Last night I woke up in the middle of the night to Andrew – he was groaning in pain. We did a quick medical assessment, and we thought that he either had a urinary tract infection or he was passing a bladder stone. He was in serious pain, and bathed in sweat. I dug out my international driver’s license, but in the end we called some friends of Andrew’s that live in the neighborhood.
They came over in a few minutes, but they spoke very little english. We translated what we could, it was pretty frustrating. After a few minutes we called 119 (that’s right, they have it backwards here) and about 15 minutes later an ambulance came. By that time, the pain was beginning to subside, but we convinced Andrew to go to the hospital anyway. They went off in the ambulance, and I jumped in the car with one of the neighbors and we went to the hospital.
We got to the hospital and talked with the doctor, and I think he misunderstood – he gave Andrew medicine for a stomach problem. Since the pain had diminished anyway, we went back home, and Andrew is going to see an English speaking doctor when he gets home next week. It was quite a late night adventure, and I was bushed when I finally got home. I need to practice my medical Japanese words in case I find myself in need of a doctor!
