At one point, Taiwan's national healthcare system was a point of national pride. In my opinion, it should still be, but apparently, it's finances and working conditions are getting a little rough around the edges, and I rarely hear good things from those working in the industry. Allegedly, fewer and fewer students are entering the workforce, as more sacrifices are demanded, and pay stagnates.
This morning, my neck was painful to the point that it me about thirty seconds to get out of bed, gasping and cursing. Lzyk booked an appointment for me online at the local hospital, and I carefully shuffled and groaned over there. It was standing room only, even before I got inside. It was as crowded as a nightmarket; a full press of bodies short-stepping in every direction. I had to wade through the human current flowing in the opposite direction to get to the escalators, which sucked, since even though Taiwanese never push in crowds, some jostling is unavoidable, and every time someone touched me, it made stars of pain appear in my vision. In that kind of crowd, someone is bumping you all the time.
I found my way to what I gambled was the right place. In Taiwan, everyone gets a medical record ID card, and you check in by swiping it through a scanner. The problem is no such thing as an appointment, at least, not as I know it. Instead, there are clinic hours, and you get an appointment number. The clinic might go for four hours, and if your aren't there when your number gets called, you go to the back of the line. So if like me, you're number 30, you have to show up when it opens, because if the first 20 people are late, then you're likely to go to the back of the line with them if you show up at a reasonable hour. So, I sat grimacing for a few hours, lucky to have a seat at all. Once it was my turn, things happened quickly. I got my x-ray, and got a couple of baggies of pills for less than $500 NT total.
I was pleased that none of the pills were antibiotics (Taiwanese MD's tend to write prescriptions for 72 hours worth of weak antibiotics, no matter what your complaint, "because the patients insist." And this is why we are entering the post-antibiotic era). I was disappointed by what I did get though. In the past, I made the mistake of taking Taiwanese pills before work, and was reduced to zombieism for 12 hours. One downside of a national healthcare system run by a country where management is synonymous with cost-cutting. Thus, we use pharmaceuticals from the 1950's. It's popular in the West to whine about "big pharma," and comparisons with war-profiteering aside, I have to say I prefer their products to these WWII era pharmaceuticals.
Last time, I had to stop taking the pills because they labotomized me. This time, I delayed taking them at work until tears were streaming down my face, but then, nothing happened. Several rounds of pills later, I can feel the secondary effect of the fall slowly spreading through my body. It's almost an enjoyable kind of hurt. It will validate every trick I land, after the two weeks of no skating the doctor ordered. I don't think I'll make it two weeks, but if I come back early, it certainly won't be because these pills helped with the pain.
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