The Chinese Hospital

This may be a little confusing ... but I'm skipping back to yesterday to tell you about our Monday morning trip to the Chinese hospital. Our Chinese friends in our Sunday School class, John & Vivien, have a friend here in Guangzhou named Jing (she's in the picture with us).

Jing offered to introduce us to her friend, Dr. Guo, who works at the biggest hospital in Guangzhou (a city of 10 million people). Dr. Guo was going to have the baby checked out by the pediatric doctors in the hospital. I was pretty sure that there wouldn't be any problems found with Zoe but I was glad to have her ears checked for infection ... and to have the chance to see the inside of a Chinese hospital. For adoptive families, you hear many scary stories about what it would be like if you have to take the baby to the hospital or if you have to go yourself ... dirty needles, bad conditions, misdiagnosis and mistreatments, etc.

The outside of the hospital seemed very nice, new and very large ... Jing had no trouble spotting us. We were the only non-Asian people in a sea of people ... plus we had Zoe in the stroller. Jing called Dr. Guo and he met us outside.

We went into the emergency room and Dr. Guo zipped us right into an examination room. He said that most of the people who were waiting to see a doctor in the emergency area should actually be going to the "non emergency" side of the hospital but they thought the wait would be shorter there. (so far, this sounded just like the US) He told us that there were no appointment times for doctor visits in China ... you just show up and wait your turn ... first come, first serve.

The exam room was spatious and clean and had a big curtain to close it off from the hallway ... but it was left open. Our nurse checked Zoe out ... similar to a "well baby" visit in the US ... I don't think that she was used to seeing an orphanage baby because she didn't seem to understand how delayed Zoe would be just because of coming from the orphanage. Surprisingly, Zoe wasn't too far behind most of the "milestones" that the nurse was checking for ... speech, of course ... Zoe doesn't talk yet - just babbling. The nurse seemed surprised that Zoe could crawl and stand up and the nurse took her hands and helped her take a few steps, which Zoe did ... All in all, the nurse gave her a "normal" diagnosis.

I asked about her ears and the nurse looked at them with a flashlight. :) Just when I thought to myself, "The Chinese sure are behind in technology" ... Dr. Guo told us that we would have to go to the ENT area to have her ears checked.

We headed out of emergency and into the regular hospital area. While we waited for the elevator, we had a chance to ask questions. We learned that the hospital has 2000 beds (is that a lot?? we really had no idea for a comparison). We also learned about the backgrounds of both Dr. Guo and Jing during our wait. They both studied at Vanderbilt and they both would like to return to the US sometime soon to live for awhile. Dr. Guo returns for medical conventions once a year or so ... but he would like to study further in Nashville and live in Williamson county ... He is already an MD and a PhD ... so not sure what type of studying he is planning. Jing would like to return to Nashville and buy an "apartment" (that is the Chinese term for house, condo, etc.) in the Vandy area.

Both he and Jing looked very young to be so well educated. Jing's husband worked for Dr. Ming Wang in Nashville and Bain had fun telling her about Dr. Wang's TV commercials and his dancing.

Obviously, since we learned all this info, we were talking quite a while during our wait for the elevator ... that should have been a sign of what was to come for us ... As far as we could tell, there was only one elevator for the entire hospital. The elevator line included janitor staff with mop buckets, a man on a wheeled bed, people in wheelchairs and many other small groups of people like us.

When the elevator arrived, we all squeezed on. It was "sardines" ... We always say ... "Be Chinese" when our travel group gets on the elevator because we have learned that Chinese are very used to cramming themselves tightly together in an elevator. Well ... this was the ultimate "Be Chinese" elevator.

About 10-15 minutes later, after many stops and people getting on and off, we made it to the ENT area on the 6th floor. The lobby was very crowded and there were two large rooms full of cubicles of staff who were checking people ... They each had the big reflector, forehead light that you never see in the US any more. Dr. Guo walked around and found us a line that we could "break". The people in front of us seemed happy to let us go first ... maybe because we had a baby ... everyone else in the line was middle to older adults. The ENT person had me sit and he looked into Zoe's ears ... telling Dr. Guo that everything was completely normal with her ears ... no infection. That was great news because she had a little runny nose and seemed to be pulling on her ear just a little.

Dr. Guo said gave us his card so we could keep in touch in case he comes back to Tennessee and then said good-bye. Next ... fun, fun ... we are back waiting for the elevator .. After another 20 minute wait for the elevator, we got on for another 10-15 minute ride down. By this time, Zoe was asleep and she was getting heavy.

The "smell of China" can make you a little queezy (spelling?) in the stomach if you are not used to it. I guess it is the smell of the cooking and spices that the people use (very different from the US) ... and those smells get on their clothes and in the air ... anyway, between the elevator smells & stale air of a closed up space, the cramped condition, Zoe's weight (I was holding her while she slept), etc. ... I was feeling pretty green by the time the doors opened on the first floor.

Once outside, Jing asked someone on the street to take our picture and we said good-bye. She had to get back to work. She is a bio-chemist and does research for cancer. Dr. Guo was a respiratory doctor and works with SARS patients.

So ... that's the whole of our visit to the hospital. All in all, not a scary place ... but so crowded. As an American trying to go there for health care, I can't imagine trying to communicate. Most Chinese that speak pretty good English can't translate a lot of the medical terms that we might use. For example, we tried to communicate "appendix" to Jing (someone in our travel group just had their appendix removed and we were telling her about it) but we never could figure out how to explain it to her so she would recognize the Chinese word for it.

We learned that Jing would like to have a second child. She is under the one child policy (not all Chinese are under the policy but 90-95% are) and she already has a 10 year old boy. If she returned to the US, she could have a 2nd child while living there and he/she would not count against her for the one child policy. She would like to have a daughter and would like the chance to stay at home with her children for awhile. She said that "stay at home" moms are not common in China ... that families all need two incomes.

We are learning how very much we take for granted in the US as far as our freedom. Millions of Chinese live without these freedoms. In China, the people don't talk openly about the issues of government and restrictions. It is almost as though they know the boundary of how far they can talk and they don't cross it. They are very careful when discussing any political issues.

We were told our political boundaries by our guides ... no pictures of military people (green uniforms ... seen everywhere) ... no talking about the student rebellion in Tiannamon Square, etc. In China, you have boundaries and you just learn to live with them and you are careful. Otherwise, the green uniformed soldiers might hear or see you behaving in a manner that is out of line and you can be arrested.

So, just enjoy all the campaign ads. We're seeing a little of it here ... We even saw a short interview with Bob Corker!