After an unsuccessful trip to the walk in centre in the Uk, I returned to China to find my ear trouble had become worse and my headaches had increased. After several days (of complaining) my friends persuaded me to seek the advice of a Chinese doctor.
In China, a visit to the doctor usually involves the a trip to the local hospital. Having never been one for liking hospitals I was a little nervous about going to one that (in my mind) would involve some big needles, suction cups and some sort of fire treatment. But after waking one morning in severe pain, I had no choice but to take the plunge and so off we went to a hospital rumoured to be one of the better ones in my area.
The first thing that struck me when we arrived, was the sheer volume of people coming and going. I'm not sure why expected any less, after all, everywhere in Beijing is incredibly busy. But with so many long lines and a continuous stream of people coming through the doors, I had to wonder how on earth they managed to treat everyone? I thought that surely I would be in for a long day, especially having been used to long waits in the UK.
Registration however, was fairly easy (with the help of Meinan, my native friend) and incredibly cheap, costing only 5rnb (50p). We were given tickets with numbers (which reminded me of the meat and cheese section of a supermarket) and told where we should go to wait.
As we made our way upstairs, I couldn't help but notice how old and dirty everything was. I can't lie, even after living here for six months, I still expected a cleaner environment from a public hospital. It was an old, worn out building and even the toilets were some of the worst I have seen in China (and that's saying something!). We eventually found the room with the Doctors who would be able to help with issues of the head. For me this itself was something new, in the Uk a Doctor can see you for any part of the body, where as here it seemed that there are specific Doctors to go to for different parts of the body.
One thing you will notice when living in China is that due to the sheer volume of people, there is very little understanding of personal space or privacy. The hospital, it seemed, was no exception as I arrived to find an open door policy at the Doctors office. There were two doctors on duty and those waiting were waiting in the Doctors office itself. I watched for a good 45mins as those waiting walked from one bed to another, discussing each illness with both the doctors and the sick before being seen themselves.
Now, as a foreigner in China, you tend to get a lot of attention. Just walking down the street can attract many stares and start many a whispered conversation. So when my number was called and it was my turn to see the Doctor, a small crowd seemed to form.
With the help of Meinan, I was able to explain the problem to the doctor and answer some questions about the pain. After discovering that I have been slightly stressed recently, the doctor put the pain down to stress headaches, gave me a prescription for what I thought would be pain killers and sent me on my merry way.
Having been through some stressful times in the past and not having had headaches as severe as these before, I left feeling a little confused and disappointed with the outcome. Still I had some painkillers which for now at least, was all that mattered. So off we went to see Doctor number two, the ear doctor, to find out why I had pain and blood in my ear.
The next Doctors office was similar to the first only the doctors wore a uniform and tools similar to those I have only ever seen in horror films. Still, it wasn't long before it was my turn to be seen and this time the Doctor at least did an examination of the ear in question. He concluded that, yes, there is some damage to my inner ear and an infection had developed, which explained why there was the blood and pain.
I waited for some treatment suggestions or for a prescription of antibiotics (the normal procedure for ear infections in the UK) and was a little confused when I was being asked to stand up and leave. I had to ask Meinan to push for some answers and the only advice given was to keep water out of the ear and to leave it alone. So I left, confused and still in pain, desperately trying to understand what had just happened with the two doctors seen.
Having had confirmation from the ear doctor that my ear was damaged, we were at least able to go to the pharmacy and get some herbal treatments, to hopefully help kill the infection. So after a quick stop and chat to the pharmacist I had what I thought to be painkillers for the headaches and infection killers for the ear. Surely the pain would be over soon?
Meinan tried to explain the dosage to me and some reason, that she wasn't able to explain, the painkillers were suppose to be taken at night. She also explained that for my ear, I would have to take 8 bright green pills 3 times per day to kill the infection (it's quite common for Chinese medicine to involve an absurd number of pills per day). At this point, I didn't care too much and was simply after some relief from the pain, and so I gobbled down a couple of the painkillers.We decided to try and do some shopping and run some errands before heading home but for some reason the pain didn't seem to get any better.
After around an hour however, I did start to feel a little drunk. Having not had any alcohol for some time, it had to be put down to the painkillers. It didn't last too long though and another hour later I was very tired, still in lots of pain and feeling some what sorry for myself. So, feeling a little desperate by this point, I decided to try the infection pills and proceeded to gobble down 8 of the bright green herbal pills. After an hour of anticipation, the magical green pills seemed to have had little to no effect and so we headed home.
By the time we got back, I was crying with the pain. Desperate to understand a little more of what had happened at the doctors and wanting to know why I was still in so much pain, I decided to look up a translation of these 'painkillers' online.
I checked one website and couldn't believe what I was reading. So, I checked another and the another but, they all said the same thing. My 'painkillers' were in fact, sleeping pills...everything fell into place. My head Doctor diagnosed stress and after I had said that I wasn't a great sleeper (which is normal for me) he prescribed sleeping pills. This explained why there was no real examination or advice given. This also explained why I had felt 'drunk' after taking them and then sleepy all afternoon.
I looked up the bright green pills, hoping they were what I thought they were, but as suspected, several websites gave the same conclusion. My infection killers were in fact pills used to treat skin bad complexion (quite a common problem for the Chinese people) and were not something that would be able to help an infection of the ear.
Giving up and feeling desperate, I had my friend contact our Manager at school to ask for help. Knowing a good doctor, he agreed to meet us the next day to help translate and get some more advice or medicine. Quite a nice thing for a boss to do!
Tired and crying from severe pain, I gobbled down some more sleeping pills whilst my Chinese friend gave me a head massage until I fell asleep.
It took a long time to drift off...
Continued in part 2
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