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My medical treatment experience

I have had a chronic illness for 15-16 years that is a kind of inflammation of my outer left ear, and I have commuted to see an ear, nose, and throat doctor once or twice a year. I don't have any anxiety about my health except for that. I've hardly ever caught even a cold with heavy enough symptoms to make me absent from work during my long salaried worker's life.

I had the feeling that my left ear was plugged up about a half a year after I had gone to the US, so I looked for an ear, nose, and throat clinic in the telephone directory, but I couldn't find any. I decided to consult Atsuko-san because I thought that she must have known some appropriate doctors since she had lived in Salem for over 30 years, and had raised her three children there.

Atsuko's family hadn't seen any ENT doctors, so she didn't know of any, but she found an ENT clinic by inquiring to her general physician. She tried to make an appointment for me, but the clinic said it had so many patients I would have to wait for 20 days. At that time the winter term was coming to an end. My idea was to have treatment during the nine-day spring break, so I couldn't wait as long as 20 days. I went to have treatment at the Salem Hospital Urgent Care Center with her effort.

In this connection, I may add that there is a charge for calling an ambulance, and moreover, the bill is so expensive that Americans cannot call an ambulance as easily as in Japan. Let me introduce an episode I heard from one Japanese student at Chemeketa. She took her female American friend to Japan when she went back to Japan temporarily. When the two of them were walking on the road, the American friend suddenly squatted down at the roadside. She tried to call an ambulance for her friend by cell phone, but then her friend desperately resisted her doing so. She was surprised at that opposition. Her friend didn't know that calling an ambulance was free of charge in Japan.

Atsuko-san took me to the Salem Hospital Urgent Care Center by car. At the reception desk, a clerk first checked my insurance, and when she asked me to fill in my wife's name on the form I wondered why. My wife who lived far away in Japan might not be related to this scene, and I was accompanied by Atsuko-san who had a good command of English.

After waiting about 30 minutes, a doctor saw me, and diagnosed my ear as infected. I didn't know the word infection then. My dictionary says it means disease which spreads from one person to another. I thought this was off the point of my ear's symptoms. Atsuko-san said that it meant "inflamed" or "festered." The doctor stated that my symptoms would recover completely by taking medicine, which he prescribed, after breakfast and dinner for ten days. I was perplexed by the fact that the doctor didn't do any treatment except peep into my ear. Doctors in Japan would at least clean my ear and apply an ointment. My left ear still felt plugged up.

At the front desk, I was preparing to make a payment, but Atsuko-san said I didn't need to do so there, instead the bill would be sent to me later, and then I could mail a check. In Japan, we can't leave a hospital without making a payment. I felt another gap between Japan and America. What if there are people who would not mail a check? What if there were people who moved, or returned to their country if they were foreigners? I worried unnecessarily. In this case, I received the bill after more than a month for $60. I had the student insurance that Chemeketa compelled foreign students to get. I think it cost $700-800 a year, which covered any excess above the first $50 of ones expenses for anything except eyes and teeth. I thought $60 was a little expensive since all the doctor did was peep into my ear.

Hospitals don't give patients any medicine because of the complete separation of dispensing medicine from medical practice. Since almost all supermarkets have pharmacies in their stores, I showed my prescription and got two kinds of medicine at the supermarket where I used to go. One of the medicines was a sulfa antibiotic. The medicine's explanation said that after taking it you might have dizziness, insomnia, nausea, or vomiting, and also that you should have enough water and a full stomach.

I was fine for two days after beginning to take medicine, but on the third day, when I went for a drive to the Oregon coast with my friend, Matt, after about one hour in the car, my whole body began to get hot, and I began to feel sick. After 30 more minutes, I couldn't stand staying in the car, so we got out of the car and somehow walked slowly along the seashore at Newport, but at last I vomited. I used to get carsick when I was a child, but I've hardly ever gotten carsick after growing up. I wondered to myself why I felt sick. I couldn't think why except for carsickness. Those symptoms don't continue so long provided I'm away from the car. I couldn't eat anything that evening, but took my medicine, and went to bed hoping that I would wake up refreshed the next morning.

I couldn't sleep well all night since I felt ill. Because I couldn't get rid of the feeling of nausea the next morning, it turned out not to be caused by carsickness. The directions on the medicine came to my mind clearly. There was no room for doubt that it was caused by the medicine. I resigned myself to put up with the sickness. If I didn't eat anything, my symptoms would get worse, being defeated by the strength of the medicine, so I ate compulsorily. I was running out of the food I had stocked up. Though I needed to go out and buy something to eat, I didn't have the vigor to do so. Atsuko-san and other kind friends brought me food. I could not sleep at night, and was in bed until noon. I sat idle every afternoon.

I knew if I stopped taking the medicine, these strong side effects from the medicine would vanish and I would recover from the nausea. But the doctor said positively that my ear symptoms would be cured completely by taking the medicine for 10 days, so I was firmly determined to keep taking the medicine. Having suffered from this ear disease for years, if I couldn't be cured this time, this disease might continue to occur the rest of my life. I believed in and relied on the American up-to-date superior medicine.

On the seventh day, my ear began to feel better, and on the tenth day, the last day, I finished taking the medicine. That day was Saturday, and the day after next, the spring term was going to start. The spring vacation was unlucky, terrible, hellish, and nightmarish. The next morning after I finished taking the medicine, I still had a sick feeling, but was getting fine gradually, and by evening I recovered completely. I had a strong will to welcome the new term starting the next day.

Thinking about it later on, my trouble must have been because the dose I took was too much. My weight is 50 kg, so if the dose is standard for an American's weight, who weighs almost twice as much as me, a half a dose would have been enough for me.

I believed the disease to be cured completely, but it was a short-lived joy. About three months later, my left ear began to trouble me again. I was right back where I started. I had my wife send swabs from Japan (America's swabs are too thick). Using them, I held out against my ear's symptoms until the time I finished studying abroad.