What Scares Me…

… is anything related to medical needs in this country.  It’s moreso because it’s an unknown thing as opposed to a feeling that’s founded on actual experience.  (We have heard scary stories though.)

Sunday afternoon Josh started feeling cramps in his lower abdomen, on the left side.  By later evening, he retired to bed (half-way through Sarah’s b-day party) because he said it hurt too much.  He threw up a few times, and tossed and turned for the rest of the night.  

Monday, it was on and off all day.  The pain had moved, and he couldn’t keep any food down.  My non-medical self using the not-so-medical internet started concluding… ulcer? food poisoning? enlarged spleen?  liver problems?  gall bladder or kidney stones? 

There’s a pharmacy around the corner from us.  I thought, maybe I should just pick up some Tums.  But that in itself proved to be stressful.  How American am I that I only know medicine by brand name?  So here’s the process:  I had to figure out what Tums is.  Answer: calcium carbonate.  Translate it into Chinese and copy that translation onto scratch paper.  I walked to the pharmacy, which is one half an herbal medicine place.  (Picture a wall of what looks like old card catalog drawers, filled with dried roots and herbs.)  The pharmacist was wearing a face mask, weighing dried powders on a scale, and wrapping them in to little packets of white paper.  And he didn’t have any Tums.  So I walked a block down the street to the other pharmacy.  They did have anti-acids.  Just 2 kinds.  But when it looks like this: 

I do have a little trepidation in making sure I’m giving Josh the right thing.  The only English in the box is “Hydrotalcite Chewable Tablets.”  Which at that moment, was not what I was looking for.  I bought it anyway, brought it home, and looked up the info to make sure I wasn’t going to make Josh any sicker than he was already.  Next problem: translate this so I can figure how much to give him: 

Do you see I at lease got the important stuff figured out?  I also figured out that indeed, they should be chewed, not swallowed.

This could all easily have been solved by going to the doctor, right?  But Josh really didn’t think it was necessary.  We also in going, would have to think through the steps… do we go to a hospital or a clinic? Of those two, local (w/ international section) or international altogether?  Where is the closest hospital/clinic?  Do we have enough on hand cash?  (The answer is no.  We do have health insurance, but we have to pay everything upfront and then submit a claim later for reimbursement, if we submit a claim at all.  My imagination started running wild with the possibility of paying for surgery… on the spot.)

So, today is Tuesday.  And Josh’s stomach feels better.  Thank you Lord.  But from all the resting, he’s thrown his back a little.  Now he’s laying on the floor, in pain again. 

*sigh*

Definitely the next post… should be fun stories!