Imagine there are two kittens in the playground at school. They have been there all day. One is a tortoiseshell, who is quiet, and the kids worry will die in the cold. The other is grey and much more skittish. What would you do? Take home the tortoiseshell, right?
After school Bei "dragged" me out to go get the cat, against my protests of "but what are we going to feed it, and who is going to take care of it during the holiday?" Although docile, our little kitten scratched me when I tried to pick it up, due to randomly flailing limbs, and then hid under some equipment. Then a grey kitten ran out, across the playground, and towards the Chinese school. It was kind of freaking out. So I thought I should pick it up. RIGHT??? WOULDN'T YOU?
Suddenly, this cute, little kitten transformed into an evil sabre-toothed giant cat and bit me! Ok...part of that didn't happen, but that's what I'm telling people, ok? But it did bite me, hard. With all of its pointy little teeth. We decided that maybe this kitten will survive on its own just fine, so we went back into the school, kitten-less.
I finally took a good look at my hand, which was bleeding, and slightly swollen and grey around the punctures (from the teeth and claws), and decided that maybe I should go to the hospital for a rabies shot. And that's when the REAL adventure began....
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| Here's the injured hand |
Bei kindly accompanied me to the VIP clinic at the hospital down the street. Even though it was just about closing time the nurse did process my paperwork, stood around for a while, and then told us to follow this other lady, who was in street clothes and ready to leave. I assumed she was a nurse, and going to take me to wherever I needed to go on her way out. This was true....except where I needed to go was a different hospital. So we got in a cab, and went to another hospital, curiously named the exact same thing as the first one.
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| You want to inject my wrist? |
At hospital #2 we went into the ER, walked back and forth between a few places, and were generally confused. At one point Bei said "I don't get it, and I'm Chinese!" Best line ever. Eventually the nurse took me to a place where I sat outside a window and was injected into my wrist. Bei found this a bit creepy. I've never had a wrist injection before. So now I've had my tetnus test shot, and have to wait for 20 minutes to see if I have an allergic reaction.
While we're waiting, the nurse tells us a few things.
1. This hospital doesn't have any rabies shots.
2. There is another place we can go, but her job is done, so we have to go on our own, because the rabies shot isn't covered by my health plan, and therefore her taking me to get one isn't either.
Normally this would be a ginormous problem, but I had Super Bei, who found the place on her phone, and had vague directions. I know enough Chinese to know that when Bei asked the nurse where it was, the conversation went like this:
Nurse: Go to the something something clinic on Tai Yuan Jie.
Bei: Ok. Where on Tai Yuan Jie?
Nurse: You know, go down the main street, then turn on to Tai Yuan Jie.
Bei: Yes, but where exactly is it?
Nurse: Beside a restaurant.
Bei: Right. Let me google this.
At the same time, I called my health insurance company...and got hung up on. But I didn't feel too bad, because when Bei called back in Chinese, she also got hung up on. Good thing there were two different numbers to call! Bei called the second one, and then pretended to be me because they spoke English. Either way, I got my rabies shot pre-approved!
The 20 minute wait is up, I feel fine, time for the real tetnus shot. They gave me some pills to take and told me not to have spicy food, seafood, or alcohol for two weeks. Easy peasy (good things ladies night is 2 weeks and 2 days away). Time to find hospital number 3.
The cab took us down to Tai Yuan Jie, and couldn't turn due to one way streets. He said to walk for 6 minutes, and we'd find it. We did. It was closed. Now, to be fair to the nurse who told us that it would be open, it's hours had been changed at the end of September. The sign also conveniently listed 4 other clinics that are open in the evening. So we walked towards school (and the hospital I originally went to), picked up Stephanie, walked for another 15 minutes to the mall since there were no cabs, and eventually got into a cab who could take us to one of these clinics.
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Rabis vaccination for
use in humans. |
Clinic 4 - dark, but OPEN! I paid my $1 registration fee and went up to see the doctor. She prescribed me rabies shots, and after paying for them at the first counter, recieved two vials at a different counter, I was told to go to the injection room.
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| The Injection Room |
This turned out to be a hospital bed on the other side of a window with a nurse. We made some jokes about her not getting up and injecting me through the window, but no joke, I had to move so she could reach me from her chair.
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| The nurse's desk on the other side of the window |
Success! I have been vaccinated against rabies! Now I just have to go back two more times. Oh, and the pills are antibiotics for sinus and ear infections that aren't available in the US or Canada. I'm going to wait to see if I really need them before I take them. Both of my shoulders are sore from the injections, and my finger is slowly becoming less numb (it feels like it's been cut really badly). Bei knows to take me to the hospital if I start foaming at the mouth. Oh, and it's a good thing we cleaned the wounds at school, because not a single nurse or doctor suggested doing that.
