One final interesting story from our year #2 in Hong Kong came during our last week before leaving for the US. We had been dealing with some sickness, probably stemming from burn out, not enough sleep, and extra busyness with end of the school year activities. Grace had been loosely diagnosed with strept, or the beginning of strept, the week before. She had been put on Augmentin, an antibiotic, by a doctor who took all of two minutes (not at all exaggerating) to feel the glands in her neck and look at her throat. It took about 24 hours for her to feel better (yeah!), but then about five days later, Josh came home after the second to last day of school with a low grade temperature. I should have taken him to the clinic right then, but with awards ceremonies and hosting a farewell party, this trip got postponed until Sunday, because by then, Andy needed to go, too.
Andy took Josh to a new clinic closer to us in Tai Po. After he waited in line, filled out paperwork and then was told to call for an appointment, he couldn't get an appointment until the next day. So Andy became his own doctor and took things into his own hands. We had been told that some, if not most pharmacies sold antibiotics over the counter. Andy didn't have a problem finding some drugs for Josh (using the dosage we had for Grace as a baseline) and himself. Now, we realize that this is not safe, nor recommended, but when you have a 15 hour flight looming for your family of seven, you don't need to be sharing germs...they just need to be eradicated:) The only problem was that Andy only bought enough drugs for about four days, and he wasn't able to get augmentin, just another generic amoxicillian. So, when two days had come and gone, and Josh still wasn't feeling well, it was my turn. First, I texted my pediatrician friend to confirm that I needed to find Augmentin. Then, I went in search myself...the day before we were leaving. So with Grace's dosage in hand, I went on my way:)
The first dispensary I went to was very helpful. I shared my needs, the pharmacist listened, and checked in the back for the Augmentin. Unfotunately, they didn't have any at that time, but he thought that the pharmacy next door would have it. When I went next door, the first person I spoke to passed me off to another person, who passed me off again. Finally, I was told very clearly "no". I decided to ask in a different way just to be sure there wasn't a "lost in translation" situation, and he assured me they did not have Augmentin. Finally, I went to one more pharmacy that I knew about...my last resort...and I was desperate. At this point, I just needed more antibiotic.
As I walked in, I started to share what I needed, and again I was passed on to someone else. I really do appreciate this practice because I get very uncomfortable when I am talking to people who have no idea what I am saying. When I showed the pharmacist what I had and what I was looking for, he came back after checking, and said he only had a generic antibiotic. So I explained that I needed a dosage for my husband and a dosage for my son, who is younger and smaller than my daughter. He went to the back again and came back with two different dosages. When I looked at the dosages, I was a bit confused and looked for some clarification. Both dosages he brought back were smaller than Grace's dosage. When I asked if the smaller dosage was for my son, he said that the larger dosage was for Josh. While this made sense in the respect that it was still smaller than Grace's dosage, I didn't understand how the smaller dosage was for Andy. I then asked asked why the other dosage was less? He looked at me with a strange tilt to his head and asked, "Well, how big is your dog?" I started laughing and said, "I don't have a dog. This medicine is for my husband." He laughed, too, and then went back to get an appropriate dosage for my 6'4'' husband:) You just never know...
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