Overseas Sniffles

I was GOING to use one of the REALLY PRETTY pictures of my knee during the surgery but some of ya'll might be squeamish or whatever.

Let’s just say my winter was so good, it was hard to think of anything to say during the spring.  Spring, for me, was just a waiting-room season with sniffles, sneeze, sore throats, and a few surgeries. In fact, I was just sick most of spring, so let’s make a topic out of that.  

I have the immune system of a tree.  I’m still here, and I am pretty much fine, but if most people are flowering shrubs or whatever, I am one of those species that doesn’t die, but tends to suffer from blights and beetles, wilts and rusts.  Now, I have nothing SERIOUS, so, you know, cool beans, but I just feel like I am always sick.  Common colds, sinusitis, bronchitis, ear infections… and then there is the astigmatism, myopia, hypothyroidism, bradycardia, weird lumps, “funky skin rashes (actual diagnosis from a doctor),” asthma, and all those surgeries I was too young to still remember.  And, you know, all my allergies and sensitivities.  

Someday a team of med students will have fun going,
“oh!  I know what that is!” all over my person. (Beijing 727 Hospital)

I wish I could get medicine like I could in Turkey.  When I was in Turkey, I developed a pretty bad ear infection (and, coincidentally, ran out of my emergency inhaler for my asthma). Now, I get ear infections ALL the time.  Usually, with a little time, they go away.  Some of the bad ones I use hydrogen peroxide with ‘cause the fizz feels good and clears out… you don’t wanna know.  Sometimes, they are bad and I need antibiotics.  The cool thing about Turkey was I could go to the chemist, tell him I wanted Amoxicillin and, you know, get it. I remember he looked at me and pretty much said, “you sure it’s a bacteria issue and not a virus? Yes?  Okay.  Don’t fuck up.  $7 please.”  Seven bucks?  For a week of antibiotics??? how much is my $75 rescue inhaler?  $5???? Yes! Yes, please!  Why can’t we have cheap medicine in America?  And, yes, I know most people are ignorant and would take antibiotics all willy-nilly, I wouldn’t, and I would love to just get what I need when I need it.  

Actually, this might have been $3.... (Random Pharmacy in Kadikoy, Turkey)

I wish I could cheap medical care like I did in Japan.  My flu shot was so cheap, my bastard ol’ company was willing to pay for it.  My IVs I needed for a week (did I mention I get sick a lot?) were $30.  For the WEEK.  Every morning before work I would pop into a clinic in Numazu, get a bag hung for an hour, and then head to class.  $30.  Not per session.  Total.  And OH MY GOD, the meds they gave me to take at home.  CHEAP!  When I had another really bad ear infection in ’07, a clinic just treated me for free in Hanakoganei.  “You’re a student?  Okay.  Here.  Take these and this. Come back if it hurts after 9 days.”  When I threw my back out in America, the doctor said, “well, if you had insurance, we could treat this.  Sorry, kid.”  

Intravenous antibiotics!  The true breakfast of champions! (Numazu Ear Clinic) 

I wish America had the speed of China.  Blood work, and I mean FULL write-up, is ready the next business day (same day if you come in before lunch). Doctor wants an ultrasound or x-ray or EKG?  Within the hour, in the same building, and then come back so we can talk about your results.  Yesterday, I went to the hospital without an appointment at 1 pm.  Saw my surgeon, he requested an ultrasound, went to the second floor, got that done, they sent the results upstairs, and we had my surgery scheduled within 40 minutes.  Sure, if you go to the Number 3 hospital, one of the best in the country, you might end up waiting for a few hours, but if you are okay with just a normal hospital, I don’t need famous doctors, in-and-out in under an hour.  Actually, he wanted to do the surgery yesterday, too, but I have classes this weekend I am covering for Monica so… Monday it is. And this wasn’t a one-time thing.  I have had to go to the hospital, as a general care facility and not the emergency ward, several times now because of my wonky test results in my breast, thyroid, and knee.  Every time it has been amazingly fast with no appointment necessary.  I know in America, even with an appointment, I have had the doctor take over two hours with only 2 minutes of face time with a nurse practitioner.  

And, not to bring up China again, but I wish America cared about preventative medicine the way they do in China.  October is medical screening month, and boy do the teachers at my school get screened.  Bone density is tested.  Blood vessels are tested for blockages.  Eyes, ears, nose, throat, gender-specific health checks, and internal imaging of all organs.  My doctors in America let me walk around with gallstones for over a year telling me the pain in all in my head.  I went to the doctor in China feeling fine and he was like, “zomg.  What’s wrong with you???  …also, you need to lose some weight, Woman.”  They found tiny, developing cysts in my coworker’s breast. They are the ones who told me my heart rate is pretty damned slow, 47 bpm, and I should keep an eye on that.  The thing in my knee?  Since I was 12, I have had knee problems.  Doctors in America didn’t care.  Here?  “Yeah, the tumor is benign, but let’s get it out before it becomes a problem later.”  

About 20 pages about everything wrong with me.
Mainly, excise more, avoid fatty and spice foods, and don't smoke.  1/3 ain't bad.

Oh, and what's up with this, "have a rest" culture?  Did you know that, in China, when you get sick, you're expected to stay home?  Even if you are a teacher!  Like, if you're sick (not bleeding profusely or on the brink of death, but maybe you just have a really bad headache), it's totally cool to stay home.  People don't abuse this, at my schools anyway (I can't speak for all of China), but I have seen teachers stay home, and there are no subs, 'cause they were sick! And no one is mad at them!  Like, when I had my first surgery on my knee last month, everyone was like, "stay home!  Have a rest!  Take a week or two off!  If you need more time, let us know!"  That... that is NOT how it is in my country!  Have a baby on Friday and get back to work on Monday.  Oh, and if you DO have a baby here, you get a pretty decent pocket of time off!  My coworker was talking to me about it.  Apparently, depending on the age of the mother, after 27 is considered an at-risk pregnancy and delivery, you get different amounts of time off, but this time is measured in MONTHS, not days, and it is PAID.  And the DAD gets some time off, too, because he is expected to help both mother and baby during the first weeks.  (Dad doesn't get as much time off. His is measured in days.  I think my coworker said her husband, a police officer, was given two weeks.)  Now, people who work for the government, and this includes teachers, DO get treated better, I have been told, than the general population, but my coworker was just baffled.  "But, you can't work after you have a baby."  "In America, not all companies give time off."  "In China, for the first month, mommies can't take a shower or brush their hair.  Your body needs rest..."  "Go to work."  "I don't understand."  

Now, I have never lived in Scandinavia, but their attitudes towards paternal and maternal time off are awesome and worth just mentioning in passing.

Sometimes you need to pantomime "expectorant" in Italian.

It makes me embarrassed to think about what would happen if my Chinese coworkers came to America and were in my position.  Even with insurance from work as a teacher, what happened to me would be ruinous to them.  Two surgeries in two months?  Full, five-hour, medicals exams?  Three rounds of full blood work ups?  Multiple X-rays and ultrasounds and EKGs?  Here, I have spent almost $300 for everything.  Also, I have paid the max amount I am responsible to pay for the rest of the year.  From here on, the government insurance I have covers it, from medicine to traditional Chinese treatments.

and now the moment you all have been waiting.  Frontal nudity.

I guess the common theme, here, is that in Turkey and Japan and China, there is a State-run health care system.  When medicine isn’t so profitable for some, it doesn’t cost so much for many. Once again, America, why can’t we have nice things?