Friday, July 24, 2009

Pinky.... why so Angular?


My most recent adventure came yesterday while playing basketball with some visitors, some local foreigners and some local C-landers. we had 4 teams, and my team was on our way to winning our 3rd straight game. My teammate gave me a bounce pass that ended up being a bit to low to the ground, and when I went to grab it, it jammed (or so I thought) my pinky on my left hand. With my pinky throbbing I tried to take a shot with my right hand. Then, thinking... Man! I jammed my pinky, I chanced to look at it and notice that it was at an exact perpendicular angle to the rest of my hand. Ironically enough, we were playing basketball at the Kunming Medical University, and the hospital was just around the block. So we walked down the block, and commenced the circus that is a Chinese hospital:
1. Go to entry window and pay 6rmb for the initial consultation.
2. Walk inside, see doctor 1. Doctor 1 recommends X-Ray and fills out a form.
3. Take form down the hall to x-ray room.
4. X-ray room fills out a form for how much it will cost.
5. take form for price of xray down the hall to window 2 and pay 100RMB for the x-ray.
6. Go back to x-ray room. Have attendant try to flatten dislocated pinky against table for x-ray. Pain. Attendant gives up. Takes 2 x-rays. wait 30min doe xrays. Get x-rays. Friend Neil gets squirmy.
7. Take x-rays back to Doctor 1.
8. Doctor 1 sends us to Building 1, Floor 4. the "bone department"
9. Bone department doctor 2 looks at finger, massages back into a straight line.
10. Doctor 2 & 3 suggest putting finger in "plaster" .
11. Amber, Niel, Alan, and I in chorus: "plaster!"
12. Doctor 3 makes me sign waiver that just a splint is ok.
13. Sign waiver, Go to another room to have finger put into a splint.
14. Realize that Kunming doesn't have "american dislocated finger splints"
15. Doctor 2 tries to make a "splint" out of what we can only guess is possibly a urin collection container.
16. We decide that maybe plaster is better.
17. Get cast-like splint thing put on my pinky, along with about 5lbs of something that resembles pre-wrap. (see photo)
18. Look silly.
19. Doctor 3 give me form.
20. Take form back down to window 2 on floor 1 of building 3 to pay for plasterizing,
21. Bring receipt for payment back over and up to Building 1 Floor 4.
20. Leave.

Total time at Hospital fun-park: 2 hours.
Total cost of stay at Hospital Fun-Park 182RMB : $26.64
Seeing Neil get all squirmy from looking at my finger or the x-ray: priceless.

1 comment:

Elizabeth said...

i love the commentary, though i'm sorry for your pain. sounds like another great janai adventure!