Chinese Medicine

No pictures in this post, which chronicles my ordeal of the last few days. My second day in Beijing started fine, I was able to start to get my bearings on the campus. However, everything changed after lunch. Began vomiting, a lot. Decided to not return to the Hope Cafe.

The vomiting didn't stop. Also had diarrhoea. Wasn't able to keep anything in, even water. So, in the evening, went to the hospital. Most universities here have a campus hospital. Unlike Australia (and probably many other Western countries) the hospital is where you go for all medical issues, not just emergencies or serious problems. Being Saturday night, before the semester had started, there was a skeleton crew of a single doctor and nurse around, and I had to call for them on arrival. Fortunately I knew enough Chinese to communicate my symptoms, and she gave me a few drugs. There was a bit of a miscommunication and I sat in the hospital sipping rehydration salts for a while before chucking them up, then the doctor, more clearly, explained to me I had to drink them at least 2 hours after taking the pills. So, I just went back and got some rest.

The next day I felt just as bad. Took the drugs, waited a couple of hours, and tried eating an apple, which promptly returned. So, I decided to contact my insurance company's hotline for medical advice. Sure enough, just as I was about to be put on with their medical expert, my credit ran out. So, I went out in the cold to the phone shop, which has some phone booths inside it (which I should've gone to to begin with, as it turned out to be very cheap). Got in touch with the insurance company's doctor, who advised that the drugs I'd been given were suitable and I should continue trying to take them, but I should also go to a hospital for IV fluids immediately. This sounded right to me, but I wanted to make sure I got looked at by a doctor I could understand. The woman working at the phone shop suggested Peking University No. 3 hospital as being close and having a wing for foreigners. I tried taking a taxi - the driver didn't know where this particular hospital was, so I just asked him to take me to Peking University's campus.

When on the campus, I was fortunately easily able to find a hospital. Unfortunately, however, it had the same skeleton crewing as my own campus hospital, and they were unable to speak English or find me a hospital on campus where doctors would. They did suggest, however, the closest hosptial I'd get an English-speaking doctor would be the China-Japan Friendship Hospital. A medical student was nice enough to come out and help me hail a taxi, in the snow. The drive was nearly half an hour.

On arriving at the hospital, I still had to find the international ward. This took a while and ended in me being taken there by a security guard (almost everywhere in China has way too many security guards). Fortunately, on arriving, I was attended to well. The nurses spoke a bit of English and were very friendly, and the doctor spoke English quite well. He prescribed me some more medicine (to stop diarrhoea) and had the nurse put me on a drip. Being tended to and having fluids in my system helped a lot, and I was able to while away the couple of hours watching curling on TV. I took the other medicine they gave me and went back to the dorm, to explain the bag of pre-loved apple by my bed to my roommate.

The next morning I felt well enough to take the placement test which decides the class we are put in. I was also able to keep food down, and that night went out with a good friend in Beijing for some rice porridge (about the only thing you can get here which meets the specification of "not spicy, not oily"). From then on I improved, and as of Wednesday consider myself over it. Throughout the whole affair, my Chinese did improve, and I now know I can use it effectively in a situation like this. It also gave me good experience for taking my roommate to the hospital when he also got some sort of food poisoning. As I write he is still suffering, but at least not as badly as I was.