David and I both had our classes to teach today. My classes all went well and they had fun
watching the movie.
We had decided to have lunch with Jim and Wendy
Purnell. We needed some advice on things
that had happened on the Yangtze River Cruise.
They wanted to eat at the Italian Restaurant that we had eaten at last
week, so we met them on the South Gate of campus and we walked over to
“Lydia’s” together. We had a nice lunch
and we got the advice we needed. They came back to our apartment with us because they had never been here and we continued to visit. Just before they
left, I decided to ask Wendy about my leg.
She is a nurse. It had continued
to get more tender and kept swelling and getting more painful.
Wendy saw how red part of my leg in the front was and when
she felt it and noticed how hot it was, she suggested that I get to the doctor
right away. They gave us the phone
number of Dr. Tricia. She has treated
BYU teachers for many things and most of them know her. We had not met her, but
when I told her who I was and who had given me her number, she told me to come
right over to the hospital. I was thinking
that we would walk to the bus and catch it to get to the hospital that she
works at, but David decided we would be faster if we took a taxi.
As soon as we arrived, we were ushered to the elevator and
told to get off at the 5th floor.
When the nurses saw us, they took us right to Dr. Tricia’s office. There she had asked an orthopedic surgeon to
meet her and look at my leg. He thought
I had a lymph node infection, but also suggested that a cardio vascular surgeon
should look at it, too. Dr. Tricia
speaks English quite well, but her specialty is geriatric neurology. She tried to get the head cardio vascular
surgeon to see me, but he was out of town and the next guy in line was in a
meeting and would not leave the meeting to come look at me. She was able to ask a young cardio vascular
surgeon to take a look and he suspected that I had DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis).
BLOOD CLOTS!
I was taken to a hospital room and told to lie down and not
get up. Okay… Hmmmm….
To determine if that is what I had for certain, I would need an
ultrasound on my leg. This young
surgeon, Dr. Wang, Dr. Tricia and David wheeled me over to a different building,
pushing that bed I had been told to lay down in, where there was an ultrasound
machine. That was a long ride.
When we arrived at the ultrasound building and went up to
the third floor, they first stopped outside of the EKG room and did an EKG
right there in the hall. I was grateful
that this was after hours so that there weren’t a lot of people around. There is no dignity left in a hospital anyway… The EKG did not show any problems with my
heart, so it was on to the ultrasound room.
At the ultrasound, the worst of our fears were confirmed
when they found at least one clot in the calf of my leg. There was one good thing about it, Dr. Wang
said; it was the best case scenario that you could find of DVT! It was still in the muscle are and not in a larger vein.
I was wheeled back in the bed through the parking lot and
back to my room where I am to be for the next seven to ten days. We are hoping for the seven days.
When I was back in the room, Dr. Tricia and Dr. Wang went
into the office with David to explain to him how things would work. I was alone in the room to think and worry
for the next hour. I tried to control
the tears, but my eyes kept leaking.
We called Jim and Wendy Purnell and they came over with some
food. Dr. Tricia also ordered some food
for us as she had not eaten any supper either.
Fortunately, there is a small frig in the room where we can keep some
food. Jim and David gave me a blessing
and I felt a little better.
Dr. Tricia did several favors for us. China’s health care system is “pay-as-you-go.” You have to set up an account that all of
your expenses will be taken out of. If
you go over what is in your account, your medications and treatments are
withheld until you put more money in. We
had put down 1000 RMB, not knowing how much is was all going to cost, but by
the time I had the ultrasound, two heparin shots, blood tests, an antibiotic
and paid for the room and a few other things, the money was all gone and we had
gone over about 300 RMB. They were going
to refuse to give me anymore treatment until we got more money in there, but
Dr. Tricia was very forceful with them and said that they had to because I was
now an admitted patient. I think it was
kind of like, she as guaranteeing that we would pay.
I was also put into a room that was a “VIP” suite and would
normally cost 200 RMB per day, but she talked the head nurse, who is in charge
of things like that, to only charge the smallest rate; 70 RMB per day. My nurse is SUN Fang, she knows a little English and tries to speak with us.
When I was all “settled” for the night, Dr. Tricia made sure
that David was put in a taxi to take him home.
She was on duty tonight, so she was able to check on me when she came
back to let me know that he was on his way home. My prayer: OH HELP!
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