I've been fighting a cold now for two and a half weeks. Actually, I'm pretty sure I was fighting a cold for about two weeks, after which time I caught a new one. At any rate, I've had to leave school early a few times because of it, and it just doesn't seem to be getting better. I've had a runny or blocked nose and cough for ever, it seems. The nose I can deal with. The cough is really getting in the way of my teaching, as talking loudly enough to be heard by a class tends to set me off (although that's been improving, and my voice no longer feels at risk of disappearing on me). Also, I think I've had a slight temperature the last few afternoons. The fact that I was really excited about Tim being here, and wanted to take advantage of the limited opportunity to go looking at Autumn leaves didn't help as I probably overdid it on Sunday. Ok Hunter, I can leave the "probably" out.
Anyway, today I gave in to all the people who have been hassling me and decided to go to the doctor, despite my belief that there's no point going to the doctor with just a cold. In Japan, it seems that a cold is a perfectly valid reason to go to the doctor, in fact, you get a lot of puzzled looks if you don't.
Anyway, after a fairly short wait, I was admitted to see the doctor, an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist (everyone's a specialist here). I admitted that I'd been taking over-the-counter cold medication (I don't usually do even that, but I've needed help getting through my teaching day), and this got a bit of a tut-tut. Then he presumed to inform me of my symptoms, cough, runny nose, sore throat, and didn't seem particularly interested that my throat wasn't sore. He sat me down in a chair, shoved a tong-like thing in my nostrils to open them, and proceeded to spray something (I assume a decongestant) up my nose, before sticking a great long vacuum thing up my nose. This made me seriously contemplate hitting the doctor to make it stop. It was incredibly unpleasant, and he gave me no warning of what to expect. Once he'd finished torturing my nose, he stuck my tongue down, and sprayed something down my throat, which immediately triggered a really nasty coughing fit.
After my treatment at the hands of the doctor, I was taken over to a machine, given a clean mouthpiece to attach to the end of a hose, and told to breath the medicated steam for three minutes. This was difficult to do, as I was still suffering from severe coughing. After my three minutes were up, I was moved to the adjacent machine, given a clean nose-piece, and did another 3 minutes of medicated steam to the nose. It did seem to clear my nose up for a few hours, but at the same time, it turned my phlegm-producing cough into a dry tickly cough for the same duration, and I prefer the phlegmy cough.
I was then given a prescription, told repeatedly to discontinue the over-the-counter medication I was taking, and directed to the adjacent pharmacy. I was also told to come back in three days, which I do not intend on doing. Anyway, at the pharmacy, I kid you not, I was given three days' supply of eight different kinds of medicine. Eight! These included a gargle, tablets for the cough, painkillers (I don't have a sore throat!), antibiotics (I have a cold! I don't need antibiotics, they can't possibly help me, I refuse to take them, and I disapprove of this unwarranted use), and several different preparations to target phleghm and nose-mucus. I made them explain the purpose of each different type of medication, and wrote it all down. Of this, I expect to take the tablets for cough and maybe a couple of the phlegm/mucous ones tomorrow. The rest I will do without.
At least it wasn't expensive, compared to visiting a doctor in Australia. It cost me about $15 for the visit to the doctor, and $8 for a giant pile of medication. It might make the next few days more pleasant, though I'm sure I won't get better any faster for it.
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