Chengdu Week 4 - Special Update

Sept. 23, 2014

    So today began normally and quickly became the most intense day of my stay in China. I had just gone down to class when I get a strange call from Jose. He tells me that Cassidy needed me for something (This may get mildly graphic). So I go up to the room to find Cassidy, who is in extreme pain. She was unable to cope with the pain, and ended up throwing up, quite a bit. She continued to complain of extreme pain in her back, only on her left side. She was extremely scared. Wentao then called me, telling me she was trying to get over to the school but with the traffic in the morning, it was incredibly difficult to get a taxi to take her over to the University. So Wentao attempted to call the ambulance to bring us to the hospital, but the problem was the same, they couldn’t get through the morning traffic with any form of efficiency. Now about a half an hour has gone by, Cassidy is still in extreme pain, and getting more scared as no one comes to help us. Wentao, as a last resort, called the on campus clinic who sent over a doctor. I went to Cassidy’s room at 8 am and the doctor arrived with a nurse at 9:30 am.
    Once the doctor was there we quickly discovered that neither of us could speak each other’s language. The doctor however, with the help of Cassidy and I (hand signs and broken Chinese), managed to figure out that there was pain, vomiting and GI problems. She almost immediately started pressing on Cassidy’s back and then we were suddenly off to the clinic on campus. We arrive and were immediately ushered to the third floor where there was an ultrasound machine. At this point Wentao had finally managed to arrive, which meant we were able to understand what was going on. Cassidy had kidney stones. So they get her into a bed and hook up her IV, but it doesn’t stop there. She also had to use the restroom but in the hospital there were only squatting toilet. So she had to squat in pain with an IV in her hand. This would later affect her but I will get there.
     In China they give you the bare minimum of what you need. So Cassidy had no pain medication and was suffering a kidney stone. It took almost an hour to get her pain medication as it require official approval to administer. When they finally gave her the shot, she was literally screaming and writhing in pain. After the drugs she passed out, it was 11 am. At this point Tong, our favorite USAC intern, had appeared along with Wentao, who had been in and out helping with translation. Tong had brought water, and moral support for me. We chatted while Cassidy rested, he was extremely concerned for her. Cassidy had also managed to pull out her IV causing her hand to swell, this happened because she had been attempting to balance herself while using the squatting toilets. So they switched hands (they did this three times, until they taped her hand to box to stop it from moving). By this point it was 12pm and she was finally feeling better. They were pumping fluids into her and continued to do so until 3:30pm.
    Tong was switched out for Chiyi, who is absolutely lovely. She stayed and chatted with us, until the IVs were done. We did manage to get some food brought to us, via Wentao sending Tong out. It was good to finally get out of the hospital and back to the dorms. Cassidy has not passed the stone yet so we have to go back to the hospital tomorrow morning for an ultrasound and another round of IV treatment. That was my day, but in the end Cassidy is alright, which is the important part of this whole experience.

Necessary sign for Chengdu hospital

A very drugged Cassidy