Marriage Certificate Apostilation

After 4 attempts by DH and I to submit our marriage certificate for apostilization at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), since the submitting hours are 11am-1pm, it was submitted Friday. We had always been just a few minutes late. DH submitted it and he was given a receipt to pick it up Tuesday between 4-5pm. We received it today. :-)

This took us 1 month and 24 days. The guys at the FRRO said it should be a 15-20 day process. Now, if all goes well we should be going to the MHA in Delhi shortly! :-)

Back door...man

Well, the other day DH got the marriage certificate attested from NRI/Home/Foreigner's office FINALLY!! So, next step is to take it to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), so off he went over to the  office. He gets there and is told he needs to bring a Rs 50 postal order ($1USD), a copy of both of our passports, 2 copies of the ATTESTED marriage certificate and our original marriage certificate (stamped and signed). So he goes to the post office near the office, they don't have the Rs 50 postal order, just Rs 100 and above. So he goes to 3 other post offices and none of them have it, so he asks where he has to go to get it. Well, they tell him the Tollygunge Head Post Office.

**NOTE** DH has dressed messily on purpose for the day...you'll know why later...

So, he goes to the Tollygunge PO and it's closed...well, DH is not to be deterred, since he planned to go back today. So, since the front door is open, he decides to go in the back door, AKA employee enterance. So, he inquires to a man standing there if they sell Rs 50 postal orders, and he says yes, and DH replies, do you have stock? I know you are closed, I am just looking to see if you have stock so I can come back tomorrow. He is told he does not know, but to go talk to the Deputy Post Master, "Didi" (elder sister, term of respect...) who is sitting at a desk a bit away.

DH goes over and approaches her and she looks at him, and she can't figure out if he is an employee or what he is. He asks her if they have stock and she says yes. Then DH inquires what time he can purchase them, to which she says, "10am-330pm..." and scratching her head a bit, she then replies "no, come at 10:30am, nobody will be here at 10am."

So we went today, and got the postal order, and head over to the MEA, and we miss the window to give the documents in today by 20 minutes. DH will have to go tomorrow.

Then we went for lunch, shopping and a movie. :D

Tomorrow, DH has a doctor appointment and hopefully will get in for surgery before the end of the week. Here's to hoping!

Tests, tests and more tests

Hello!

Sorry, for not posting much lately, just to give you an update I have been spending the last few days going back and forth between home and the hospital. DH was hospitalized for severe stomach pain Friday morning. He was diagnosed with a gall bladder stone after having many tests.

According to DH I have not had any horrible experiences with the hospital, but I still found it quite overwhelming.

First off, we went to the ER and the ER was not something I would have imagined this way (I imagined more of the US version) but it was small with a desk in the front and a few doctors just sitting there. The triage rooms were slightly bigger and only given privacy by a curtain (which was not closed). There didn't seem to be the same sense of urgency here, seeing as how the doctor was getting the symptoms and story from DH when he took a phone call in the middle. They had me fill out a form and they gave DH some medicine and then decided they would need to admit him to run some tests. I was sent to the Registration office where I filled out about 4 papers of the same information. Then I was given 2 visiting passes and was shown to where he was. Once I had seen him and visited with him until 1130. (They only allow visitors between 1030-1130am and 5-7pm) I had gone home to get the insurance papers.

I went and got the insurance papers and while I was giving them to the people at the Registration desk I was called by someone in the ward telling me I would need to come up and sign a consent form for one of DH's procedures, (being the one who admitted him I would have to sign all of these, well...the 2 that I had to sign) after signing this paper I was then informed I would have to come back between 1-130pm and be present in the hospital while they were performing the test. So I went home for an hour and ate some toast and then returned to the hospital and sat through the test and then again went home.

I returned at 5pm with my MIL and SIL for visiting hours. We stayed and while we were there he had another test.

Then again I had to sign another consent form before I went home and was to return at 830am for another procedure. I arrived and went to the front desk to ask about the test results from the previous day (since they did not have them earlier when the Dr came to visit) and was told that he had a gall bladder stone.

Then I wanted to talk to the Dr that DH was admitted under because I didn't think that this next test really needed to be performed because they already knew what was wrong. So I spoke to the Dr and he said that he had thought too that it was unnecessary but because of some of the other symptoms he still wanted to perform it.

After the procedure I was informed that the results were fine and there was nothing wrong and that DH would need surgery. DH decided he did not want the surgery at this time, as he wanted a 2nd opinion (but he didn't tell the Dr that...) and so we went back to the ward where I was allowed to stay for a few minutes outside of visiting hours and then was told to wait outside for the next 20 minutes until it was time. At this point I had to alert the Dr on staff that he did not want the surgery and therefore they should be starting the discharge papers.

Really, it was not a bad experience except for the fact that I dislike hospitals that have certain visiting hours. I am hoping that whatever hospital we choose for the surgery has more relaxed visiting hours. :-)