Touring the Hospital

14 Jan 07

Yesterday was the day of the planned trip to the famed city of Wuhan. To say the least, it did not go as well as expected.

The trip started well, except that the day before, Friday, I was not feeling too well in class. I ascribed this, mostly, to my not getting enough rest. That evening I went to dinner with Michelle, Ellen, and He Zhi Qing. The plan was for them to stay the night at Michelle's so that we would be able to all get up and get going early. This was necessary because the only tickets that we had been able to get were standing tickets; and then, on a train scheduled to leave at 5:30a.m.

As is normal for me, I did not sleep well that night (yes, all of this mentioning of how I was feeling is leading up to something). As a result, I was awake long before I needed to be and ascribed all ill feelings to the lack of rest.

The ride itself was uneventful. The train was late; however, it made up the time and we arrived in Wuhan on schedule. I do not have a lot of pictures of Wuhan, at this point. However, it is a much larger city that Xinyang. The main reason for our coming to Wuhan was to visit the large market districts. The desire, all around, was to get backpacks so that we would not need to do something with the extra bags after meeting Debra in Xian.

The market districts in Wuhan were similar to the pictures one sees. The streets were crowded with small, busy, shops. After getting directions near where the bus, from the train station, let us off, we began walking through several kilometers of this large market area.

Finally, after working our way through a series of streets that were too narrow for motor traffic, we arrived at a section, covering several blocks, which sold nothing but luggage. I saw several that I liked; however, there were a lot that I didn't. I was being pretty picky. I wanted something with a rigid frame in order to keep the pack form pushing on me as I walked. There were also some other features that I wanted.

After finding a style that I liked, it became Ellen's show. She aggressively bargained on the price and had us walk out of several shops that would not give her a price she considered fair. The final price was 140 RMB, which seemed fair.

The problem was that by that time I was feeling a bit ill. Michelle wanted to go for lunch and I was not feeling well enough to eat. About this point I realized that this was not a simple case of exhaustion. They wanted to do more shopping (which I had also wanted to do); however, I had reached the point that I wanted to take a cab, rather than a bus because it would be faster, to the train station and get a sleeper back to Xinyang. It was only a three hour trip; however, I wanted a bunk, I needed to lay down.

Things went wrong very quickly. This short letter I wrote pretty well says it all.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to tour a hospital In Wohan, China. It was a pretty good deal, everything included: ambulance, ER, EKG, chest x-ray, and recovery room came to less than 400 RMB (about $50 USD). Basically, I was not feeling well and had to sit down, then some big Chinese guy was carrying me, then I was in an ambulance (I was in a maze of alleys and motor vehicles were not able to get in).

The medical care was very good 1970's grade. After an hour in the ER they remembered to take my temperature, I was feeling better at that point; it was only a bit over 104f.

One thing that really surprised me was that they had He Zhi Qing stay with me nearly all the time, even when I was getting the x-ray taken. In the US a person would never be allowed in the room while someone else was being x-rayed. The thing that Michelle noticed, and commented on, was that the IV bottles were made of glass.

I checked out of the Hospital in time to get to the train station, I already had return tickets with a seat reserved. I was still pretty ill on the train back to Xinyang. However, I am now back.