Blog Sick in Lhasa

This is one thing that both you never want to happen and is completely inevitable on a trip.This is getting sick while your on a trip abroad. And I have been sick many times during this year abroad of mine in Lhasa, but this time things have been a little different.

First of all, last semester I was sick like every two weeks it seemed with something that made me either vomit or poo all the time. But that (although extremely unpleasant) was relatively easy to take care of because I knew what kind of medicine I needed and where to go. Consequently, I ended up going to the Tibetan traditional hospital (men si kang) in the heart of Lhasa more than a few times with the office assistant Tenzin. And things pretty much worked out well the majority of the time, getting me back on my feet within a day or two days.

The illness that has hit me most recently has been quite difficult for a number of reasons that I will state in the following. 1) Like all illnesses in foreign countries your body is really not accustomed to having to deal with them. So at first your body and your mind have a honeymoon period with the illness. And this usually entails either "the recovery scenario" violent sickness where you body is like "what just happened" or "the degenerating scenario" slowly feeling not well at all until your body tells you "Houston we have a problem." Now after three consecutive nights of 10 plus hours of sleep and having a general hot feeling all over my body, I awoke with swelling glands on Sunday morning to that very statement but in more local terms, "Lhasa we have a problem" or "Hlasa nga depo me."

My immediate prognosis was to talk to my friends with actual medical knowledge and then take complete bed rest with lots of fluids. I adhered to this and after a skype chat decided to reluctantly visit a "clinic" the following morning to see what was really going on. Well actually, I wanted to go to the bigger "People's Hospital" and not the clinic or the Tibetan traditional medicine hospital because when you're dealing with a potential infection in a foreign land, "doctors" from campus clinics and herbal medicine is not what I initially turn to (don't get me wrong I am a strong strong supporter of traditional and alternative medicine).

So I went to the clinic this morning and this is how it went. 1) They listened to my symptoms (in Chinese) and then my lungs. 2) Asked me what color my phlegm was and then 3) Viola! the "doctor" told me I had a bacterialinfection and prescribed the following; some throat lozenges "Golden throat" brand (1 pill, 5 times a day), some pills in a green box by Lijunsha corp. (3 pills, 3 times a day), Acetylspiramycin tablets in yellow box by chuanyao (yes little "c" no cap) corp. (3 pills, 3 times a day), and Moroxydine Hydrochloride tablets from a company that I can't read or find the name on the label but the emblem is a "jH" combination. Needless to say the prescriptions of these drugs are not comforting from my 4 minute exam through Chinese translation, their sheer number, and my inability to both recognize or read the packages. However, as I did want to go to the bigger hospital instead of this campus clinic, I (post-clinic visit) was curious what might real doctors or nurses have prescribed so I asked my friend who recently burnt his foot who had experiences in both institutions.Having visited both places, he told me that the campus clinic hadn't given him the wrong oral medicine just the wrong ointment for his burn (aka they didn't mess up too bad or all the way). This is somehow more comforting then not, but to say the least, I am not completely confident that the drugs I have been given will be helpful or are real (especially after all the recent news in the NYT about cases of tainted and fake food problems in China. Yes fake food, like eggs that aren't really eggs. Seriously!?). The parting comment by the "doctor" from the clinic was that I should come back if the drugs don't work. This was also not very comforting but was within the main theme of the entire visit, leaving me with an all around feeling of doubt. However, I guess this is a little similar to what doctors would say in the US but without the comfort of having a follow up appointment in two days and possibly a real medical education