February was “a terrible hospital month” for me. I went to the ER *emergency room for the first time in Canada due to severe back pain which caused me hard to breathe. Also, I had been suffering from ear and eye problems for over two weeks. Luckily, everything has been cured and is back to normal.

Throughout this experience, I found that explaining symptoms is one of the most important skills to survive here. Otherwise, of course, our symptoms might be mistakenly overlooked, and then we are likely to miss the best treatment to cure them.

Overall, the experience in the ER was not comfortable. First of all, we did try our best to find out the best hospital by reading the Google reviews of the ER throughout Vancouver carefully because my nearest hospital had the worst review “It was chaotic with people screaming suffering from drugs and waited over 15 hours to see a doctor.” Our decision was relatively not too too bad, because there was no one screaming out but still, I waited for 7 hours in total. Later I found out that waiting time is determined by how emergent people’s symptoms are on the first quick interview in the reception so a long waiting time means they determined you as it is not urgent. That’s rude but fair to some extent. What’s unique about waiting time is blood test carts are around to take patients’ blood in the waiting room, and a nurse comes to take blood in turn which is not commonly seen in Japan.

By the way, it was my first time to be required to explain what my pain looks like in English. I somehow managed to tell my symptoms understandably but let’s say I could only understand roughly 60% of what a nurse was asking. So today let me tell you 5 questions that I was asked by a nurse during the first check-up. Of course, these questions are not likely to be asked if there are any medicines or symptoms you have been taking care of or any other medical history you have. It should be only applied to something you experienced unusual or for the first time.

No.1 Have the pains been constant or intermittent? This question is to see how often you suffer from pain or if the pain occurs due to some movement. No.2 Can you describe the pain/discomfort? Is it sharp, dull, stabbing, throbbing, burning, etc.? This question is asking what kind of pain you have. To be honest I only know the word sharp or dull so I said it was sharp. No.3 does it spread anywhere else? This question is trying to determine if the pain covers wide parts of the body or stays at a specific point. I said it was not spread and stayed on my back. No.4, Do you have any other symptoms accompanying the pain/discomfort? Such as nausea(なーじゃ）, vomiting, dizziness, shortness of breath, etc. Nausea is a feeling of sickness or discomfort in the stomach that may come with an urge to vomit. Dizziness is the false sense that you or your surroundings are spinning or moving. I answered I had dizziness and shortness of breath.

It was stressful to think about answers in English that required a big effort no matter how severe pain you have in your body. Besides, several nurses were not friendly and truly heartless. I ended up crying while I was alone in the patient room. I understand they also face stressful situations but I was like “How come these people can treat me such! It doesn’t have to be mean to me! I have terrible back pain waiting for 7 hours! I wanna go back to Japan! I love Japan!” Now I can make fun of what happened to me on the day, but that was a nightmare at the moment.

That’s everything for today’s episode. Let's get yourself ready for that bad day that needs to explain your symptoms to the terrible nurses!