Commoncole

I woke Liz up on Wednesday morning this week thinking that the world was coming to an end - my own personal world, not the world generally - I was SICK!!! Fever, runny nose sore throat, nausea... and the headache to end headaches. She graciously didn't kill me on the spot for waking her so early (must have been how patheticly sorry for myself I looked) and herded me into the bathroom for a cold shower. Then put me back to bed with pain killers and arranged for a doctors appointment. At 9am we walked over the road to my first encounter with Chinese Way of Medicine. The clinic was tiny and as it had only just opened, was also empty of patients, (much to my relief as I was drenched in sweat and had no great desire to sit in a room full of other sick people waiting forever to see a doctor as you do in medical clinics in Sydney).

There was a friendly Chinese lady, behind the counter of a booth full of medicines, who smiled cheerfully as Liz told her I was working at Crossroads, and that I was unwell. Shortly after giving her my particulars, I was called in by the doctor. His room looked like any western doctors' room (except for being half the size), so I sat down and told him my woes. He looked at me through his spectacles and I was relieved to hear him ask his first question in English, even if it was heavily veiled by a Chinese accent and struggled to make it's way through the protective breathing mask he was wearing. After copious notes and a thorough examination he was ready to declare his diagnosis. "Yoo ha commoncole". Feeling rather common I supposed his conclusion must be right enough and watched with interest as he made a copious list and spoke in rapid, mask-muffled Chinglish about the medicine he would prescribe me.

At this point I thought I was either completely off his topic of conversation or had mis-translated his diagnosis, as the list of pharmeceuticals he handed to the friendly booth-lady through another door gave one the distinct feeling that one must be gravely ill indeed. I was told I could wait in the waiting room. Liz lifted her eyebrows and I announced I had 'commoncole'. Finally, the friendly booth-lady beckoned me to her and she handed me enough drugs to start my own drug store. I was wide-eyed with wonder as she expertly went through (in hasty Chinglish) what each one was and how often to take... I kept looking at Liz and she just smiled and nodded knowingly. So, we had cough syrup - for cough, obviously - an anti-inflammatory for inflammation, ponstan for pain, something else for 'sleepy', something for bloating, antibiotics, paracetamol for pain and fever and finally something incase the stomache bleeds (from all those pills presumably) "ba no happen offen". Wowsers, a doctor's visit and all that medicine for the grand total of only AUD$23! I have to admit that although it felt like extremely good value, I decided to just take the paracetemol and antibiotics and leave the rest to the One Who Heals. Especially with the image of bleeding stomache still fresh in my mind!

Needless to say, as I'm at my computer and blogging, I am mostly better now. Yay!! The world hasn't ended and hopefully I'll be well enough to be back at work tomorrow. Unfortunately the timing of my being sick meant I largely missed out on enjoying Craig and Paige visiting Crossroads from Australia this past week. I met them at Vicki's church on the Central Coast and they brought me a great number of the ear plugs I like that don't seem to be available here. Thanks again guys! I don't even have one picture of them... : ( but here is the panarama I took in Macau that I mentioned in my last posting... (Click on it to see it bigger).