Final Preparations Just Before the Move

Bring medical, dental, optical, vaccination records

Bring medical, dental, optical, vaccination records.

Key medical records include dental records and children's vaccination records. These last, as pointed out above, should be part of your carry-on luggage.

Ask your doctors and dentists to make copies of your records. These are invaluable. My Irish dentist refers to old X-rays for help with diagnosis. My family doctor in Ireland similarly found my early diagnostic tests useful. The kids' vaccination records smoothed out any problems when they entered school. Optical exam records could prove crucial if you have any opthomology problems.

One major vaccination difference between America and Ireland is the way the two countries treat tuberculosis. The U.S. does not regularly vaccinate people for TB. This makes it easier to detect the disease with simple scratch tests. In Ireland, however, a TB vaccination is administered to all children. In the case of our two primary school age children, this vaccination resulted in a huge and painful blister and red swelling that lasted the better part of two months. Besides the pain, another possible problem is that any inoculated person will always test positive in scratch tests for TB. A chest X-ray is needed to positively identify tuberculosis. Despite this, in a country with a huge cattle population (2 cows for every person!) where bovine TB outbreaks occasionally occur, we agree with the authorities that getting the vaccination is the better choice.

Additional topics covered in this section are discussions about arranging health insurance coverage during the move, the key papers to bring, involving the kids, absentee ballots, packing, and the forms and documentation needed.