So, I spent a couple of days in hospital until they were happy that - cast and all - I could function in my apartment. I noticed a few things while I was there.
1. The traditional hospital visiting gift in these parts isn't flowers or grapes... it's milk. Every visitor seemed to bring me another box of it. If I'd stayed in a few more days could probably have opened a dairy.
2. One of the teachers who visited me later gave my phone number to his whole class so that I kept receiving text messages and phone calls from students. One of the, in the middle of the conversation, said, "Forgive me to say this - I think you fall because you are too fat."
3. My doctor's name was Doctor Hu.
4. Although I've only been getting western style treatment - no acupuncture or weird TCM concoctions - there are still differences. For example injections are almost never administered here with all drugs necessary being given by IV drip. This may have sound medical reasons but it leads to a very boring hour of lying flat doing nothing.
5. And speaking of which... when, On Sunday, I had the last of them they communicated this fact to me with a sentence translated by a phone app into English. It read, rather ominously I thought, "your liquid has no tomorrow.".
5. Having never fractured my patella in England I don't know the normal length of time someone would take off for such an injury but given that people sneeze twice and take a week I'll bet it's more than I got here. I did it at 2:17 on Wednesday and was required back in class at 2:30 on Friday.
6. Although smoking is supposed to be banned in the hospital whenever doctors or nurses came into the room the smell of smoke was detectable as soon as they opened the door. These visits were frequent as just about every member of the hospital staff wanted to come and see the foreigner in their midst.
7. You should not, no matter how much it is needed, ever get the wax cleaned out of your ears in a Chinese hospital... and you will learn why in the next post.
8. The nine-year-old girl who is my private student was, so her father says, so worried about me she made him bring her to visit. She brought flowers... and milk.
The end of "Teaching Lucy"?
2 hours ago
