February 11, 2018
D7: Dongxing
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Based on prior total lack of knowledge about the abortion pill other than 'it exists' I'm not really surprised that I spent all night with mild cramps. When I finally did get to sleep, I slept hard and missed the 8am time that the hospital staff told me I needed to be there.
That's okay, however, because by this point I've done quite a lot of reading and talked to a number of professionals online and the correct spacing between Pill One and Pill Two is 36 to 48 hours not 16. There's also no protocol that calls for first taking the pills and then getting surgery 7 hours later. The only still get surgery protocol involves shit failing (badly), shit still failing after a second round of pills, and even then is a good 2 or 3 weeks out from the initial pill taking. Whereas, they are talking about surgery barely 24 hours after the first pill.
Considering how much of yesterday involved people insulting me or bullying me and how grossly nasty the public areas of the hospital were, I'm pretty sure that the last thing I want is any one associated with this hospital cutting into any part of my body.
Instead, my goals for today are:
- Find out if the pill I took was in fact Mifepristone.
- Find out if the dose I was given was correct.
- Get the Misoprostol pills that I should be taking in a window that starts 12 hours from now.
- Get my deposited money refunded to me.
After a nice long phone conversation with my best beloved, and a breakfast that made me realize I didn't actually eat yesterday, I moseyed on over to the hospital around half past two. They were understandably pissed off that I hadn't been there at 8am as it meant they would not be able to do surgery on me this afternoon. I was still at the keeping it civil stage of things and waving my hand to encompass their facilities while saying "you think I would let you do surgery on me? Here!?" was really the least insulting thing I could think of to say.
The box of pills was produced and the package insert was checked. Mifepristone 25mg each. The guidelines call for 200mg. And they'd given me 6. So, not only are they getting the timing wrong, they are also getting the dose wrong. I skim through the Chinese instructions and discover that while these aren't quite the same as any of the remarkably identical online factsheets (which are probably written for women who weigh more than 47kg) they are also, very clearly, nothing at all like what they've told me they are going to do to me.
After some mild refusal on their part that I don't know what I'm talking about and insistence that my inability to immediately find the World Health Organization guidelines in Chinese means that whatever I'm reading is clearly wrong, I got kind of pissed off, literally grabbed the drawer out of the desk, upended it, took two packages and got eight 25mg pills in my mouth before they could call Security.
There were only three Misoprostol pills of unknown dosage in a blisterpack in the drawer and the doctor got those in her pocket before I could. If I were at the stage of development they tell me I'm at, then I should be taking 600mg + 3 hours + 400mg + 3 hours + 400mg. That's never going to add up to the three pills I'm not going to wrestle out of this woman's pocket so it's a situation to figure out later.
I don't really want to wait until I no longer share a common language with the doctors to handle my medical needs but, as best I can tell, these pills are available in Vietnam and I definitely don't want these people doing anything to me.
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It took a good two hours before the police showed up. I'm not sure which specific behavior of mine prompted them being called. It could have been when I raised my voice louder than even I previously knew it was possible for me to yell. It could have been when I implicitly threatened to go into the hospital pharmacy and start knocking things off shelves until I found where the Misoprostol was being stored. It might even have been when, after they said I could only take the pill whose greatest benefit is that you can take it at home at their hospital, under supervision, and kept overnight in one of their gross unheated wards I told them they'd better make sure to either leave the doors and windows unlocked or be prepared to buy new doors and windows. And those are just my three best candidates for utterly horrible and offensive behavior on my part.
Realize that while the CNY 2000 they have on deposit is not a significant chunk of money to me, in terms of an average woman in Dongxing, we are talking about a full month's income. I've made it quite clear that I am not paying for the expensive service they want to give me and all they needed to do to get rid of me was give me my money back. Since they are unwilling to either give me my pills or my money, I have been given full reign to be as much of a bitch as I want to be.
Despite my immediately dropping the loud belligerent asshole act the minute the police arrived, things started with the police favoring the hospital. This is to be expected. After all, when a hospital calls the police over a loud belligerent patient, you'd ordinarily expect that the patient is in fact wrong. What is not to be expected was how incredibly good a job the hospital staff did of arguing my side of the argument (that they were money grubbing lying assholes who didn't want to follow standard medical procedure) such as to eventually force the police to take my side.
As part of the negotiations to "just give me my money back" they were supposed to cancel out the fees for services I didn't get. Like the luxurious overnight stay on a quarter inch thick mattress in a room with two strangers, a drafty window, and a squat toilet down the hall. But they had to argue to the police that even though I had flatly refused an overnight stay a multiplicity of times starting from before taking the Mifepristone and even though I had walked out of the hospital at 4pm the day before, they had somehow managed to provide nursing services to me all night long only to find me inexplicably missing at 8am when they came to give me my Misoprostol.
Once all of this was squared away, and it was very clearly agreed I would only be charged for services I actually received, the police, myself, and one of the doctors went down to the payments desk to get my deposit returned. I was counting my money and checking the bill and would you look at that, in addition to CNY 44.5 for western medicine, I was also charged CNY 30 for my night's stay in the ward, CNY 15.2 for nursing services, and CNY 30 for medical consultation. The cop turned to say something to the doctor but she was literally disappearing down the hall at full speed. He turns back to me and I'm like "it's just not that much money to fight over."
"Good luck tomorrow in Vietnam." he says, and I start walking out of the parking lot while he walks to his car.
Today's ride: 3 km (2 miles)
Total: 285 km (177 miles)
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