Looking for bandages

Having gotten hurt a small bit while in Viet Nam (a burn on my leg, nothing more) I went looking to replace bandages that I had purchased, in Hanoi, before leaving to Xian in order to meet Zeneta. It seemed that this would be a simple task, run into a drug store and buy some. Nothing is as simple as it should be.

The first place did not have any. So, obviously, I tried a second place.

Simply, as they see it, anything bigger than a small Band-Aid requires a trip to a doctor. Being a westerner, it is not my habit to go to a doctor for every bump and scrape. However, I needed some bandages.

I tried to try a doctor that I knew; the one that I ride with. His office was close. As I entered the response was positive, he certainly recognized me. Even through the language barrier, it was easy to understand, "Hey! Riding buddy! What brings you here?"

I pointed to my bandage and told him that I wanted ten more just like the one I was wearing. He insisted on seeing what was under the bandage; that was pretty much where I lost Gao Jing.

It was not infected but it was still in the seeping stage and he insisted on dressing it. I noted that he did pretty much the exact same things I had done. First the Hydrogen Peroxide, then the Betadine/Iodine concoction, then he added something I did not add and am not to aware of. If anyone has an idea what it was, I would be interested. I suspect that it is similar to the WWI sulfa powder.

It was a white powder that was covered over the entire wound. I was given some for redressing and it seems to have the consistency of flour (I have not tasted it yet). There was no pain associated with it.

At that point a new bandage was applied. One thing that Debra noticed, through the procedure, was the "no hands" technique. Instead of putting on gloves, he touched nothing. Everything he did was done with forceps (I first laughed when he brought out the surgical tray). Even the cleaning was done by grasping a clean gauze pad with the forceps and dipping it in the solution them cleaning. Debra took a couple of pictures in his office; it really was a visit to a time machine.

The care was excellent and quick, the attention was from the doctor and I was given materials for redressing (He has been told, by the people in the riding club, that I am a doctor; but not a MD). Oh, and there was no charge. Gao told me that a normal charge for what he did would have been about 10RMB plus about 2 or 3 for materials. Of course, he still wants me to return for "Chinese belly shrinking treatment."