There were people from all over the world in this room, all ages. Also, families there with little children. The room was crowded, standing room only and everybody watched a screen and waiting for your number to show.

When your number appeared on the screen, you went into a little room with 2 ladies, each at opposite sides of a table, each on computers, typing very quickly. They took your picture, asked you to sign a bunch of documents, and said some stuff in Chinese that I didn't understand. They sent you to the next room. In the next room, you get weighed, measured, and then given a robe (which was designed for a 6 ft tall, 200 lb man). You had to take everything off above the waist and put the robe on over your pants. You are sent to the next room. Here, an aggressive woman says, "sit." I sit. She says, "give me your left arm." I give her my right (I'm a little slow...). She said, "No! Left!" and grabs my left arm, puts it on a pillow, and aggressively starts rubbing it with iodine. Next thing I know, she's drawing my blood. I felt like I was in an episode of Lost and I was a scientific experiment. When she finishes she says, "You done. Next room." From there, I go to the following rooms: Chest X-Ray, Eye Exam, EKG, Ultrasound of my belly, and finally a body check. You have to realize that this is a short hallway full of rooms on the left and right with chairs aligned on either side of the hall. Dozens of people are filing in and out of each room, one after the other... every seat in the hallway is taken by someone waiting to go into the next room. All of us crazy enough to agree to work in China. In the body check, she takes my blood pressure, and then asks me to lay down on the table. She aggressively opens my huge robe (which was wrapped around me twice so the aggressive unwrapping became an entanglement of my arms, the robe, and her hands), and as I lay there exposed on the table, she pokes and prods my body, listens to my heart, and then asks, " You have operation?" I say no because I didnt want to get into any of my medical history if I dont have to. She says, "No? Why scar?" Oh crap. She can see the scar on my neck from my parathyroid surgery. Oh yea, I said, surgery when I baby (I find that using broken English helps them understand me better). And boy did that open a can of worms. For the next 15 minutes, I tried explaining to a women who doesnt speak English what a parathyroidectomy was. I used English, I tried sign language, I tried finding it for her on the internet... and then, I ended up finding a Chinese-English dictionary, looked it up for her, and she read the translation. She was not letting me leave that office until she knew what kind of surgery I had.

And an hour later, and $100 lighter, we put our clothes back on and head back to the office. Another long day at work ahead.

Overall, I found this process quite invasive, aggressive, and a little unsettling. I am not used to this kind of entitlement taken to my body.

As I was leaving, I heard what I think was a Swedish man arguing with the blood-drawing lady. He was saying that he did not want his blood drawn. That he is healthy and that they have no right to take his blood. He said that he did not know that this was part of the process to work in China. Obviously the people who work at the center were inflexible. I then heard him on the phone with what I think was his supervisor at work. He was very unhappy with the process.

As I left, I thought, wow, how far am I really willing to go to work in China? how much of myself am I will to give over....? At what point is it too much...?

I also thought, long live democracy, privacy, and HIPAA!