Thanks for lesson 24!

This week I got a sinus infection and since my face felt like I had been beaten with a stick, I went to the university clinic. Luckily, the lesson we had just finished studying was a dialogue of going to the doctor. So I knew the words for fever, body temperature, thermometer, pills, coughing, cough up phlegm, yellow, blood test, blood test results, injection/IV, and a few others. For the most part I understood the doctor, and I think she understood me because the end result was what I wanted -- antibiotics.

It was also good that I had been to a Chinese hospital many years ago so I knew that I'd have to go to several different windows to collect little pieces of paper to then present to other people to get stuff done. The office visit cost me a whopping 2.5 yuan ($0.20). I also knew that even if other people were in the exam room, should go right in because otherwise every Chinese person would cut me in line. Sure enough, they tried, but I held tough and managed to keep my place. I would feel more awkward if I understood what the other patient, seated right next to me, elbows almost touching, was being seen for but none of it made any sense to me. When sitting down I noticed the ultrasound was of a uterus and ovaries. The six other people in the room surely understood what was going on.

The favorite method of administering medicine in China is via the IV. A little bit odd, I thought, but evident by the several rooms full of people who would come and get an IV every day with me. I went through a course of IVs that cleared up the infection in three days. Before getting an IV, I made sure they used new stuff and threw away the old -- don't trust anything in China. I am going to restock my self-medication supply of antibiotics. A box of 20 cipro tablets is only $2.50 and no prescription is needed! My present supply is 11 year old.