It seems that everyone who is coming here to work for a long period of time must go through this examination. Even before coming to China, back in Canada, I had to get several vaccination needles, blood work, I had a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment, and an eye appointment. All of the appointments for everything. I was told that we would be going through similar procedures once in China.
Well. I don't know why I felt so differently about the China examinations then everyone else did, but I hated it. It was not like back in Canada. Putting aside my uncomfortableness, the China medical was very efficient and quick for all that we had done to us. So that is a little impressive. But I couldn't shake what I was feeling. I understand that there were a lot of us being examined and they were busy, but I did not appreciate the rush of it or the treatment. I felt so exposed and stripped (literally) of my humanity. I felt like a subject.
Before we were examined, we had to have more photos of us taken (passport type photos - headshots). I had done this twice in Canada after the Chinese changed their photo requirements, only to find out that once we arrived there, the Chinese changed the requirements again. Third times the charm, I guess. Already I was nervous and now I was annoyed that I had to have my photos redone.
After the paper work was filled in, we had to remove our top clothing and jewelry and put on a hospital robe that opened and tied at the chest. So now I'm waiting in a long hallway with a handful of paperwork, with my chest feeling too exposed. The waiting area is a long hallway with rooms on both sides of the hallway. We sat on a bench and were called one by one into the first room. There's about 10 rooms and when person 1 is done in room 1, they go to room 2 and person 2 goes into room 1. I was in the middle of the pack. I didn't feel like talking or making much eye contact because I was just trying to calm myself down.
I felt that all the treatment in each room was the same. They didn't understand me and I didn't understand them. I was not given a moment to breathe, my robe was untied, I was exposed, I had creams slathered on me, machines hooked up to me, I was scanned, notes were being made, and I was expected to understand what they wanted me to do, how to breathe, and how to position my body. Well of course I didn't understand, so that only made the doctor's frustrated and be snippy to me. I remember all of the rooms. But I am going to tell you about 3 of them.
The eye examination is actually a funny story. We had to cover one eye at a time and read out loud what we saw on the screen. After talking with other people afterwards, we realized how silly we must have seemed because the majority of us answered the same way. Instead of reading the repeated letters on the chart as: E, M, 3, W, we read them as E, upside down E, backwards E, and upward facing E!
The second to last room was blood work. I'm fine with needles as long as I don't look and can take 3 deeps breaths (and on the 3rd exhale that's when they are allowed to insert the needle). Since this was one of the last rooms, I was exhausted, and uncomfortable, had to deal with the thought of blood draining from my body, and only had time for 1 calming breath before the needle went in. I cried. The woman, however, was very kind. Once she noticed I was crying, she instantly changed her facial expression and tone of voice. I could tell she felt bad. She offered me tissues and a "sugar" as she called it (a little candy). When she took the needle out, she was very gentle and kept making sure I was okay. She even let me stay sitting in the chair for a few minutes afterwards to gain my composure.
After the blood work room, I was told I was done and could change back into my clothes. Feeling a bit relieved that it was over, I changed and handed in my papers, only to find out that there was one room I missed (not my fault, I went into the room I was pointed towards). Of course, though, the room I missed was the one where the doctor was going to take my blood pressure, and of course she insisted she test the arm that just had a needle in it.
Some may say I was being a baby about it all, but only after you have experienced the lack of sleep, leaving your friends and family on the other side of the word, being picked and prodded at, having your chest exposed for all to see and feel up, being hungry, and not understanding the language or culture, then can you judge me. It was an experience I would not wish upon anyone. I'm sure if I had more sleep and could understand the language, etc, I would've felt differently about the examinations.
I have been meaning to write about this experience for a while and have found the time to do so today because my students at Baoshan are having their semester medicals. A doctor comes to the school and does the basic, eye, ear, hear, throat check. I have the time to write about all of this because one of my classes was unexpectedly cancelled because the doctor arrived later than expected. Shelbi and I told one of the teachers that this doesn't happen in Canada and she said that Canada probably has better air quality/environment than China.
Something else that Baoshan school does for their students is allows (and highly encourages/forces) students to do what I call their 'eye exercises'. The lighting here is pretty harsh on the eyes. At 10:05am and 1:20pm, a voice with music comes on the PA system and the students rub their temples, eyes, ears, and neck. I recently found out that the voice is counting. I now know how to count to 5 in Chinese. Older students and teachers will walk around the classroom and watch/make sure the others do their exercises properly. I think this is pretty neat and the 5 minutes it takes can really refresh the participants and make a different in their learning. This would be something that I think would be neat for Canadian (and other) schools to start doing. I'm not sure people would take it seriously though. If I become a principal, I'll implement this idea in my school. I mean taking 5 minutes to do something simple like this or similar to this can't hurt.
I thought it would be funny to my document as much of my prep for China as I could. People thought this was funny. I asked the people giving me needles/doing blood work if I could take a picture and told them why - they thought it was a cool idea.
The first picture is from my first set of vaccinations. I got two needles. This was done at the hospital in my hometown.
Taken in Shopper's in the valley. I liked the band aid and the poster on the right side of the photo.
Taken at the valley clinic after getting blood work done. This one I felt light headed after and the nurse continued to talk just to chat/to fill the quiet noise when she was hoping I would talk. I also remember feeling really hot afterwards so I sipped some water and relaxed before leaving. The other people (elderly) in the same room as me getting their blood work done found me entertaining. The other needles, I was told, were going to cause my muscles to be sore, but I had no problem with them, just some slight bruising.
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