Back to the hospital...

From the couch of Chris...

First of, let me say that this trip to the hospital was not for the Young family-- we were helpers, not patients. It all started on Tuesday night when I was on the soccer field. Allie got a text message, one of our teammates was sick and needed to go to the hospital. As team "health-care guy," it was my job to leave the soccer field and head to the hospital, regardless of my soccer stench.

In the spirit of HIPPA, I'm going to spare you most of the personal health-related details. But, every time I go to the hospital in China I'm reminded of how blessed we were in the States and how much I always took for granted. The first reminder hit me when I returned to the hospital the next day to check on my teammate. She had been sleeping in a bed in the hallway overnight and was currently being carried to the ultrasound room. That's right-- carried. Wheelchairs aren't readily available for everyone that needs them, and if you're lucky enough to find one, there's a 500 RMB deposit to make sure you don't steal it. Even though our wheelchair only had 1 foot rest and no IV pole, we were glad to find one! Here's a picture of the view from her hallway bed:

The person 3 beds up got a lumbar puncture in the middle of the hallway-- seriously. I used to get mad if people even walked into the room when I was doing one of those! Once we found a wheelchair the next adventure was finding the bathroom. The closest accessible one required us to leave the ER and travel up and down several ramps. We couldn't get the nurse to temporarily turn off the IV, so each bathroom trip required 2 extra people (one to push the wheelchair and one to carry the IV bottle). I won't be showing pictures of this one, but since there was no IV pole in the bathroom, we had to attach the IV bottle to the janitor's stick and hold the janitor's stick over the stall door-- very classy :)

All in all, I must say it was a successful journey. Our teammate is recovering well and I learned many useful things on this trip: 1.) Smartphones are a must if you want to take pictures of medical records and e-mail them to your Western health advisers 2.) Always take a translator to a Chinese hospital and 3.) It sure does help if your translator is also an engineer! Here's a picture of Alex and I using a frayed wire to hang an IV bottle outside of the hospital:

Even though it was a stressful few days and I had to turn off my OSHA sensors, there were many blessings from this trip. To name a few, our teammate is getting better, our team has really banded together to support one another, this happened during a holiday week so we were all off of work, and I was able to spend a lot of time getting to know Josh and Alex at the hospital. I'm glad that we can trust in the Father's sovereignty and I look forward to seeing how this experience is used to grow all of us as we continue this year in China!

P.S. Mom and dad, if you're reading this... um... this would be... uh... totally different if we were the ones going to the hospital.... Love you!