Today I went to the hospital. My first little tango with the japanese healthcare system. Don't worry, it was nothing serious. I have been battling an annoyingly severe cold. The worst part is that I lost my voice. Yesterday I could barely conduct my classes. I could only talk in a raspy whisper. My voice cracked and did all sorts of weird stuff. I felt like a pubescent boy. The cold was doing me in, also the karaoke sunday afternoon put the nail in the coffin. There really isn't any way to be a teacher and conduct classes without the ability to speak, so I figured something needed to be done.
Japan has socialized healthcare. They have done this, amazingly, without falling into the hands of terrorists. And I have to tell you America, its pretty great, this healthcare thing. People get treated for things that otherwise they wouldn't bother going to the doctor for. Its fast, efficient, and cheap cheap cheap.
I am enrolled in the national healthcare program, so I just rolled up to the hospital on my bicycle. I walked in with no appointment. I even had a special request- an english speaking doctor- and they took care of me right away. Even though I went to the pharmacy counter instead of the reception area (those kanji signs aren't doing me any favors) the people were ridiculously helpful. The pharmacist, before processing my request for an English speaking doctor, popped in the back to find an English-speaking pharmacist to find out what the heck I wanted. Amazingly, out popped Tomoko, a woman I met at the festival who is part of the International Association. She was really excited/ surprised to see me, and even remembered my name. I however, was a shithead, and could not remember hers. She was really nice. I had the names of two doctors who take medical english at our schools who work at the hospital. She helped me track them down (though I don't think I ended up with either of them). She asked me what was wrong, took me to the right part of the hospital, and helped me fill out the symptom form. Another great thing about Japanese medicine, no ridiculous forms to fill out! I waited for only about ten minutes for the doctor to see me. The doctor is the only gripe I had about the whole experience. He was supposedly English speaking (and since I thought he was one of our students I had high expectations) but he barely spoke to me in English. He asked me if he could feel my lymph nodes on my neck, but didn't think to indicate to me that I needed my shirt off for a stethoscope lung-listening expedition. The next thing I knew my sweater was around my neck. But I am glad I got the warning about the neck node toughing, because you know, that might have made me uncomfortable. He said a lot of stuff to me afterwards in Japanese that I couldn't understand. I just looked blankly at him. Aside from that, all he said was "come back in 4 days." Was I going to get a prescription for medicine? Was I not going to get treated unless my symptoms persisted for another 4 days? What was it that I actually had? I tried to ask about the medicine. He said "yes, come back in 4 days". Still didn't really clear up the confusion. Then I waited for a little bit again in the waiting room with the cute little receptionist who called me Sarah-san. After another 10 minutes, she handed me a paper bill and walked me to the cashier desk. I paid the bill- a whopping $31 dollars and to my surprise a bag of my prescriptions were already there waiting for me. 6 different kinds of medicine! Its maybe a little excessive for a cold, but they sure are thorough. Also, $31 for a doctors visit and 6 different prescriptions. Amazing! I couldn't even walk into a doctors office in America for $31. Tomoko was there again to explain to me when to take the pills and how often. She went through every bag with me. She is very sweet. Without an appointment the whole thing, complete with requests for unusually qualified doctors, took an hour. Oh America, please please try.
