A week in a Chinese hospital
You might have noticed that last week I didn’t publish any post, as usual. And it was because… I was in hospital!
I had never stayed in hospital in my life. Heck, I’ve barely been sick in my life. The only time I remember missing class or work because of an illness I was 19, got a bad flu and stayed in bed for a week. Apart from that, nothing. So when I was told that my latest blood tests indicated some liver problem which needed immediate hospitalisation, I freaked out a bit. A week in the hospital?? How is anyone supposed to survive that? What about work? (I am so hardworking, my first worry was about who would be doing my job!).
So on Friday 13th (the Spanish bad luck day!! I just noticed!!) I went to the Suzhou Municipal Hospital (also known as Maternity Hospital among locals) where the head nurse of the VIP maternity section had arranged a place for me in the high risk pregnancy ward. This ward only has 20 beds and it is always full. I arrived there at 10 am, as I was told, but the patient occupying my bed didn’t leave until 2 pm! At that point I was very angry because I hate wasting time and thought that woman was just bullshitting around, but later I found out the hospital’s organisational skills are not exactly good.
I was in a double room and my roommate was slightly older than me and pregnant with her second baby. She had bled heavily and was put on total bed rest, which meant she could not even go to the bathroom and a family member was always with her for when she wanted to pee or poo on a small bassinet in bed. As far as I know, total bed rest is not usually recommended anymore. I can’t even imagine how it must be being on bed without moving for weeks. It cannot be good at all… Luckily I didn’t have that kind of restriction and I could move around, walk the hospital corridors and even go to the convenience store next door! Honestly, I thought I would be allowed to take walks on the streets around but that was a no. I had even planned to go to the public library just across the street…
The hospital was clean, the rooms were more or less decent and I am satisfied with the care I received, but during my stay there I couldn’t help but think I was in prison instead of in the hospital. Why?? Well, because there are certain similarities between a Chinese hospital and a prison…
- I was known by a number, not by my name. The nurses seemed unable to remember my name and also didn’t want to call me Xiao Ma as I was older than them (most of them looked like right out of college). So I was Number 8, my bed’s number. Or, when they thought I was out of hearing distance, laowai (foreigner). One day a cleaning lady entered my room muttering “I want to see the foreigner”. This is China! I was not bothered by this, but it annoys me when it is a young person doing it.
- As I already mentioned, I was not free to move around and couldn’t go out except to the convenience store which was like 30 meters away.
- I was tortured although I had nothing to confess! I had a fetal non-stress test every day and on the weekend there was a stupid male nurse who forced me to had the test lying flat on my back for one hour. You are not supposed to lie flat on your back when you have a 10 kg bump, it is very painful on your lower back and when I was finally allowed to move I wanted to die. The rest of the nurses (all female, btw) allowed me to lie on my side. Besides, the non-stress test usually takes only 20 minutes but for me it always lasted one hour even though the baby was moving the whole time (he seemed to hate it although in theory he cannot feel it).
- They didn’t let me sleep. Well, also the combination of not being home, the hard hospital bed, the lights from the corridor, my roommate making normal person noises and me feeling very hot and sweaty all the time didn’t help me fall asleep. BUT apart from this, one of the daily tests was listening to the baby’s heart with a doppler machine at 12 am. Why it had to be at 12 am and not at 10 pm, I have no idea. But every day I was woken up at 12 am, barely an hour after finally falling sleep, by a coven of witches holding a doppler machine at full volume. I wanted to kill them. THEN, the official wake up time was 6 am when they came for even more tests. Conclusion: I didn’t sleep shit while I was in the hospital.
It was also the first time in my life that I had an IV drip and that was pretty bad too. I am not scared of needles but having one inserted on your hand for 3 full days sounds like a human rights violation for me. I was on the drip for around 6 hours every day so during that time I could not move much. I was also supposed to count baby kicks for 6 hours in total during the day, and I lost track of all the times my blood pressure was taken. Basically, I was doing one or other test every 1-2 hours. I couldn’t help but laugh when well wishers told me to “have a good week of rest” in the hospital!!
The nurses also told me some funny things that at first made me angry but later I had to laugh because I am a well humoured person. First, they told me my shoes (slip on sandals) were not appropriate and that I had to buy some special pregnancy shoes which cover the whole foot. My feet are all swollen and Chinese shops only carry up to size 39, so I should have told the nurses to find me some pregnancy shoes in size 41 and then we’d talk! I ignored them and wore my slip ons the whole week. Another strange rule they had was that you could not shower alone, you needed to have a relative in the bathroom with you. I laughed at this too. I have been showering alone for the whole pregnancy, I’m not going to shower with my mother in law now. And the icing on the cake was when a nurse saw me sitting in the yoga tailor pose and said I should not sit like that because my bag of waters could break. Has anyone ever heard anything like that?
Not everything was bad, to be honest (although I’d rather not stay in hospital ever again). The nurses were mostly nice to me and also the doctors, the assistants and the cleaning ladies. I had a very interesting conversation with the nurses about the Chinese postpartum customs and one nurse even told me my bump was very beautiful. And, more importantly, the treatment was effective and I was out in one week, even though this liver thing can come back at any time. I had a slightly over the limit result for cholestasis of pregnancy, but also many other weird liver indicators besides protein in pee pee, which made the doctors take the decision that I would better stay in the hospital. Now I have about one more month to go, cross your fingers that I don’t need to go back to the hospital!
Oh my, that sounds very challenging! You are in my thoughts, no more hospital stay until baby time!
Thank you! I also hope I don’t have to go back because it makes me feel physically worse! I gained a lot of weight in a week and now I feel tired all the time…
I hope your hospital stay ends soon, sounds torturous! I guess they’re just erring on the side of safety? Haha!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
I’m already out! I was there July 13th to 20th and hope I don’t have to go back until I’m in labour xD
Oh no, hope you don’t ever need to go again for a very long time!
Thank you! I hope so too.
I’ve never heard of anything like this. I’m glad you are fine and NOW you won’t be scared of the hospital when you go back for delivery, because you know “exactly” what to expect from the nurses, staff, how the room looks and feels, etc. Maybe that was why this all happened. :) Thanks for keeping us posted. Will light a candle that you have a very easy and quick delivery.
Yes, maybe this happened to prepare me, haha. But deliveries are done in another building and the rooms are different too! They have very nice private family rooms in that hospital. Thanks for your good wishes!
Hospitals are terrible for sleep. Anyone who has ever been in one knows that.
That male nurse was an ass. How can he work in a maternity ward if he doesn’t know it’s best to lie on your side?!
I was in the hospital for a bit to rule out pre-eclampsia and the nurses — all female — wanted me on my left side. Only the ultrasound tech (male) wanted me on my back. He’s lucky I didn’t kick him in the face.
I had never been in one so I had no idea, haha. I thought you were left to sleep for most of the time… I think the main problem was that I was in the “high risk pregnancy” section and even though I was not really that high risk they still gave me the same tests as everybody else!
It sounded quite frustating at the hospital, especially at the part where they didn’t want to let you sleep and kept prodding you. Sleep let’s your body rest and if you don’t sleep, you’ll be more stressed lol 😂
YES. When you can’t sleep it really feels like torture. Maybe this was a preparation for when the baby comes and I cannot sleep in years, hahaha.
For all you know the baby will be perfect and your life will go on as normal XD
OMG. Horrors upon horrors. As you know as a foreigner in an Asian country, there are stories about being in the hospital. And yes, sometimes it’s great – as in the place looked like a 5 star hotel – and then there are the nightmare stories. Or the bits where they check for things like blood pressure because it doesn’t seem like they have any other idea of what to do.
I’m SO SO glad that things are okay with you now. I hope for smooth sailing the rest of the way Marta!
Oh, by the way, what kind of birth are you going to have? Do Chinese women plan these things? For example, in Thailand, mostly everyone has a C-section for “vanity” purposes.
To be honest, I think I would have been as miserable in a western hospital. I just don’t like feeling like a prisoner xD
I’m planning to have a natural delivery, unless shit happens! C-section rates are also quite high in China and it is said doctors sometimes push you to have one because they are more expensive than vaginal delivery. Also, many Chinese women seem to have been brainwashed into believing their bodies are too weak, pelvis too small, etc, and cannot deliver naturally so they plan c-sections. However, my hospital encourages natural birth and they won’t give me a c-section unless it is medically necessary. I’m fine with that as I am terrified of having surgery.
Thanks for your good wishes! I have blood tests on Thursday to check how my liver is doing, let’s cross our fingers…
Yes, same in Thailand. Doctors push women to have C-sections for the same reasons. Money, money, money! Ugh. Disgusting.
Good for you – I hope you can have a natural birth. But no pressure, right? I mean, my god, your body’s gonna do what it has to do.
Good luck! xxoo
Humorous post. Fingers crossed!!
Thanks Sue!
Sounds like you had quite an ordeal, Marta, but glad you came out fine. Staying in the hospital is never good, especially a Chinese one. Some of the advice from the Chinese nurses sound funny so it’s good you ignored them. Hope you have a healthy and uneventful birth.
Thank you! Looks like I’m safe for the moment and I will “only” take medicines at home!
I understand that the average Chinese woman is smaller than the average white woman, but I find it hard to believe that China doesn’t have shoes in your size. You’re not a giant and surely you’re not bigger than the biggest Chinese woman!
Here it’s hard to find women’s shoes from 40 on! I normally have no problem because I have a 39, but now my feet are swollen and I can basically only wear flip flops. Even some size 40 shoes that I have are too tight now…
Also… pants! On brick and mortar stores I can only find my size in places like H&M or GAP. And yes, there are Chinese women who are way fatter than I am. I don’t know what they did before Taobao, maybe they went to special big size stores?
Dear god this sounds awful! I hope you’re feeling better and you don’t have to go back! Sounds like they did overkill of tests on you at the hospital, but better safe than sorry huh?
I think the main problem was that I didn’t feel bad at all so I was grumpy all the time because I thought I didn’t need to be there xD Now I’m just taking some medicine at home and the blood tests are ok, so it looks I won’t need to go back! Yay!
Dear, I hope you feel good always. Generally, hospital experience in China won’t be good. Because we have a lot of people, the doctor needs to see many patients every day. Sometimes, you may be told to go out 30 seconds after you saw the doctor. I wish you good health and enjoy your life in China.
Oh, I’ve almost always had good or decent experiences with hospitals in China! Sometimes there were people trying to enter the doctor’s office when I was inside but I pushed them outside and closed the door until I was done. Re: this post… I would have been as grumpy if I had to stay in hospital anywhere else!
Oh No! I hope you’re feeling better now you’re away from the coven of witches. I had a giggle at that one.
Seriously, I hope you’re feeling better :)
I’m completely fine now! Well I didn’t feel sick before either xD I just have to eat some (very expensive) pills until I give birth.
Yay! Happy you’re feeling better!
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