To the Doctor's Surgery I Go

The entire time I've been in Japan I've been getting cold after cold after cold and then some major hayfever to top it off. Last night I was on skype with my mother and sneezing every thirty seconds - a great Mother's Day conversation. Today I was like the walking dead at school. Completely zombified.

Time to see a doctor. With my trusty Japanese speaking colleague in tow we went to the local doctor where you just show up. Since I've met so many hypochondriac's here I assumed the wait would be long. Not the case. I got seen immediately.

At home, doctor's have offices with a little gurney and things in the corner. The back of this doctor's surgery was very emergency room-like. I was lead to a chair, pretty much a dentist's chair with so many silver implements next to it that I briefly wondering if he might do surgery on me there.

Anyway. I had a silver metal thing shoved up my nostrils which wasn't great by tolerable. Then another thing was shoved back further than my nostrils to check my mucus (lovely I know). This hurt. A lot. In fact I think I left indentations on the arm of the chair...or torturers ensnarement. I am also finding that my sinus' or something are bleeding now...probably why it hurt. Ugh.

Turns out I have sinusitis. This doesn't surprise me. But here are some things that do - I have been prescribed 4 different medications which came to the grand total of sixteen dollars. That also included the consultancy fee. I nearly fell over.

The doctor said that a blood test wasn't necessary but if I felt one should be done I could. He apologised that it was very expensive at $50. I laughed. Which is rude but that's less that the consultancy fee in Australia.

So here's what my money got me - two sets of month long antihistamines and antibiotics and two sets of nasal sprays.
Then they made me do this before I left by sticking these weird rubber things in my nose.
Inhale medicine. It's weird. Very weird. But weirdly works in clearly out your nasal cavities.