Its Not the Chinese Experience Until You've Experienced the Chinese Hospital

For those of you who know me, or at least know me well, you are familiar with the fact that I can survive for abnormally long periods of time on very little sleep. Three hours is generally my goal during the average school semester, and 5 or 6 does just fine during the summer, so why, you may ask did I fall asleep at 10:30pm Saturday February 12, and not open my eyes again until nearly 6pm the next day? That's over 20 hours of knocked out exhaustion, but alas I still don't have the answer to that question. Even so, one would think that after such a deep sleep all physical ailments might be abated; however, that night I was in for a rude awakening. As I got out of bed, I was flooded with dizziness and a strong migraine-like headache. The slightest noise was yelling, and the dimmest glow was a floodlight. I quickly went back to my bed for refuge, but was left with little comfort as I was given the ruthless onset of a 102 degree fever. Not my best of days. My roommates noticed something was up and called my head teacher to come over and check me out, which she did of course, and soon thereafter there was a taxi ready to take us both to the hospital. That first hospital visit still remains a bit of a blur. I was so crippled by my acute sensations that basically the whole time I was there my eyes were closed and my head was between my knees. The doctor asked my Chinese coordinator (and therefore translator) a few questions, took my temperature, listened to my breathing, had a quick look in my throat, and before I knew it I was out the door with a prescription for five different medicines to pick up at the counter. I don't exactly know what he used for the basis of his diagnosis, but I will give Communist medicine this much - they certainly are speedy and cheap. I was in and out of there within 30min, I had my drugs in hand with the appropriate doses, there was virtually no paper work to fill out, and the whole thing only cost 60 quai...less than 50 jiao for the doctors' visit and the other 59.50 quai for the prescriptions. The pills weren't so bad either, but the throat medicine is akin to what you might call the pure taste of evil. Gag reflex doesn't really cut it at that point. They do give you a little straw for it, which is kind of cute...I suppose if I didn't have to drink 4 little bottles a day, I might even go so far as to say I like it. I take that back. The stuff is wretched.

            Anyway, the next day I slept a bunch more, and drank as much liquid as I could in my awakened hours, but things weren't better - sadly, they were worse. And because I'd like to keep the six followers I have now, I leave the rest of those little details to your imagination. This of course, meant another special visit to the hospital this morning, but because all of my fellow teachers were at school, it also meant I was going unaccompanied. Our coordinator (Candice) called me up around 7:30 or 8 and told me that she'd called someone to come pick me up, so there was going to be a silver Cadillac in my parking garage in 15 minutes and I was supposed to be ready by then (Note: If it's not a luxury car, it's not a car in China). Obediently enough, I groggily changed into the warmest clothes I currently posses and took the elevator down to the garage level. I'm not sure what I was expecting by her description, but somehow when I actually got there it seemed much more menacing and action-movie-esque than anticipated. Perhaps it was the way the driver slowly rolled down the tinted window to the passenger door, and in a deep voice grunted the Chinese version of "Get In." Regardless, I got in the car, and he sped away. The whole thing was against my better judgement I guess you could say. I mean, I was sick, I really just wanted to go home, and yet there I was in a speeding seat belt-less vehicle with a man I'd never met before. Smart. Anyway, so we're driving around town, and I trust he knows where I'm supposed to be going because I certainly don't, when he stops. I look around not having any idea where I am, and he tells me to get out. Great. Thank you. It's not freezing or raining or anything. With all the gumption left in me, I get out and head towards the stairs hoping that I might find Candice somewhere nearby. Thankfully, however, I suppose my pathetic, frail damsel in distress look struck the right chord in his heart because he made a quick phone call, and then made me get back in his car. A little later we wound up at the hospital and a few minutes after that I was greeted my Candice’s' warming hello.

       So now it was time for round two of Chinese Hospital Expose, and this time I was alert and ready for it. The place isn't quite as bad as I'd been told by other people in the past. It was mostly just sterile looking - white walls, cute little white nurses outfits with white caps, white face masks etc etc. The doctors don’t really have their own rooms; they're more like their own separate cubicles or something. As I looked around to take it all in and yet continue to remain upright, I saw a team of doctors casually stroll a woman covered in blood in on a stretcher. That was a strange sight to see. I've never been so close to someone so injured before. I got to see her face - the details - the pain, and yet no one seemed like they were in a rush about anything. As I thought back on all of the doctor shows I've seen in my lifetime, I realized it was nothing like it. The place wasn't ER or HOUSE or Grey's Anatomy. It wasn't an awful place by any stretch of the imagination, and I don't mean to be the voice of condemnation; there were simply just things that required getting used to. There are things you just take for granted in Western Hospitals like heating, smoking prohibitions, or public refuse prohibitions. I wasn't horrified by it, just sort of awed. It is bizarre to see something you think is a universal order become so quickly a matter of simple cultural preference.

    I mean, not everything about Western Hospitals is preferable. Everyone in America complains about waiting and waiting and filling out paper work and waiting some more, but here that is just not an issue. I have no idea why since Zhongshan itself has a population just over 2,000,000 - you would think it would be crowded, and yet, there was no line between me and my doctor. Patients just go in as they please - from what it seemed they don't even have to sign in because they each have a copy of their own health records which they personally bring to the physician. Just like the last visit, this visit was short and sweet. There was a little more chatting, some more breath listening, a quick blood pressure test (which was taken over my long sleeve shirt, jacket and coat because when I went to take them off they freaked in protest), a second gander at my uvular area, and then another healthy set of prescriptions. I was informed that I should no longer take

any of the pre-prescribed prescriptions (not to my dismay) but just to take the new three I had been given. Plus, I need to go and get a few "injections" and have some blood work done. Other than that it was done and done. I'd take these Chinese doctors over my Thyroid doctors any day. I mean, I was a little worried about the last part - the idea of an infection from an injection doesn't sit well in my mind, but 3 hours and 2 IVs later, I came out a much revitalized woman. Apparently dehydration and a parasite will get you every time. Haha.

Love you all, Stay Healthy  -Courtney