At the Warner Village Movie Theatre complex in Taipei
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Health Care in Taiwan
In Class this week I started feeling like I was coming down with something. Indeed by Tuesday, I was feeling the effects of a full blown cold. After I got home from school I started my destined climb towards "the Climax" (You know those one or two days where you feel like a bag of piss (without the bag)). That night I cheered myself up with a national geographic special about an Avionca Flight that ran out of gas over New Jersey (I did learn the one good thing about running out of gas in a 727-- the plane does not explode on impact!).
The bad thing about being sick in Taiwan is that there is absolutely nothing on TV that I can understand or am interested in during the day. I thought since National Geographic seemed to be in "Air Crash Bonanza Week", that I could at least enjoy an hour of sheer terror. I really hate to fly, but for some reason I am facinated by these air disaster shows. Perhaps I just want to know what to look for in the moments before a crash so I can tell if my plane is about to crash. Unfortunately they had some documentary about the African Elephant, the movie channel was playing the Wedding Singer for the 15th time this month, and the other english channel was teaching basic english to the Taiwanese.
In any event, while I couldn't find anything to watch, I was also gaining a temperature. The Mandarin word for fever is "Fa Shao" and it sounds exactly like Goldmember talking about his dad. Therefore, I normally get a kick out of saying fever in Mandarin, but on Wednesday night, I was not feeling the humour of the situation. To top it off, I had to spend the whole day alone in our tiny appartment because Anting was in Taipei for a job interview and then had to go to a wedding in the evening. She also had no battery power in her cell phone.
Anting's Mom called me and asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. I was able to communicate that we would wait until Anting came home (she was expected at 10pm) and then go. She could at least ask the doctor at my request: "Is it SARS?"
Anting finally arrived at about 11:30, but at her mom's house. She still had to come home and see if I needed the hospital. She did arrive and we decided to go to the hospital. I was worried about SARS and the Avian Flu and feeling terrible. I was also expecting a 3 hour emergency room wait.
We arrived at the emergency a few minutes after midnight. The place was packed. There were about 20 beds in the ER all full of moaning and groaning patients. There were several people wandering in and out with IV's attached to them. Their family member would hold the IV drip bag, or they would hold it themselves. Anting left me in a seat at the entrance where I causually read a sign posted across from me that was in Chinese except for some numbers (that I assumed were steps to follow) and the dreaded acronym--SARS.
I was calmed down somewhat when this kindly fellow in a green lab coat came up to me and smiled. I knew being a foreigner was useful for something. I was going to get some special treatment! The bubble burst when he walked by and swept up a cigarette butt on the floor beside me.
Anting finally came back and before we did anything, I demanded that she tell me what the SARS notice said. She said "Oh it's nothing, just that you will be arrested if you refuse to take a SARS test"
The bad thing about being sick in Taiwan is that there is absolutely nothing on TV that I can understand or am interested in during the day. I thought since National Geographic seemed to be in "Air Crash Bonanza Week", that I could at least enjoy an hour of sheer terror. I really hate to fly, but for some reason I am facinated by these air disaster shows. Perhaps I just want to know what to look for in the moments before a crash so I can tell if my plane is about to crash. Unfortunately they had some documentary about the African Elephant, the movie channel was playing the Wedding Singer for the 15th time this month, and the other english channel was teaching basic english to the Taiwanese.
In any event, while I couldn't find anything to watch, I was also gaining a temperature. The Mandarin word for fever is "Fa Shao" and it sounds exactly like Goldmember talking about his dad. Therefore, I normally get a kick out of saying fever in Mandarin, but on Wednesday night, I was not feeling the humour of the situation. To top it off, I had to spend the whole day alone in our tiny appartment because Anting was in Taipei for a job interview and then had to go to a wedding in the evening. She also had no battery power in her cell phone.
Anting's Mom called me and asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. I was able to communicate that we would wait until Anting came home (she was expected at 10pm) and then go. She could at least ask the doctor at my request: "Is it SARS?"
Anting finally arrived at about 11:30, but at her mom's house. She still had to come home and see if I needed the hospital. She did arrive and we decided to go to the hospital. I was worried about SARS and the Avian Flu and feeling terrible. I was also expecting a 3 hour emergency room wait.
We arrived at the emergency a few minutes after midnight. The place was packed. There were about 20 beds in the ER all full of moaning and groaning patients. There were several people wandering in and out with IV's attached to them. Their family member would hold the IV drip bag, or they would hold it themselves. Anting left me in a seat at the entrance where I causually read a sign posted across from me that was in Chinese except for some numbers (that I assumed were steps to follow) and the dreaded acronym--SARS.
I was calmed down somewhat when this kindly fellow in a green lab coat came up to me and smiled. I knew being a foreigner was useful for something. I was going to get some special treatment! The bubble burst when he walked by and swept up a cigarette butt on the floor beside me.
Anting finally came back and before we did anything, I demanded that she tell me what the SARS notice said. She said "Oh it's nothing, just that you will be arrested if you refuse to take a SARS test"
"OK", I thought "I'll take the test. I don't want to be arrested." I then settled in expecting a long wait. Surprisingly, a few moments later my name was called and was examined by the nurse. Very shortly after that, the Doctor appeared! He took my history, with Anting's assistance and he typed everything into a computer terminal. Moments later I was having an injection to reduce the fever and then sent across the hall to the payment window and the pharmacy window next to it. We paid $40 CDN for the visit and the medication, went to the pharmacy and the drugs were all ready to be picked up.
By Thursday night I was having some solid snot (the sure sign I was getting better) and started preparing my homework. I was back in school on Friday and went out for dinner with Anting and a couple of her friends that night.
I feel much better now and also am impressed with the Taiwan health system. Canada's health officials should come over here and take some notes.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
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