Visiting Musashi Sakai Red Cross Hospital

First of all, a big public thanks to everyone who has been praying for me. I can attest that your prayers have made a difference, and been a huge encouragement to me. I know that God has been good in answering prayers I've requested, but also prayers I've prayed for others. I was informed by +Michael Tong in our google hangout last night that a non-Christian who visited our church back in Australia whilst I was still there, has attended on numerous occasions, as I prayed that he might. But again to exceed my expectations (and everyone at church, it seems), he has been reading the Bible at home of his own initiative! Praise God. Aren't I concerned he might see this post? I think it would be a good thing for him to know people have been praying for him!

And I don't know if it was because you prayed that I'd get better, +George Mason, but your prayer has been answered, haha. As I promised in an earlier post, I'm documenting the outcome of the specialist visit last week Friday. Apologies for the time delay; it's been a full on week. Also, happy golden week everyone!

I didn't understand everything that was going on, because my Japanese is still limited, but as far as I could ascertain, there were no GPs in this hospital. Since every person who goes to the hospital has at least some idea of what abnormal condition they have, from the beginning you ask for a doctor specialising in the field you want further examination in. For example, I was referred to the respiratory specialists ward. I also saw a neurological ward and a pathological ward. I suppose if you somehow caught three different types of illnesses simultaneously, it's up to you to go to each respective ward for the check-up.

The next thing I was surprised about was how young the doctor who I consulted was. He was a respiratory specialist no doubt, but he looked younger than 30 - although I have noticed that Asians generally look younger than their actual age. So anyway, his diagnosis was the same as the doctor at the university, 咳喘息. No photo of the doctor either. Asking the doctor for a photo would be quite strange.

What was also strange was the design of the medicine, although "different" might be a better description than "strange". Can you guess what the purple thing is used for?

On right left are tablets, but they are seriously tiny. Each tablet was the size of a pimple (ok maybe a fairly big pimple). They are certainly easy to take. I don't know what the proper English name would be for the contraption on the left (in fact don't know what it's called in any language) but it's like an inhalant. You can slide the tab on the spine of the container to expose a mouth that dispenses medicine in powdered form, which you inhale.

What also surprised me, for the worse, was the medical bill. Just a note that the exchange rate is approximately 1AUD = 100JPY.

It might be normal to expect $300 for a specialist consultation, but due to both my limited experience with medical bills and my stingy student perspective on money, it sounds like a lot to me. Even with the health insurance card that all students in Japan are offered, after a 70% discount I still had to fork out $90 for one appointment. The most annoying part is that the receipt doesn't tell me where the majority of my fees came from, since the consultation itself apparently cost $3. Additionally, the medicine set me back $30, also after applying the 70% health insurance discount. The moral of the story is don't get sick in Japan. Especially if you don't have health insurance.

On a different note, praise God that I managed to send out this month's prayer letter on schedule! Thanks for +Lauren Tsang's farewell present, which motivates me to continue sending out my letters on time.

I keep it with all my other keys, so that every time I need to lock the door or use the bike, I am reminded of Ephesians 6:19 and that I have the support of everyone's prayers back home, and certainly yours :)