I have a minor thyroid condition. However, it means that I need to have check up every year or so. The Japanese system here is sort of similar to the German system in that your General Practitioner doesn’t do everything for you and usually you need to find the doctor who specialises in the field of your illness.
So on Saturday, I went to the famous thyroid hospital here. About 6 hours later, I emerge with $300 AUD less in my wallet and a sore arse from sitting down all morning. Talk about a great way to spend the first day of the weekend. (The same procedure took less than an hour and around 5 Euros in Germany…I guess that’s why I paid such high taxes there!)
There were literally hundreds of people at the hospital. The waiting room was packed and it was standing room only if you didn’t fight for a seat. Lucky for me, I had anticipated some sort of a wait and had brought a book. However, the queuing system was a bit out of whack too because although I had a number (508 and I was there at 9am!) the order that the patients were called was not in numeric order so after each paragraph, I had to look up for 10 seconds to see if I had been called.
However, I found another way to entertain myself. If you’re familiar with thyroid conditions, you know that there are particular physical traits that go with too much or too little thyroid hormone. Having studied Pathology at university, I remembered some of these and amused myself by counting how many people had signs of their illness.
Actually, there wasn’t anyone with a huge goiter but moving my way around the hospital, I thought I was being stared at by a lot of people who had the “intense staring” eye condition.
Unfortunately, I have to go back in 2 weeks for my results. If this kind of costs continue, I think it would be worth flying home for the tests. It would essentially be a $300 discount on my airfare.
Posted by tokyotrouble 
