Adventures in the Japanese Hospital System
Yeah, so as you can gather from the post, my weekend was more fun than a barell of monkeys....barring the fact that I hate monkeys, but loved that crappy game with plastic monkeys from the 80`s.
It all began on Friday. I went to Lucky P...a crappy burger chain only here in Hakodate....I hate it, but it`s convenient. Had a burger and some fries, a chololate shake because, well my throat was beginning to hurt a little. Finish that, go back to school, meet some friends, go home and get ready to go to bed....by this time my sore throat was almost full-blown and hurt like a bitch, I knew that it would either go away overnight or get worse. It got worse.
So Saturday comes along...it`s raining...and I mean RAINING. Oh, did I mention that it`s been raining for like the past two months here?? So it`s raining, I can`t talk, can`t eat, can`t sleep can`t drink. I e-mail my friends and thankfully they rose to the occasion. Of I go with Jeannine, an English teacher here in HKDT and a student of hers to a clinic out in the boonies, where the doctor weighs me...( ge thanks), makes me pee in a cup...(again, thank you), asks about my `cycle` and `bowl movements`....what the hell this has to do with my high fever and obviously infected throat....anyway. He takes out....no lie, a flashlight, and looks into my mouth, says...oh, I think you have a common cold...to which I go `really? I`m not so sure`....anyhoo, he says no, cold -out you go with some crap medicine powder shit that tastes like comet....no lie, COMET. So, enough with that. I go home, Jeannine comes over and basically nurses me.I can`s do much of anything, the fever is making my dizzy and quite stupid. Jeannine`s student tells us to go to a bigger hospital on monday.
Well Sunday rolls around and there is fire training at my dorm....don`t ask, just know that my dorm was full of firefighters on Sunday and that the doors were wide open to the cold which pissed me off to no end. Turns out I can`t talk at all. Also swallowing is increasingly difficult.....oh and there is the fact that I`m coughing up yellow goo with blood in it. Oh joy. So Jeannine comes again with another student who also works in a hospital. There apparently is a schedule of what hospital on what day is accepting emergency, etc. So off we go to a big....big hospital. Now we walk into the hospital, and there is no triage system whatsoever. You go up, give your name, sit down and wait. Oh joy, at least this reminded me of Canada. So I finally get called in...after being stared at by everyone in the waiting room, the `doctor` looks at my throat, says oh it`s infected...DUH, then....get this....ASKS me what I`d like to do. What I`d like to do??? WTF? Give me some fucking anitbiotics! Y`know to CURE the infection? GAH. So due to the fact that I hadn`t been eating or drinking, they put in an IV...which hurt...at least the guy didn`t like to me...he didn`t say `ちょうといたい。‘ He said `いたいよ‘ so....to translate...this will hurt a little...he said...oh, this will hurt ok? Yeah no shit sherlock. Also when he went to take the IV out, blood went everywhere...and he wasn`t wearing gloves....eeeeek.
Ok, so IV`s out, arm hurts I get some drugs and then all of the sudden this old woman comes up to me and says `espanole`? WHAT? No....i don`t speak Spanish...I speak English...all of which came out like...gurgle gurgle gurgle. She wanted to know where I came from and all that jazz. The Japanese woman who was with us got really pissed off and told the lady...look her throat hurts, she can`t talk right now ok? Hahahha, thanks Keiko. Oh, but the hospital only gave me enough drugs for one night, and the NEXT day I would have to go to an ear nose and throat doctor at a different hospital...le sigh.
Anyway, at least the drugs from the 2nd place had antibiotics in it and was really helping.
Monday I went to the ear, nose & throat guy at yet another hospital, he said yeah...infected, be careful not to get cold or they will swell up again...oh don`t get cold in Northern Japan in a uni that doesn`t turn on the heat? Yeah I`ll keep that in mind. So I get even more drugs and off I go. It cost me a total of around $30 for two hospitals, I don`t know about the second because they will mail me my bill, and three days to get some f-ing antibiotics for my infected throat. Now I have to take 4 pills after every meal. 12 pills a day...what the fuck?
So that was my weekend, how was yours?
It all began on Friday. I went to Lucky P...a crappy burger chain only here in Hakodate....I hate it, but it`s convenient. Had a burger and some fries, a chololate shake because, well my throat was beginning to hurt a little. Finish that, go back to school, meet some friends, go home and get ready to go to bed....by this time my sore throat was almost full-blown and hurt like a bitch, I knew that it would either go away overnight or get worse. It got worse.
So Saturday comes along...it`s raining...and I mean RAINING. Oh, did I mention that it`s been raining for like the past two months here?? So it`s raining, I can`t talk, can`t eat, can`t sleep can`t drink. I e-mail my friends and thankfully they rose to the occasion. Of I go with Jeannine, an English teacher here in HKDT and a student of hers to a clinic out in the boonies, where the doctor weighs me...( ge thanks), makes me pee in a cup...(again, thank you), asks about my `cycle` and `bowl movements`....what the hell this has to do with my high fever and obviously infected throat....anyway. He takes out....no lie, a flashlight, and looks into my mouth, says...oh, I think you have a common cold...to which I go `really? I`m not so sure`....anyhoo, he says no, cold -out you go with some crap medicine powder shit that tastes like comet....no lie, COMET. So, enough with that. I go home, Jeannine comes over and basically nurses me.I can`s do much of anything, the fever is making my dizzy and quite stupid. Jeannine`s student tells us to go to a bigger hospital on monday.
Well Sunday rolls around and there is fire training at my dorm....don`t ask, just know that my dorm was full of firefighters on Sunday and that the doors were wide open to the cold which pissed me off to no end. Turns out I can`t talk at all. Also swallowing is increasingly difficult.....oh and there is the fact that I`m coughing up yellow goo with blood in it. Oh joy. So Jeannine comes again with another student who also works in a hospital. There apparently is a schedule of what hospital on what day is accepting emergency, etc. So off we go to a big....big hospital. Now we walk into the hospital, and there is no triage system whatsoever. You go up, give your name, sit down and wait. Oh joy, at least this reminded me of Canada. So I finally get called in...after being stared at by everyone in the waiting room, the `doctor` looks at my throat, says oh it`s infected...DUH, then....get this....ASKS me what I`d like to do. What I`d like to do??? WTF? Give me some fucking anitbiotics! Y`know to CURE the infection? GAH. So due to the fact that I hadn`t been eating or drinking, they put in an IV...which hurt...at least the guy didn`t like to me...he didn`t say `ちょうといたい。‘ He said `いたいよ‘ so....to translate...this will hurt a little...he said...oh, this will hurt ok? Yeah no shit sherlock. Also when he went to take the IV out, blood went everywhere...and he wasn`t wearing gloves....eeeeek.
Ok, so IV`s out, arm hurts I get some drugs and then all of the sudden this old woman comes up to me and says `espanole`? WHAT? No....i don`t speak Spanish...I speak English...all of which came out like...gurgle gurgle gurgle. She wanted to know where I came from and all that jazz. The Japanese woman who was with us got really pissed off and told the lady...look her throat hurts, she can`t talk right now ok? Hahahha, thanks Keiko. Oh, but the hospital only gave me enough drugs for one night, and the NEXT day I would have to go to an ear nose and throat doctor at a different hospital...le sigh.
Anyway, at least the drugs from the 2nd place had antibiotics in it and was really helping.
Monday I went to the ear, nose & throat guy at yet another hospital, he said yeah...infected, be careful not to get cold or they will swell up again...oh don`t get cold in Northern Japan in a uni that doesn`t turn on the heat? Yeah I`ll keep that in mind. So I get even more drugs and off I go. It cost me a total of around $30 for two hospitals, I don`t know about the second because they will mail me my bill, and three days to get some f-ing antibiotics for my infected throat. Now I have to take 4 pills after every meal. 12 pills a day...what the fuck?
So that was my weekend, how was yours?