…although I do have “a bad case of loving you,” I ALSO have a bad case of some kind of rash. The left side of my face from my ear, along my jaw line, and down my neck is covered with small red bumps that itch like CRAZY! I know, I know, it’s totally T.M.I. (for those of you non-Millennials – that stands for “Too Much Information”), but this rash resulted in my first (and hopefully only) trip to the Chinese doctor.
Let me explain:
Wednesday morning I woke up feeling refreshed and well-rested; it had rained the night before, so I had left my window open and woke up to the morning air. It was glorious… until about five minutes later my ear started to itch. I reached up, and sure enough, there were four little bumps by my ear. “Dang mosquitoes,” I thought, “serves me right for sleeping with the window open.”
Well several times throughout the day the bumps felt irritated; but I just ignored it. By Wednesday night, the bumps were on fire; I was like, “this is so strange, mosquito bites shouldn’t feel this way.” I put a cold wash cloth on it though and the heat seemed to go away. At about 3 am, however, I woke-up to this crazy feeling on the left side of my face. When I reached up to touch my jaw line, I noticed that the number of bumps had like tripled and covered my entire jaw line and part of my neck. And they hurt so badly that I got up to look through my medicine cabinet for some Benadryl. Of course, that is the ONE medicine that I didn’t bring from America (Kel, we failed in the packing department – how did we forget Benadryl?!) Luckily, I remembered that the CWEF health kit was still at my apartment; and after rummaging through it, I found some Benadryl.
The Benadryl put me right to sleep, but unfortunately, the rash was still there when I woke up. And truthfully, it actually hurt worse at this point. The bumps were completely red and my whole jaw line was red and irritated. I had to sit on my hands the entire day so that I wouldn’t scratch them. Although, I must admit there were a few times when all self-control went out the window (but it was only when Li Ying wasn’t looking, haha!) I bought an anti-itch cream and applied it several times, but it didn’t help.
Finally, today (Friday) I had enough; the rash wasn’t going away, it still itched terribly, and tomorrow I’m going out of town – we need a solution I thought. Li Ying suggested we go to a local hospital to see a dermatologist. Walking up to the hospital was slightly terrifying as I began to think of what would happen if I actually had to go there in a serious medical emergency (please continue to ask Him to keep me healthy!)
Once we got to the office, I registered and paid for the office visit. GET THIS – it cost 7 renminbi (1 U.S. dollar!) for the doctor’s visit. Now, I don’t want to get in to a healthcare debate… but that’s pretty incredible. We waited for about ten minutes, and then the dermatologist called me into her office. Chinese doctors’ offices are so interesting; the doctor sits at their desk, and multiple patients crowd around them, waiting to be the next patient to sit down at the desk to be examined. Let’s just say that these health care professionals have never heard of HIPPA. I sat down and the dermatologist asked Li Ying three questions about my rash; then the doctor gave me two prescriptions – a cream and a tablet, and we left. Altogether, the doctors visit/prescriptions cost me thirty minutes and $10. Not bad.
I’ve started both prescriptions and my gross rash feels better. Unfortunately, this cream is not one that can be rubbed in, so I’ve been walking around all day with this white cream covering half of my face. Good thing Chinese people already think I’m strange, and I have only seen one foreigner all week! Haha – living in a foreign country does have its advantages. Hopefully when I wake up in the morning the bumps will be gone so I don’t have to spend tomorrow looking like a crazy person with face cream all over the left side of my face, haha. I’ll keep you posted.
