{"id":1205,"date":"2010-12-01T20:08:35","date_gmt":"2010-12-01T12:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/?p=1205"},"modified":"2010-12-01T20:27:20","modified_gmt":"2010-12-01T12:27:20","slug":"1205","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/?p=1205","title":{"rendered":"Another medical experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another medical experience<\/p>\n

Soon after my trip to Beijing in mid November I came down with a respiratory infection.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was enough to slow me down and cause a problem but not to be a worry as I didn\u2019t have a fever.\u00a0 I tried all of my remedies from home with minimal benefit.\u00a0 After almost a week and looking at needing to take more time off work I asked one of the students to take me to a doctor.<\/p>\n

We went to the college clinic which was a bit of an experience.\u00a0 The doctor sat at a bare desk in a fairly bare large room which had another such desk at the other end.\u00a0 The room included a bare metal examination bed.\u00a0 The student described the history and symptoms and my chest was checked.\u00a0 While we were waiting for the thermometer to cook 2 students entered and were attended to by the same doctor in record time.<\/p>\n

The doctor decided I was not sick enough for a drip, which is what the students always seem to have, but then they often talk of having a fever.\u00a0 I was offered an injection which included an antibiotic and an antiviral.\u00a0 At that stage I was so sick of being unwell I would have agreed to almost anything and I thought it was a one off.<\/p>\n

We went to the cashier, produced the prescription and paid.\u00a0 The next door window was the dispensary where 2 syringes and multiple vials were dispensed.\u00a0 I also got a small bottle of tiny black pills and I was to take 50 three times a day. \u00a0It was then time to head for the treatment room where a nurse in fluffy slippers injected me and retained the medications for later that night.\u00a0 By that time I did feel better and knew that I\u2019d make it to class the following day.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The little black pills<\/p>\n

As instructed, I returned the following morning for a review.\u00a0 I was not considered well enough so it was all repeated.\u00a0 The nurse was not going to be on duty that evening so I got to take my vials and syringe home.\u00a0 I returned for review the following morning to see a different doctor as the original one, a kindly elderly man was off duty.\u00a0\u00a0 Although improved I was still far from well and the next one wanted to do a blood test and after some discussion I agreed,\u00a0 paid and was conducted to another room used as a lab.\u00a0 Blood analysis was done from a finger prick with immediate results and as expected was abnormal. The doctor then suggested a drip.\u00a0 After some discussion and consultation with his superior he then recommended referral to a local hospital.\u00a0 By this time an audience had collected waiting for their turn to see the doctor.\u00a0 Being as curious as I was unwell I agreed to the referral and the long suffering student required for interpreting duty called a necessary person to make arrangements. \u00a0Fortunately the student had finished classes and had already passed the upcoming national English exam which most others are studying for.\u00a0 She is preparing for a university entrance exam next year and hasn\u2019t yet found her impetus to study so I didn\u2019t feel too bad about taking her time.\u00a0\u00a0 Plus having to talk with me would improve her English.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Syringe and vials<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The college clinic’s cashier’s window on the left and the dispensary on the right<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lab\u00a0at the clinic<\/p>\n

That afternoon a car with driver, a teacher and the student conducted me to a local hospital where I registered for attention.\u00a0 The counter had a couple of eye glasses tied to it.\u00a0 I have seen them in a bank too.\u00a0 Some people don\u2019t have reading glasses.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Glasses attached to registration\/cashier desk at the hospital<\/p>\n

We went upstairs where we entered room containing 2 desks back to back and multiple people one of whom was a doctor.\u00a0 She checked my chest and temperature.\u00a0 She prescribed several tests and we went and paid.\u00a0 I then had an odd sort of X ray which as I had expected was clear.\u00a0 \u00a0The blood test was still abnormal and was repeated for greater analysis.\u00a0 It too was done from a finger prick. \u00a0In Australia it is done from blood drawn from a vein.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lab at the hospital<\/p>\n

We returned to the doctor who offered a drip or tablets.\u00a0 Given that it never seems to be one but multiple drips I declined.\u00a0 Everything had progressed very smoothly and without any waiting but I had no desire to repeat it.\u00a0 I paid for the prescription and we went to the dispensary.\u00a0 \u00a0Initially two bottles of cough medicine and a box of nose drops were produced.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t believe I needed either and declined them.\u00a0\u00a0 The whole prescription had to be filled or nothing.\u00a0 The student then had to return to the doctor who rewrote the prescription.\u00a0 It was then back to the cashier where I had my original money refunded.\u00a0 I\u00a0 paid extra for the new prescription as additional packets of tablets had been added.\u00a0 The medications were very expensive, around A$70.\u00a0 Up until then the cost including tests and medications at the college clinic had been minor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The teacher told me that the doctor was a good one because she had prescribed expensive medication.\u00a0 I\u2019ve read that doctors get kickbacks from prescriptions.\u00a0 I\u2019ll never know the real answer.\u00a0 I have heard that many people cannot afford medical care.\u00a0 The teacher said that insurance is available.\u00a0 Not everyone can afford it.\u00a0 My Chinese insurance which is provided by the college has an extremely high excess as does my Australian insurance so I cannot claim.\u00a0 About a month ago I was out with a student when an elderly couple begged for money for medical costs for a family member.\u00a0\u00a0 An elderly man was begging in the train queue on Sunday.\u00a0 He had metal bars extending from one arm.\u00a0 On Thursday an ex-student told me of one of the first year students who had had to give up college to take care of her father, a farmer, who had become ill and to use money saved for college for his medical care.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been taking my tablets and by Saturday I felt that all I had was a minor cold.\u00a0\u00a0 The Chinese mantra is to drink more hot water.\u00a0 It is the cure-all for everything.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how many million times I\u2019ve been given that advice, especially since I became unwell.\u00a0 I don\u2019t take hot water to class as I\u2019ve dropped and broken two hot water\/tea containers and choose not to buy a replacement.\u00a0 I\u2019m known to take a bottle of room temperature water when I leave my flat.\u00a0 That is not considered suitable.\u00a0 It should be hot. \u00a0I\u2019d bet from the Chinese perspective that I\u2019m considered not to be helping myself recover by drinking unapproved water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another medical experience Soon after my trip to Beijing in mid November I came down with a respiratory infection.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was enough to slow me down and cause a problem but not to be a worry as I didn\u2019t have a fever.\u00a0 I tried all of my remedies from home with minimal benefit.\u00a0 After almost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[9,15,30],"class_list":["post-1205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china","tag-china","tag-culture","tag-medicine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1205"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1207,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions\/1207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kerry.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}