Wednesday, September 14, 2016

The Medical Exam

There is almost nothing that I hate more than getting a shot or having my blood drawn.  Now, it is nothing about the blood, which does not bother me at all, but having to have a needle in me...  There are a lot of words that i would like to use to describe how much I hate having a needle in me, but none of them would be anywhere near correct for something so noble and fine as this blog.  I also really do not think that I have any capacity in written English to explain the depth of my hatred.  
Needless to say, when I almost passed out in the heat of the Salaya, Thailand hospital, I was hoping it would be the last blood draining I would need for some LONG amount of time.  Sadly, I had yet another distinct pleasure of meeting with those vampires that work in hospitals, and getting to have a new experience in China.  
Advice for this process in China - take a native speaker with you, and ask them to stand in various lines while you go do other parts of the process.  Place holding is a normal thing, and it saves a lot of time.  Though we did have to wait about an hour and a half to start the whole process, we managed to get an electro-cardio-gram, blood test, chest x-ray, vision test, ultrasound, and have our height and weight checked in about 45 minutes.  Honestly, for the price, it is not bad at all.  The key is having someone to wait in the next line for you.  Yes, in the US people would get punched for pulling a stunt like that, but here, totally acceptable.
So, we took advantage of it, and managed to clear the whole process in a short time.  
While I hope that I can go a long time without having to visit somewhere that decides that my blood is more interesting outside of my body versus inside, I hope that when it has to happen again that it will be with the same efficiency as here in China.  
Also, all those tests cost us 72usd. Suck it US healthcare system. 

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