Cultures mix at Beijing hospital

BEIJING -- The ward I am in is much nicer than the rest of the hospital. Today I had to go to another part of the hospital for an ultrasound of my digestive tract and X-rays of my spine where they are planning surgery; that part was colder and not as clean.

There are people here from the Philippines, Turkey, Greece, Yemen, Switzerland and other countries. I believe there are four people from the United States, but they are all patients with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. It is strange sitting in the community room listening to the foreigners speak with each other. Some have family members who can speak English. They smile and laugh and joke around and are as friendly as can be. If our respective nations could settle their differences and get along as well as we do here, there would be no problem in the Middle East. The people seem to like Americans and realize that they are like them and that the only differences are cultural.

Everyone has been as nice as they can be, and I have no complaints except that there is only one TV channel that is in English and all they talk about is news. I am glad I brought my MP3 jukebox and my music to pass the time.

I have not been able to leave the hospital to do any sightseeing. I am going a little stir crazy here because of not being able to get out and do things. I never thought I would say this, but I miss my exercise equipment.

The doctors will not allow patients to leave because they fear you may contract something that may interfere with or put off surgery. I wonder if the SARS epidemic is worse than they want others to know about.

Nor does the government want you taking any pictures around the city. It makes me wonder what they have to hide.

While I haven't been able to go out, some ladies did go shopping yesterday. The hospital allows caregivers to leave and shop. The ladies say they are constantly approached by locals trying to get them to buy their goods and haggle with them over the price. You can find some good bargains here, but you have to watch out for the junk as well.

A couple came here the night before last and had made arrangements to stay in a nice hotel in Beijing. They were not scheduled to be at the hospital for two more days. The hospital found out they were there. The couple were told that if they did not come directly to the hospital and stay here that the hospital would not treat them.