2022/01/11

In the first part, I was laughing when the chocolate my friend brought me was eaten by the old lady next to me, but she suddenly said, "Aren't these cookies? I want to eat cookies!" (laughs) Even I was surprised by this and said "Aiya!" without thinking.

At that moment, a very cute old lady sitting diagonally in front of me looked at me and made eye contact with me with a look that said, "Oh dear." The old lady next door was always making a lot of noise, so the atmosphere in the room was a little tense, but she was always asking if I was okay, and gradually we started to talk, which made it fun. I realized that if you live, you meet all kinds of people. Meeting all kinds of interesting characters is also something that only a local hospital can do.

Some patients are hospitalized for a few days and then discharged, while others stay for a long time. I was sometimes taken out of my room for tests, which was the first time I saw anything outside of my room since being admitted. On my first day in hospital, I was surprised to see that it was a "geriatrics" department, but when I looked closely, I saw that it also had an internal medicine department, and there were many different types of people coming and going, from young people to the elderly, Hong Kong residents to foreigners. I think most young people were discharged within a few days. Also, if you go to a public hospital in Hong Kong for the first time, you may have to wait for hours or even years (as mentioned in the previous article), but if you go in as an emergency patient, you will be hospitalized immediately and your priority will be increased.

I saw this facility guide on the way to the examination. Looking at it again, I realized that this is how it was structured.

The rooms were large and had minimal partitions, with about 40 to 50 beds in total. The beds were close to each other, and the curtains could only be closed when changing clothes or taking an examination. It was interesting to see how different it was from Japan. Oh, and of course the systems in private hospitals are completely different.

This time I was hospitalized for about a week. I was on complete bed rest, so I didn't eat anything for the first two days, and I didn't receive any other treatment apart from changing my IV drip, but I had to take a break suddenly, and it was more difficult to communicate than usual. Being hospitalized is an experience I don't often have, so to be honest I was more exhausted than usual.

Even though I was overwhelmed, I had just happened to be studying the topic of "Going to the Hospital" in my Cantonese class at the Chinese University of Chinese, so I thought this was a great opportunity to try out the words I had just learned (although they didn't quite understand...). I had a variety of interactions with the trainees, from scary ones to kind ones, some of whom were strict, but others who kindly taught me and told me about Japan.

The surroundings were like this, and the beds were quite close to each other. The old lady next to me was eating some food she had sold after dinner.

Now, the old lady next door has an upset stomach but is always eating something and making a fuss. Then suddenly she hands me a bag and says "Open this bag for me." It's hard even for me to open. I opened it for her and she gave me what was inside as a thank you. It was flavored seaweed. She told me to eat as much as I wanted, as a thank you for opening the disgusting chocolate she gave me. What, is it a thank you? Does that mean I gave her the chocolate?

However, I was happy because I wanted something a little more colorful than the salty hospital food. However, when I actually tried it, it had no flavor. As I was thinking that, a nurse came running over and told me not to eat it, and it was the old lady who was scolded.

This is the seaweed that my grandmother shared with me! Maybe it's because I'm used to flavored seaweed, but it felt strange to eat.

As I was smiling wryly at the cute old lady sitting across from me, she told me that she was being discharged today and gave me some high-quality toilet paper as a parting gift. It's nice to see someone who's been such a good friend of mine leave the hospital. I was feeling happy and wishing her well, but that night the old lady was brought in by ambulance again, and we were reunited... We ended up in the same bed again. I had very complicated feelings.

Grandma gave me some high quality toilet paper. I didn't use it at the hospital, but I was grateful for it later.

The next morning came as usual, and when the doctor came round, he said, "You can go home now," and my discharge was confirmed. After that, various documents were prepared, and I was happy to think that I could finally go home. The old lady across from me and the old lady next to me were also discharged on the same day, and we all said goodbye to the nurses who had taken care of us and said goodbye to them as we left the hospital room.

As for the old lady, since she had to wait to be picked up, she continued to complain and eat the aforementioned seaweed until the very end.

When I was discharged from the hospital, I was nervous about whether the hospitalization fee overseas would be high and whether my insurance would cover it, but when I went to pay, I was surprised to find that it was only HK$720 (about 2021 yen in Japanese yen at the time of July 10,300) for one week. I think it depends on the hospital in Japan, but the difference is clear. And luckily, I was able to apply for the insurance I have in Japan, so when I went to the counter to get a medical certificate, I was told that it would cost nearly HK$800 per certificate (I had to get two for convenience...in Japan, it's about 3,000 yen), so I was surprised again and gave up (lol). I'll think it's okay because it was cheap.

For some reason, there are Japanese translations in the hospital toilets! I always read them and laugh every time I went there because they sounded like they were written in a Tohoku accent.

Lastly, since I moved to Hong Kong in 2021, I have experienced many new things for the first time, and I was very nervous, so I think being hospitalized was a summer vacation given to me by God. Thanks to this, I was able to relax a little and have some rare experiences, so I think I was able to level up a little.

I don't want to be hospitalized again, so I'll be even more careful about my health and look forward to a happy and healthy 2022!

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wm_Journal

I first visited Hong Kong before the handover in 1996. A few years ago, I fell in love with Hong Kong, and in 2020, I decided to move there alone. Even in the midst of COVID-XNUMX, I'm enjoying my time here with my self-satisfied level of Cantonese and a cheerful attitude, with the motto of "act immediately when you think of something." My hobbies are watching Hong Kong movies from start to finish, traveling, and taking buses to the last stop. I post my daily Hong Kong updates on Instagram.

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