Marie in Shanghai

...yes, I did miss posting a new blog entry last Sunday. As you know I have had some health issues ever since I came here. They now resulted in an experience I would have been glad to miss out on: visiting a Chinese hospital. First thing about Chinese hospitals: bring a Chinese! Sticking to this rule will immediately speed up the process, since they know what to do and where to go. Luckily, one of the language buddies, Sissi, accompanied me there, so I avoided the language barrier and a lot of confusion. But let´s start from the beginning:

Ever since I came here I have had a cold (which has been for 7 weeks now) and I felt more and more tired every week. Last Thursday, my ears suddenly started hurting a lot and I lost my hearing almost completely within 2 hours. Thanks to google I got confirmation of what I had been suspecting: an inflammation of the middle ear (in German: Mittelohrentzündung). The pain was getting so bad, that I couldn´t take it anymore and my friend Kiki and I decided that I´d be better off at a hospital. Long story short: I went to the hospital, the doctor at the ER confirmed a severe inflammation of the middle ear and I was given three bags of infusion, some eardrops and medicine to take home with me. Although I spent six hours at the hospital, the whole process was pretty fast (also, because I got a special treatment as a Westerner) and the longest part was waiting for the infusion to be over. Luckily, my hearing has almost returned completely, the pain vanished and today, 4 days later, I left my bed for the first time.

Kiki has been taking care of me 24 hours a day, bringing me breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday, cheering me up and leaving her cell phone on in case I´d feel worse and needed to go to the hospital again. You see, there´s no need to worry about me!

Some more interesting facts about my stay at the Chinese hospital: The only thing I needed to fill in was a small slip of paper with my name and telephone number. I didn´t even need to show my passport, health care card or anything. Next, they handed me a credit card - like plastic card that was to be my "patient card" for my stay there. They swept it through a device everytime I was charged for something, adding up the overall cost of my treatment (which was 50€, including the infusions, medication and examination). Next: the infusion room. To be honest, it strongly reminded me of the departure area of an airport. Long rows of chairs (about 200 seats) were squeezed in a room and people were getting infusions, nurses were running around and cleaners swept the floor every 30 minutes. It was quite a sight and if I hadn´t felt so horrible I would have probably noticed even more interesting facts about it. Now, the only thing I remember is Chinese patients staring at me, because I was the only Westerner there and I probably didn´t exactly look my best.

Anyway, I hope to be able to tell you about more pleasant happenings again next week,

All the best and take care,

Marie