It is time for a little story about Chinese hospitals, in a time of great suffering, a time that threatened to change me into a "pedophobe".
First I caught mumps; a viral child disease. I never had it during my childhood. Normally it is not severe, but catching it as an adult is a real pain in the ..., well actually, in my case, balls and cheeks.
It began with the cheeks and fever. We consulted our doctor in Belgium over the internet who told us that we can't do anything about it but to let it pass and, if necessary, take some pills against fever.
Deborah had it too, but not as severe as I had. Both my cheeks were swollen, but she had just one side swollen. She never had fever during that time whereas I had a fever that was getting worse each day and Antigripine seemed to have no effect against it.
We went to a local doctor for my fever and he gave me an "infusion". I had to check in next day to let the doctor see how I recovered.
The next day we had to wait, lot of patients where there, even a lot of kids with measles. Everything seemed fine for now. We still had these swollen cheeks. But afterwards the fever came back to harass me.
Than one night the fever rose to a temperature of 40.2°C. Deborah convinced me to go to the hospital. Now the real adventure of a sick man in China begins...
After gathering our luggage, we took a taxi to the nearest ATM before entering any Chinese medical "business" buildings. With cash RMB we set course to the closest hospital, Xijing. It was around 2 o'clock at night when we arrived at the emergency sector. First, I had to fill in papers, pay subscription, take my temperature and wait.
After a while the nurse at the desk called me to show her my temperature and than she gave me directions to another section in the hospital, which was accessible via dark aisles outside near the parking.
The place where I had to be was deserted and without any lights on. It was even locked with a chain. There was a small piece of paper stick to the glass door with a white button underneath that said "please ring", but than written in Chinese. After ringing three times, there seemed to be no soul wandering around to worry about my "having an arctic-complex" fever.
Shivering and in doubt of being at the right place, I trembled back to the nurse at the emergency desk. Seeking for confirmation of the directions she gave me, I asked her once more to clarify where I needed to be for some medical "attention" to my fever, swollen cheeks and overgrown testicles, in other words: mumps. After she firmly stressed that she already pointed me into the right direction, I tried to jingle that dark place's bell once more. This time I decided to keep my shaky finger on the door bell for about five seconds, . and it seemed to have worked quit well. A couple of minutes more surprised us with lights that lit on and a small Chinese women, who over-convincingly wanted to proof she had the narrowest Chinese eyes in the world, came at last to my rescue, dragging her slippers over the floor. She didn't look quit aware of our planet, certainly not after seeing some "laowai's" with her sandy eyes. We were let in and the sleeping headed nurse started to shout towards a distant door further down the hallway. Then finally, the so-called doctor came, baby-paced, in poor civil cloths and as if her bed was still stuck on her back.
After trying to convince her that I had a "child disease", while she tried to tell me that I don't have mumps, that it was impossible because I am a dumb "laowai", I burst into anger and told her that a doctor should treat and examine a patient before being so sure that a foreigner would be so eager to amuse himself coming over to a lousy hospital with a fever of 40°C just to wake up some sleeping doctors, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT! I also asked to not lecture me on what I don't know or might know, but to HELP me. Afterwards I had to sit outside her office and Deborah did all the talking; weird way to examine me. It seemed that they have decided to direct us to another hospital where they know more about mumps and where beds were still available.
Oh yes, now I was very happy, since the hospital we had to go to, on our own, was ONE HOUR by car away from Xijing Hospital.
With the taxi to Tangdu Hospital than! We are still ages away from treatment. (to be continued)