Visit to the Hospital

Wow it's been a while since I've last updated and it's not week 16. I will eventually get back to properly updating what i've been doing for the last month but today has been a really interesting day.

Today what did I do???

my host mum took me to a hospital because I've coughing out excess phlegm and have had some blood appear in amongst the gross mucus.And it's been happening for a few days now. Right now I'm am REALLY THANKFUL that I had chosen to stay with a host family because there is no way I would've had the confidence to go to a hospital on my own. ALSO, THANK GOD I've signed up for the National Health Scheme. In total I only had to pay bout 7000yen and that was only 30% of the cost (and i only had 5000yen in my pocket >__>)

first things first, the Japanese health system is quite different to the Australian one. I have never heard of a hospital only willing to accept to appointments from 8:30-11:30am, even though the hospital is clearly still operating after 11:30am. another difference is how you pay for your hospital fees. after filling out some sheet for being a first-time patient, they give you some card that resembles a credit card. you use this card for these ATM-looking machines to pay for your hospital fees and it probably holds a record of your visit. apparently each hospital has their own card (and it becomes personalized because your name is printed on it).

Today I had an x-ray taken, saw how my ribcage looks, (had a bit of a crush on the young respiratory organ doctor that examined me), then went to see the nose, throat, ear specialist and had some sort of liquid sprayed up my nostrils and a camera shoved up my nose. That's the first time I've ever had a camera shoved up and deep into my nose but boy it was not a fun experience.

The hospital I visited
now gotta stop procastinating and get back to working on writing a paper and start studying for tmr's kimatsushiken (final exam)