On Monday, we went to An-Ding Hospital, a large Psychiatric Hospital. While this isn't really in my area of medicine, I was still interested to see some of the crazies. If the population with mental disorders in a city this large is anything like the good old HCPC in Houston (Harris County Psychiatric Center), we were bound to have quite an experience... I was mistaken.
The way that psychiatric patients are treated here in Beijing is much different than back in Houston. To start with, the average stay is much longer here, about 2 to 3 months, as compared to only 7 days back home. With this longer stay, comes the necessity to provide more activities for the patients (too keep them from going even more crazy?!) The morning of our visit to An-Ding consisted of a tour of the arts & crafts areas and the recreation facilities. The most common diagnosis at the hospital is schizophrenia. While I would certainly expect for the population of patients to be more of the artistic mindset, I was blown away by some of the paintings, sculptures and other handiwork that they have produced. And all of the patients on the wards seemed remarkably friendly. I never once got the feeling that I needed to watch my back, a feeling that is constant at HCPC.
The afternoon was much more subdued, and consisted of a short tour of some of the wards, with a long awkward discussion between some of the residents and one of our classmates who is going into psychiatry.
That evening, we went to our restaurant down the street (which we have all long since grown sick of). Afterwards, Lindsey, myself and a couple others decided to head further down the street to a bakery we had heard about. We got some delicious treats, and then headed across the street to KFC for coffee (I know, it sounds strange, but they are everywhere here, and it was the closest place to get coffee at the time).
After a short stay, we popped into the local grocery store, MerryMart, for some speakers for Lindsey's computer (so they could watch a movie) and some other necessities.
Tuesday brought us to Xuanwu Hospital, which is a large general hospital that also has a large Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM, department. Our first day was somewhat slow as we spent the morning with a cardiologist going over heart murmurs. While it was interesting that we were able to see 4 different patients with rheumatic heart disease, the lecture that we received on how to examine and auscultate the heart was very tedious.
It didn't get much better at lunch, as the restaurant down the street from our dorms, the same one we have been going to for over a week now, did not seem to know we were coming for lunch. We had to wait over 40 minutes for our food, which was barely edible, and that put us about an hour late getting back to the hospital.
The afternoon spent with the neurology department, was somewhat more interesting. We were presented 4 different cases, and were pimped in a similar fashion as our own 3rd year pimp sessions back in Houston (only with a lot less stress). The first case was Tolosa Hunt Syndrome (which I had never heard of). I cannot recall the second case, but I do remember that he had Horner's syndrome, with very clear physical exam findings. Third was an ALS patient and lastly a patient with TB meningitis, with very obvious nuchal rigidity.
Tuesday night, we decided to ditch our usual restaurant for a Brazilian style place just up the road. While it wasn't the best food ever, it was cheap, all you can eat & drink (including beer), and different. I particularly liked the chicken intestines and the ox tongue, but didn't care much for the chicken feet. And to top it all off, they had soft serve ice cream!!!
Today, Wednesday, we went back to Xuanwu for the most interesting presentation so far. The morning brought us an introduction to acupuncture. A patient came in while the TCM doctor performed acupuncture on her for about an hour. Following lunch, it was our turn to be the patients. We also were shown the technique of cupping, which was quite interesting. Unfortunately, everyone wanted to try, but there wasn't enough time, and I wasn't able to do either. But I'm hoping to be first in line Friday when we do traditional Chinese massage.
After this, we took a short tour of the TCM pharmacy, which I'm sure my dad would find very interesting. Instead of shelves with pill bottles, there were rows and rows of drawers with all kinds of herbs, fruits, and dried insects.
And for a very American style cultural experience, we went to Hooters tonight. We tried to go just to buy shirts, but were coaxed into sitting down for food (wasn't too hard to talk me into it). The girls here had much more energy than any other Hooter's I've been to, and were constantly dancing and singing for all of the tables.
Tomorrow and Friday we will go back to Xuanwu, but Friday afternoon we get to go to the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. I'll try to post again sometime this weekend.
(More pictures and video to come very soon...hopefully tomorrow)
再见,
Adam
4 comments:
Do the Chinese Hooters girls have obvious breast implants like here? Does the Hooters serve chicken feet?
Hooters!! Seriously!!!
Jon- not really... but it was really funny. There was a sign that said "caution: blondes thinking"... and there were obviously no blondes there. Claire- I know, but we really just went to get shirts, and some of the other people were just dying for American food... a salad in particular.
I was thinking the same thing as Claire, but I can forgive anything for the desire to have a salad.
One of your other blogging travelmates beat you to the punch by writing about the psychiatric hospital. Were most of the patients on meds? And if so, what kind?
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