An English Teacher in China: Sick in Langfang

So the past three days hasn’t been the most pleasant of experiences. Last Thursday night I began feeling very ill. My throat was becoming very sore and I was starting to cough quite badly. Now, I’ve had a cold before here in China. Last year I visited the local clinic a couple of times and each time produced a different result:

The first time I went to the doctor was to a small private clinic run by a single doctor. The old man sat in his multicolored sweater drinking his tea. When he saw me he slowly got up from the table and proceeded to put on his lab coat. He winked as he said to me, “I’ve got to look professional for the America.” I was thankful that my teacher friend, Shelly, went with me to translate as the doctor didn’t speak any English. The doctor gave me a quick examination then proceeded to write out a prescription. I was expecting him to hand me the paper but instead he walked around the back side of a glass counter and began filling it himself. This really was a one-man-show! The first time around the doctor just gave me a couple of pills and it cleared me up within a couple of days. The best part was that the medicine and doctor visit cost me only 27 Yuan ($4.42). I visited this doctor twice with two minor colds.

The third cold was a little worse than the first two so a friend suggested I visit the local clinic. I was told that here the doctors here used more western style medical practices. I went here twice with two colds. It just so happened that the second time I went to the clinic was the weekend before leaving China. Thus I was sick with a cold while moving my apartment and getting ready for the return trip back to America… not fun. I told the doctor I needed to be well before my flight. He understood and he ordered I be given two very nice injections. Whatever he gave me worked! I was feeling better within a matter of days. However, I was also starving for the better part of a week. This time around it was 46 Yuan ($7.56) for the visit, medicine and two injections in the backside… Yes, a little Chinese woman stuck a needle in my but!

This last visit to the clinic was a bit more serious than the first two. The doctor took one look at me and was worried I might have strep. He ordered I by given three IVs full of some kind of medicine. (The worst part about going to the doctor in China is that I never know what I’m taking. Sometimes I can take the Chinese drug names home and look it up online but sometimes I can’t always find the western medicine equivalents. When it came to the IVs I had no idea what was being pumped into me. It was about six different vials being poured into a clear solution.) As I said earlier, I was starting to become sick on this past Thursday night. I went to the doctor the next morning with a very sore throat and a terrible cough. He checked me out and then ordered I be given a blood test. This was a first! I’m not sure what they were testing for. I had one of my old Langfang Teachers University students helping me, (her name is Wei Fan), but her skill with English is limited and she was unable to give me a sufficient translation. So I shrugged and went along with whatever, all the while being absolutely clueless. After the test they put me in a bed and hooked me up to the IV. It wasn’t too bad of an experience. The worst part was that the tape to hold down the needle wouldn’t stick because of my thick arm hair. So they had to tape around my arm to get it to stick. Being stuck by the needle isn’t too painful… at least not as painful as when they removed the tape from my hairy arms. I waited for the three IVs to empty and it took about 3 hours. All-in-all, I was there for about five hours that morning. They finally released me, they gave me some pills, and then they ordered me back the next morning for observations.

The pills that they gave me where:

1. Jin Lian Hua: Also named Trollflower.

2. Su Xiao Shang Feng Jiao Nang: Each capsule contains 250mg Acetaminophen; 3mg Chlorpheniramine Maleate; Caffeine 15mg

3. Cefixime: Treats bacterial infections. This medicine is a cephalosporin antibiotic.

I returned the following Saturday morning and I felt even worse than the day before. My throat was incredibly sore, my nose was running, my ears ached, and I still had a terrible cough. The doctor took one look at me and instantly ordered another test. This time he ordered a skin test. Wei Fan was kind enough to meet me again this morning and she translated the doctor’s orders. The skin test was to tell whether or not I would be allergic to the new medicine they were going to give me. My guess was that it was some kind of penicillin. I passed the skin test so they hooked me up with another IV. I returned to my original bed and said hello to my fellow bedmates. I was beginning to get to know the others in the room by now! Another four hours later and three bottles gone they released me again, this time with orders to come back for a third time.

…Which brings me to today. This morning (Sunday morning) I went back to the clinic for a third time. This time around I was feeling much better and the swelling in my throat had gone done considerably. The doctor was happy for the progress. He ordered up one more final dose and I was hooked up once again to another IV. Three hours and three more bottles later I was ready to go home. However, that would not happen this day. I’m thankful that on both Friday and Saturday I was taken care of by my former student and friend, Wei Fan. Today I was looked after by another LTU student and friend named Sunny. I got a message from Apple that morning that she wanted to come see me, as well. I told her they were releasing me at lunchtime so she invited Sunny and me to lunch with her and her friends. We all went back to Apple’s apartment and shared a home cooked lunch. Apple made egg and tomato soup with mushrooms and noodles. It was very delicious. Sunny was thrilled to meet the other LTU grads and students that made up Apple’s flat mates. The five of them hit it off and were talking up a storm. I’m no fool and I no better than to interrupt a female gab session. (I was also happy that I didn’t have to talk with my sore throat.) Later, my good friend Samuel and his girlfriend showed up to join us. They all invited me to stay the afternoon and I did, although I slept most of the afternoon on the spare guest bed. Dinner rolled around, I woke from my slumber, and the lot of us finished off the day with some delicious chicken soup hotpot!

It’s a wonderful privilege to be given good friends. For the past three days I’ve really been looked after by friends and students alike. I had visitors to my clinic bedside as students brought me lots of fruit, Wei Fan and Sunny were both my translators, as well as, waiting on me hand and foot while I was in the clinic, Apple and her friends kept me well feed, and Gideon followed me home to make sure I would get their safely. Once the school found out I was sick they too were calling to see if I needed anything. I told them I had the situation under control. In reality, it was my friends who had the situation under control. I would be lost without them. My three day partial stay in the clinic, IV insertion, 9 bottles, medicines, pills, examinations, blood test and skin test all cost a total of 186 Yuan ($30.46). I’m feeling pretty good tonight so I’d say it was worth the cost.