I just finished watching Hitch, with Will Smith. I enjoyed it, up untill the last 5 minutes when my 5RMB DVD decided to FREEZE! Grrr.. Oh well, I can’t complain when paying ~$0.75USD for a movie. The ending looked really cheesy anyway, so I don’t think I missed much. The scene that really made me laugh was near the beginning, when Will’s character succumbs to an allergy. It’s really not nice to laugh at others’ misfortune, but in this case, I am just laughing at myself. It is certianly one of those “You’ll laugh about this later…” things, because I was not very amused at the time.
While living in Huanggang, maybe early spring, Alison and I went to the big supermarket to get some groceries. The big supermarket in Huanggang was not just a shop, but as it is in town all across China, an event. There were staged promotional fashion shows, kids’ bouncy rides, women selling shoes on a foldout table, and of course the ubiquitous food stalls. We picked up something that advertised Malaysian style barbecue. I remember some beef satay, maybe some chicken too, and some spices I certianly had never had before. They were tasty and we continued on our way to shop and return home.
About an hour after I had eaten the satay, (to be fair I think i ate some other street food that day as well) I started to feel an itching at the back of my throat. Since I actually am generally allergic to a lot of things, I am used to this sensation, and it usually passes quickly. This time however, the sensation seemed to continue to grow, spreading to my toungue, and further around my throat. About 2 hours later, I realized that the actual tissue in my throat was swelling, my face and neck were itchy, and my lips were getting thicker. And it was getting worse.
Ok, this part wasn’t very funny. I realized that if this phenomenon did not begin to reverse itself I would soon be unable to breath. Stupidly I held on for another 20 minutes or so hoping it would go down by itself, but instead, I found myself straining to take breaths. (I am also asthmatic, so I am fairly used to this sensation as well) Since I was fairly sure the cause of the inflammation was allergy, I knew I needed help, and could not combat this with my asthma medication. So I told Alison, “I’ll go.”
You may have been wondering why I didn’t get up and head right for the hospital as soon as I started to feel bad. Well, the answer to that is I had seen the hospital. I had accompanied Alison as well as some of my colleauges there on before, and to me it was not a welcoming place.
We arrived in a rush piling out of the taxi, and I shuffled to the emergency window. By this time my throat was pretty swollen. I could only take slow, shallow breaths, and I couldn’t really talk. Alison rather frantically tried to explain what was going on, and it seemed that they understood that I was not getting enough air. So, they produced a bag. It reminded me of the free pillow that comes with an an air matress. They proceded to blow into the valve to inflate the bag, and then shoved the attached hose into my nose. She gave me the bag to hold under my arm, and motioned for me to squeeze it, apparently to push the air into my lungs. There was only one problem, my nose was stuffed shut. Full of snot. The hose wouldn’t even stay in after she tried to tape it. At this point, I was really wondering how they were planning on helping me.
It seems that they were wondering as well. I sat in the waiting area for a while, breathing slowly, while they ran around looking for someone who might be able to handle my situation. At this point my Chinese wasn’t very good, and to me they were just running around yapin incoherently while was slowly suffocating. It was starting to get to me. Then finally, a nurse said, “Come with me.”
The room I was assigned to was in the back building, on the 7th floor. The elevator was out of service. Now, remember that I can’t breathe, I’m significantly worse than my average asthma attack, actually, problably near the worst, and now I have to climb 7 flights of stairs with an infalted air pillow under my arm. Looking back I realize that I am just a really easygoing guy, cause I just went right up. The nurse looked sorry for me, as I shuffled up the steps at an alarmingly slow pace. I could feel my breath getting shallower with each step, but I just kept on, determined to get to my room where they would finally DO something.
When I finally arrived, I sat on the bed, and rested. By this time, my chest was gettin sore…pushing air in and out or my constricted throat. I couldn’t talk, and all I wanted to do was start breathing normally again. Alison translated for me and the doctor asked me some questions. I could only nod or shake my head. Finally, they announced that they were going to medicate me - with penicillin. Now, I am going to have to give the doctors the benefit of the doubt here, because I refuse to believe that they wanted to give me penicillin, an antibiotic, to treat a clear case of allergy, which requires anti-histamines. I maintain that it is just some quirk of the chinese-english dictionary that translates “strong medicine” into penicillin, or something like that.
By this time, my breathing had actually gotten much better as I relaxed from the exercise, and although I was far from 100%, I could feel myself un-constricting. So after an emphatic NO, I fell asleep.
I guess I woke up something like 3 hours later, feeling terriffic. Alison was worried sick, because she wasn’t sure if I had passed out from lack of oxygen or something like that. There was a huge tank of oxygen, finally, and a nurse ready with an injection kit. I was completely disoriented and actually quite happy to be breathing and being able to move my tongue. The doctors were really surprised that I didn’t want anything, in fact I think it took about an hour just to get out of there.
I stayed away from malaysian kabobs after that litle experience. But actually, even in Malaysia I never got that flavor or subsequent reaction again. Thank goodness. I am also happy that now I am in Guangzhou they have quite adequate medical care if I need it.
Now I think back on that day and chuckle. Not cause of the whole not breathing thing, but just the comedy of errors that led me up 7 flights of stairs just to fall asleep!