Thought that I could avoid the flu pandemic sweeping campus, but no. A few classmates that caught the bug decided to spread around Shaoyuan instead of isolating the virus and now the joyous plague is feasting inside my body. Most people got over the bug within 24 hours, but then somehow virus's enjoy me like a sponge!
A sudden fever of 101 hit me on Wednesday during my speaking class which prompted me to ditch my newspaper class and hit the bed. I thought the fever went away with some Tylenol, but it continued to return. The next day I continued to sleep until noon (have I been suffering from sheer exhaustion?). I sweated buckets the whole night, but then around 1pm the next day the fever surged. Great. Why do you return? Why bring back pain? I was in a little bit of a panic so I called the CIEE office and they gave me two options. Wow options? really? You guys threw Sarah into a 19th century prison cell. "You can go to the Beida hospital (hell hole) or the United Family hospital"
"United Family? ....can I go to that one?"
"yes of course, come over and one of us will take you there."
So after realizing my insurance is bogus, and the travel insurance CIEE/CU Boulder gave us is also considered bogus I ended up giving in and Brian (Li 老师） and I headed to the hospital in Chaoyang district. Another worthy discovery: I don't know why i took it for granted that CIEE was not going to pay for the taxi. So for future reference you pay for your own hospital ride.
We got there an hour early thinking that we could see the doctor sooner. We assumed wrong. After a temperature gun was aimed at my forehead we waited.
Dr. Wang was assigned to me. How coincidental. He used to work in Washington state, but now has worked in Beijing for the past three years. After going through some questions and deep breaths...what's the conclusion Dr. Wang?
"well Susan, you definitely have the flu"
"YES I knew IT!!"
"it's gonna last 4-5 days."
Well this is going to be fun. Self quarantine.
He also asked if anyone else in my hall was suffering from similar symptoms. The answer is yes. Yes with an underlying bitter tone. CIEE might be in slight denial when Brian said "no there's no one else who has a cold."
Oh very funny Brian. There's 4-5 cases and case zero decided to spread it like dandelions. That miserable little jerk face.
So as of now I have isolated myself. I feel fairly well, but as Dr. Wang said, "if you stop breathing or feel like your going to do, you need to see me immediately."
Will I get a 20% discount of my bill if I present my student i.d again? Let's hope I don't have to return to the hospital.
