Adventures in Medical China😷!!!
Had to go to the #Chinese #dentist yesterday with my mom after she lost half a tooth🤒. One of the hardest parts about being an #expat or living abroad is dealing with medical issues🤕. They speak no English. . . you can’t speak to them. Figuring out appointments, instructions, explaining sensitivity idsues, allergies . . . . is all very complex. 😭
So I called my school🏢 cause they are supposed to help. Three hours later, they gave me the phone number📞 of a guy who spoke no English (not helpful❌).
As all good foreign laoshi (#teacher) do, I went to my students👧👦. Several immediately responded with offers to help. One girl👧 found a really good hospital (Jilin University School of Stomalogy🏥) that had a #School of Dentistry. Another girl 👧called them and asked about the English. She warned them we were coming & got me the address. #Didi (China’s #Uber) 🚗 got us to the hospital, and one the other students👦 stood by his phone to be a #translator.
Luckily, the hospital 🏥 was EXCELLENT. The registration guide girl 👧 helped us book a teacher and got us the medical card. In China, you get a membership card when you visit the #hospital. That card has all your medical history, so if you go somewhere else, they just check the card to see your past. Very easy.
Went to the VIP office and waited. They found a dentistry student 👨 working there who had studied in #Maryland 🇺🇸 for a year, and he helped translate. Helpful & Good looking – Happy Days! 😛
Got an X-ray that took about 20 minutes. Went back and watched #Cdramas (Chinese soap operas)📺 while we waited. Saw the Doctor💉 after about 2 hours, he recommended a root canal and did the first part. We go back 3 more times in the next 3 weeks. 📅 His bedside manner was great!
All in all, thanks to my Awesome students and the very professional &
helpful staff at the hospital. . . It was a relatively painless!!🎉🎉
Total Cost: $206
Membership Card (for VIP service with a Professor doctor): $4
X-Ray: $2
Root Canal: $100
Crown: $100
SO CHEAP!!!🤑
Deceptively Blonde 
Wow, that would have cost you well north of $1,000 in the United States where medical costs are among the highest or highest in the world and many Americans have no medical coverage and don’t have the money.