One of my professors had a friend die from a heart attack because the ambulance crew couldn't get multiple hospitals to admit him because they didn't have a cardiologist on duty. As someone who trained as an EMT back in the States, this both scared me and offended me on a deep level.
I had a friend almost die from appendicitis whilst he was sitting in one of Seoul's best A&Es and the doctors were insistent he was experiencing abdominal pain because he's a foreigner who can't eat Korean food. Fortunately, he was already a patient with a Korean doctor who went to med school at Duke, a top med school in the US, and ran the international clinic that catered to foreigners. His wife called Dr. Lee, told him what was going on, he told her to put the A&E doctor on the phone, and read they fella the riot act when he found out the basic workup including white blood cell test hadn't been done. Sure enough, elevated white blood cells, he was wheeled into surgery, and they found he appendix was about to rupture.
Here in the U.S. the problem is healthcare is often unaffordable. It's why people use uber as an ambulance because an ambulance ride could cost you $3,000. Or people just don't go to the doctor at all and hope whatever is wrong with them doesn't get worse.
@@dylanhaugen3739 the reason its expensive is the reason its good, I mean this doctors don't want 30 bucks an hour, they charge their rates for a reason
@@uhlexseeuh the expensive price on the PATIENT has nothing to do with it being good. If the government took over and paid for all the prices and such that patients had to pay, it would still be great. Sure, you'd have problems with over-crowding, but you can fix that if you actually implement stuff to stop that (unlike most european countries) So, the main reason the "good" doctors come to the US, including most of the doctors I have gone to my life, is because they have the ability to make WAY more money than their home countries, whether they studied in the US or abroad. I have a hungarian friend and a polish friend, and they both talk about how their doctors are crap, and alot of them are basically only doctors in their countries because of activism (wanting to keep the problem of talent flight from ruining their own country) or because the doctors were not GOOD ENOUGH to go to other countries where they would have been paid way more. In essence, yeah, we have good healthcare in the US, assuming you are in the top 1% and can actually afford to pay the bills. I mean, hell, with my mother's insurance paying, my $14k bill was put down to $700, but EVEN AT THAT PRICE, how am I supposed to afford that? The economy is trashed, TL;DR, I can't pay it. it's not an option. I'm already relying on other people's kindness to get by, I don't have money at the end of the month to even do a PAYMENT PLAN FOR $700. All of my friends and family at similar ages don't have money, they all live at home and can't get any money in their savings. Point is, putting the bills on the patients has naught to do with the healthcare being good, it's what you pay the doctors.
If Doctors in Japan are like Gacha, then doctors in the US are basically guaranteed 5 stars Gacha, but come in pieces and you have to sell your entire house to get one, sell an eye for one and one of your balls to get the last one.
its in premium pay to win currency but its common because they make you pay so much for it in the USA you're basically guaranteed for quality at the least
well there are soo many dentists in the US that if u have a bad experience u can literally just go down the street to a new dentist or probably another dentist at the same place. ive had like 5 different dentists in like 10 years mainly cuz i didnt like one thing or another.
Why do ppl like you always deflect to America when talking about other another country's problem. It's a weird obsession, even if you have American Citizenship.
This really hits close to home. I had to take an ambulance 3 times in my 1.5 years living in Japan as a language student, and none of the doctors actually helped me... I have vaso vagal syncope (which is a fancy term for common fainting syndrome, but it's extremely uncommon to faint as often as I do) due to really painful periods. I've had these since I was 13, and period pain, even painful ones, are unfortunately seen as "normal" when it isn't. Over time, my episodes have gotten more frequent and more severe. I had been written off often when I was a teen because it's "normal," and I should just "take more pain meds." The last time I passed out, I was on the Yamanote JR line in July 2022, and the train was halted and everything. The bystanders saved my life! The train staff got an ambulance for me, and I was in level 10, excruciating pain and drifting in and out of consciousness and could barely speak. I was paralyzed by the pain, and the medics thought I couldn't speak Japanese and were frustrated that I was in too much pain to speak, I guess. When they realized it was period pains, they sent me to a women's hospital and said, "They'll prescribe you pain meds for you to pick up because there isn't a pharmacy in the hospital." Excuse me, WHAT??! I was completely incapable of walking. How was I supposed to "walk to the pharmacy?" I was like, "Please give me pain meds!" I was vomiting and shaking from the shock my body was in. They didn't give me any meds... When I arrived, they wanted to insert a pelvic ultrasound probe (which doesn't show ANYTHING according to my American doctors), and I vehemently refused, still in pain. The male doctor did a normal ultrasound and said, "You just have really bad period pains." Yeah, no SHIT, Sherlock! That was the last straw for me. I quit my schooling, went back to the States, went to a new OBGYN, and explained how I passed out in Japan and how dangerous this has become for me. Turns out, my body produces too much of the hormone for cramping, which means I have to endure near-childbirth-level pain most months :) I'm now finally receiving the hysterectomy I've needed for the last 13 years!! The doctors in Japan are even worse than the US about women's health, and they don't know what they're doing. Do NOT rely on the Japanese health care system for your mental health or endometriosis symptoms. ETA: I've never received an IV in a Japanese hospital? Is that normal? I've been to the ER in America multiple times, and they gave me an IV every time because I was vomiting and pale, along with a blood draw to test my blood. It has literally never happened in Japan. They just let me lay in the hospital bed until the pain subsided and released me. The most they did was a CT scan because I hit my head one of the times when I passed out. Absolutely bonkers.
I'm absolutely furious reading this...I have the same symptoms with a few close calls to passing out in public....how could they not know??!? Or atleast give IV painkillers and anti emetics ..... It's absolutely NOT normal to be paralyzed by pain and they're like "yeah go walk to the pharmacy" ?!????? Gosh I'm so fucking sorry you went through that... medical negligence sucks specially for something as excruciating as endometriosis On a positive note congratulations on getting the hysterectomy and finally being pain free 🎉👏 ..no understands how fucking horrible endo pain is
I’m Japanese I don’t really like going to Japanese doctors for the same reason … My Indian friends father passed away of liver failure after his surgery him and his family stayed in the hospital for everyday for at least a month to check on his dad . His dad passed away at 12am and they only got the news in the morning at 6am from a staff my friend and his family was very furious when they asked the doctors why they didn’t tell them that his dad passed away when he n his family are just in the waiting room everynight n day waiting for his dad to get better the doctors said "we just don’t want to bother you and make you all worried and it can’t be helped he’s already dead " to this day it still bothers me how some doctors here are incompetent 🤦♀️
As a Malaysian government doctor, I never even considered not being able to refer someone for anything. Our referral system even in rural clinics are impeccable. Even private clinics can refer to government specialists. Recently the government had to reject people from Hospitals because they kept coming for small things. So they had to go to GP clinics and if it’s treatable we treat it, if it needs more investigation or more complicated management, we refer back to the Hospital.
I also definitely appreciate KK being able to make some expensive medical test suites accessible to the general public of all financial ability. I had to be tested for TB (xray, mantoux test, blood screening, phlegm test) and it costed me only RM1 per visit.
From my impression of this video, I can't believe it's possible to make the Malaysian healthcare system look better than Japan's. I mean it's a goddamn first world country. Our KKM deserves the cred it definitely doesn't receive.
@@Lekirius Sometimes I find patients with chronic diseases like DM or hypertension lie about taking their FREE medication to "test" whether they can control their disease on their own. Then after a few months of uncontrolled blood sugar or blood pressure, they would sheepishly admit what they did. Thousands of ringgit worth of medication down the drain. I would take a deep breath and ask for the mountains of expired pills to be returned to the pharmacy for disposal. "Kids who have never seen peace and kids who have never seen war have different values." - Doffy
@@Lekirius bruh same. Before i just didn't care about medical care in our country until i watched how costly it is in the USA even for a merely medical checkup. Here we got sick, go to clinic, pay rm1 and get your treatment.
I don't want to be morbid, but this is what happened with 100T Kyedae. Very tired, started getting massive bruises very easily. Turns out it's leukemia. I also don't want to generalize, but my feeling is the Japanese medical system is hung up on procedures over performance, Syd's symptoms would triggered alarm bells in a practicing GP where I live and would have been triaged quickly into more active diagnosing.
@@raskolinikov6402 There are residency requirements to qualify for free healthcare in Canada. If you live and work in LA most of the year, you aren't considered a resident anymore. but I don't know here situation. The scary thing is Kyedae's form of Leukemia is very aggressive and is the same that Korea RUclipsr HojuSara died of last year.
I live in a 3rd world country with a fairly shit healthcare system that really could use better funding....but even here spontaneous bruising would be a major alarming symptom and would be referred to a specialist asap .... Japan being so aloof with triaging ppl for their various symptoms is just scary...you could be sick with something easily treatable with modern medicine and you'd possibly die because they couldn't be arsed to do a proper exam and do a referral...
Sharla's story of her thyroid issues was enlightening. Japan doctors didnt quite know what to do but check back in a few months. Go back to Canada and they say its serious but we cant do anything for months. Call a US thyroid clinic in Florida and they say, yup we can fix that, can you be here Thursday for surgery.
wtf is wrong with those countries , hahaha like litterally wtf , i live in a 3rd world country and its waaaay better then this shit and its fucking free ,
My experience in Canada is that if you don't have a life-threatening emergency then yes, it will take a few months. Things have only gotten worse since Covid with huge understaffing in the whole medical industry.
@@prospitdreamer they're more likely able to cater to foreign people. There's a higher number of staff who either trained overseas or come from overseas from what I understand
When I was younger and still on my "I want to live in Japan!" thing, I researched a lot. Found out that hospitals don't use epidurals in labor. It's a no from me
I know that when you’re pregnant in Japan, they have really strict weight limits on how much you can gain weight with your pregnancy. I’m not sure if that’s a part of preventing possible complications with pregnancy. But it makes sense if they don’t have the facilities to give someone an emergency C-section.
@@nerdthatknits which is so stupid given that no amount of prevention can make the risk of complications 0....1st world countries with shit healthcare baffle me 💀
Foreign mom in Japan here. You can get an epidural but you have to research where to get one beforehand. I originally wanted a midwife but they had a hospital relationship in case I had an emergency and needed to go. It turns out I needed to go after 36 hours of labor. The doctor was used to foreign patients and the nurses I had were amazing so I had a better experience with that part than even a lot of moms in America experience. Even with research, you're not going to find a lot of info in English. It's called 無痛分娩 mutsuubunben in Japanese.
doctor here. large unexplained bruising, attend a haematologist aka a blood doctor. could be leukaemia, or honestly a variety of different conditions causing low platlets but many will require treatment to prevent harm
It’s definitely rare that it is that especially without other symptoms and alcohol consumption periods and no multivitamins until regular things that women get is ruled out with blood tests for various anemias that cause this definitely wouldn’t jump to the unthinkable scaring a women like that
@@foxythecutefox2564 no, I am not new to social media. Take it or leave it. Ex: "okay I will pay Lisa" * "Okay, I will pay Lisa" * "Okay, I will.... Pay, Lisa!" * "Okay, I will pay, Lisa!* * "Okay! I will pay, Lisa."
LOL found it funny that from all the mild conditions that could cause the bruises, you decided to go with "well it might be cancer though" (it really could but you get the point)
As a doctor it really baffled me all the horror stories about medical care in Japan, even foreign with japanese partners that can communicate with the medical staff.
You know, even with all the flaws, it’s much better to live in Japan because their healthcare is much more affordable. Most of the times, you just don’t want to get bankrupt by hospitals like in the US
@@DanielK1213th Bankruptcy is better than dying. Also spoiler you don't have to pay if you don't want to. There is no American yakuza to come break your legs if you don't pay the hospital. They just write it off on their taxes.
I live in a third world country and my dad is a ginecologist from a prestigious unuversity. He has even diagnosed lupus from taking a glimpse to people's hands. Stupid doctors exist everywhere, though. I went to an internist because I was vomiting and had been in pain for months. I ate and then immediately had to empty my stomach. When food stayed in I would be in pain until I vomited again, so I started doing it on purpose when I felt the pain. The doctor straight up tells me that I'm bulimic and I'm shocked like "could this all be in my head omg". Flash forward a couple of years going to 3 gastro doctors that didn't hace a clue. Still in pain, but less. This doctors tells me "I can do an endoscopy in a couple of hours, wait until then". Get out of the endoscopy to find out I had pylori and like severe ulcers and stuff. 2 weeks of antibiotics and that was it. Omg they told me I was bulimic and other one told me that I had a simple case of gluten intolerance. It's like they never went to university in some cases.
Why they didn't order simple blood work literally the minute they heard bruise no impact is beyond my comprehension. I've gone to the ER for stomach pain and they still run me through basic blood work.
Honestly even tho it costs an arm and a leg to get emergency care in America, they at least attempt a full work up that includes urine and blood work and depending on the issue they'll also scan you via ultrasound, CT, MRI without question.
@@trixiebewitched nah that's like the bare minimum anyone should get in an ER.. anywhere ...the USA just has a crazy expensive healthcare system for no good reason since y'all have the money to spare and more.... Too bad
@@trixiebewitched That's because the problem isn't the doctors with US healthcare. They do their job well. Its the privatized system, bloated hospital administration, CEO getting million dollar bonuses, and reliance on insurance to pay for medical fees. Also doesn't help that government aid money goes to the middleman leeches(gov help you pay for insurance instead of directly for treatment) instead of directly to paying the doctors.
If I remember correctly the number of non-Japanese/Foreign doctors in Japan is pretty low, because to work as a doctor in Japan the Japanese level you need is insane (things like illness names and Kanji)
It's less because of the language and more because of the exam. If you want to just come over and be a doctor you can only treat foreigners in private hospitals and only if you're from a select few countries. If you want to work within the system/ with Japanese people you have to pass their exams and go back to being "a resident" (their equivalent). So basically you become a doctor and then they ask you to go through medical school again. No thanks
Yeah I researched into it thinking I might go to work there as a doctor after completing my surgery degree but the process is too tough and you need to super fluent and have to know exactly what their procedures are and not just be a good doctor, where as in most countries the exams are tough but you can actually get through if you’re a good doctor generally.
Yes. Keep in mind there are Japanese nationals who attended medical school or undertook advanced training overseas. Will you find them at a small clinic that caters chiefly to Japanese patients? Unlikely. They'll be at uni hospitals and clinics that cater to a foreign clientele.
When I lived in Japan, I had a weekend of horrible abdominal pain. It was so excruciating that my friend begged me to go see a doctor but it was a Sunday so everything was closed. Monday morning, I went to my supervisor and told her I needed to go to a hospital because I suspected I had a UTI. I’d had one before and it was similarly painful. She took me to a tiny clinic that specialized in urology probably and they did a sample and said it was negative. They basically threw up their hands and I had to leave. Then we drove to a bigger hospital. I waited foreeeeeever to see a doctor. When I went in, he had me lay down and pushed on my abdomen, and when I cried out in pain, he laughed at me. They sent me for blood work, an ultrasound, etc. etc. with more waiting. FINALLY at the end, they did a CT scan and realized it was a buildup of gas (stress induced) and were like “I mean you can take meds but basically just relax more.” After that whole ordeal, my supervisor told me I had to use one of my paid vacation days for that day instead of a sick day. I was flabbergasted and so angry. Now I live in Korea and I’ve had overall a MUCH better experience in hospitals and with clinics. Things are quicker, cheaper, and more precise most of the time. We do have university hospitals which are huge and have lots of specialists and to get an appointment, you often need a recommendation from a smaller clinic saying you need more specialist care.
It's insane thinking that a much bigger more populated country like Japan can let someone basically wait with alarming symptoms whilst a neighbouring country... smaller in size and population would just help out right away ... I'm glad it wasn't something life threatening but all the pain must've been really distressing I'm so sorry
When i was living in Japan i took my wife to 13 doctors in different places for a problem in her hip. They never found what it was. We got a diagnose back home, when we left Japan :P
I had to see a doctor while in Japan for a, uh, “feminine” issue, but I was in high school and had only been there for a week at that point and was way too embarrassed to ask my host family. So I had to ask the school I was at, and they wanted to know what the problem was. I had no idea what to say so I lied and said I thought I had the flu (it was flu season so I thought it would be believable😅) Luckily the clinic they told me to go to was able to help, and the doctor spoke pretty good English, but the rest of the clinic was full of business men who ACTUALLY had the flu and it was one of the most awkward experiences I’ve ever had 😂
I think as Joey mentioned, it really depends on whether or not you speak Japanese or not. The chances are so much better if you can speak Japanese with a Japanese doctor. This is actually one of the primary reasons why imo it’s really useful to still really study Japanese despite the fact that day-to-day most foreigners can get by with minimal Japanese (obv it takes a lot of dedication to get to that level)
Honestly though, if you move to a foreign country the least you can do is learn the language, we don't expect any less from people that move to a Western country.
Finally a good comment. Same issue in the USA; usually if you don’t speak English they turn you always or have issues. Sometimes there are translators or Hispanic doctors but you’re screwed if they are not
I think a language barrier shouldn't stop you from getting proper care....if a doctor can't diagnose what's wrong with you with a very apparent symptom they must refer you to someone who can.. any decent clinician worth anything would do that...but idk..Japanese doctors sound and act differently from what I was taught in medical school
@@sarroumarbeu6810 Yes I agree - ideally everyone has the right to receive proper care regardless of language (some people have to immigrate to countries in order to literally live and nobody can realistically expect them to learn the language over night). Obviously nobody on trash taste is in that position, but I was mainly pointing out that the title is misleading and it depends on the situation of the person. From my experience and what I have heard from others, these doctors tend to be "less official" and are definitely never the higher quality ones (probably because the really good ones are popular enough where they have enough cliental so they can just refuse people who don't speak Japanese because they don't want to do deal with it). I would say like 9 out of 10 complaints usually come from these doctors that are catered towards foreigners who don't speak Japanese. Now there is certainly a conversation to be made that this needs to change, but I think it is a bit unfair to label all Japanese doctors under this because the experience is very skewed.
@@songcramp66 exactly, it’s beyond me why foreigners would move somewhere and not learn the language but will say how Japan is a lonely place to make friends lmao
I remember I got some type of lung infection, it took me going to the doctor 3 times over the span of 3 months before they even prescribed antibiotics.
I suddenly feel glad that I have the NHS. Broke my ankle in December, took 5 hours to be seen by someone, got an x-ray CT scan and a bed within an hour of being seen. 2 surgeries to fix it both successful. Still have trouble walking but my break was pretty bad. BUT IT WAS FREE AS FUCK BOIIIII
5 hours, thats beyond third world country tier It is also not free, you pay it through your taxes along with everyone else, stop deluding yourself. NHS is completely useless for non-emergencies as well, good luck if you have a malignant tumor or a deteriorating mistery condition.
Sydney needs to go see a hematologist right away. I don't want to worry you but a low platelet count could be as simple as a vitamin K deficiency or a serious condition like Leukemia. Get it checked again. DISCLAIMER: I'm not a doctor. I just read about medical conditions because I'm a nerd.
More likely that it’s something simple like minor anemia, they drink quite a bit in Japan and alcohol as you know is liver toxic which is also where Vitamin K is made, so unless there is other symptomology it’s not very worrisome and I wouldn’t make a mountain out of an ant hill.
@@BedrockPorkchop It would still probably be a good idea to see a hematologist just to rule anything out. It's better to cover all your bases cause there is a chance it is something that is more serious and is in its early stages. But it could also be what you just said. No harm in getting it checked.
@@DarthCody700 ya know a hematologist isn't an oncologist.... right? In fact, the deficiencies you mentioned could be handled by the doctor who is specialized in blood....I wonder who that is
This seems so weird to me. When I was in the ICU at least 3-4 specialist came to see me unprompted. They were all collaborating together. And my general doctor would have definitely referred me to someone if asked on any regular visit.
I had awful degrading experiences of medical care in Japan, including being rejected because I didn't speak Japanese. They just shuffled me out, crutches and all and asked me to come back when I had a "Japanese person" accompany me. Medical care may be more accessible and affordable in Japan but the actual care itself is dismal at best and horrendous at worst, especially if you're not local.
I'm sorry but what exactly do you want them to do if you don't speak Japanese and they don't speak English? Use Google translate and hope it doesnt spit out nonsense that they would be legally liable for?
@@BlueCoolOla i expect them to adhere to the Hippocratic Oath all medical professionals swear to. And they could speak English - minimum but it was there and Google Translate and DeepL go a long way to bridge communication gaps. Japan just has a reputation for not even bothering to try to meet you even a quarter way when it comes to language barriers. They'd rather toss you out instead of finding ways to work around an issue. But I guess from your logic if a Japanese person is abroad and needs medical help, because they can't speak English well, we should also refuse them care to the possible detriment of their health and safety right?
@@raven_bard Because machine translators ARE super unreliable and if they accidentally ended up hurting you due to miscommunication then that would also be violating the Hippocratic oath. I agree that Japan is really bad at accommodating people and that's a problem but with very sensitive issues like people's health, I can't blame them for not compromising.
As much as I hate how expensive U.S. healthcare is, even with insurance, I’m happy that we’re at least thorough, know what to do, and have actual physicians and clinics that can figure out the problem quickly or easily refer you to a specialist.
@@nikkizerocool9101 have you seen insurance here? It can cost way too much too, and if you don’t go to the right hospital, your insurance won’t cover it, which is pretty stupid.
Lived in Japan for over 10 years and gave birth twice there. I was constantly fearing for my life and my kids’ lives. I didn’t trust any of the doctors. Even worse they’re closed on holidays… also I have rh negative O- blood. They acted like I was some kind of leper. If I had ever had a serious injury and needed a blood transfusion I would just die. (Almost NO Japanese people have RHO- blood)
This is all kind of strange to me since I’ve lived in Japan for 20+ years and basically had nothing but good experiences with medical and dental. Maybe because I live in a small town, so they have to keep up their reputation, or..? But seriously, my wife and I have had 2 babies here, multiple operations (and all kind of other stuff that life throws at you) I can honestly say I have full faith in the medical and dental system. Is this the same country??
My inaka experience is the same! And the local doctor, who lives and works pretty much across from us opens up on holidays and at night if you have something immediate. Dental care is also good. I’ve gotten one of the weirdest compliments from one nerve doctor when I hurt my neck. We did an Xray and he was like “I’ve never seen a neck as long/so many spinal discs in a neck. Well, you’ll get neck pain if it’s that long”. Maybe Tokyo (?!and Osaka, etc.) are different. And yeah, I guess if you can’t speak the language. Also, it seems that younger doctors are not really up (have the courage) to just diagnosing you, they’d do tests on you until the end of days. It’s the old ones who diagnose from experience and are (mostly?!) right. Even our vet is really really good! So yeah, weird that people have these experiences in Japan. I guess I’ve just been lucky! My kid has special needs so that side of medical care and diagnosing has also been really spot on.
In Canada, if the doctor at the clinic doesn’t do a referral, they will suggest to you who to contact. Long story short, at my last check up, my doctor noticed that my jaw was out of whack, and while it didn’t hurt he highly suggested I go see a chiropractor to get it pushed back into place. So far the doctors I have seen have been really good and I only have ever got into an argument with was my prenatal doctor. It was my second pregnancy and since my first son had been a big baby, 10lbs 10oz, the obgyn who delivered him suggested that if I get pregnant again, I should get an ultrasound in the third trimester. Well I get pregnant with baby 2, tell the prenatal doctor at the clinic what the obgyn told me and she was in full agreeance. But when I was 30 weeks and asked if she could book me an ultrasound, this prenatal doctor suddenly changed her tune and said I didn’t need one. I tried to be polite and we went back and forth a bit “your measuring normal, your weight is normal, your not having a big baby”, to which I argued “I measured normal last time, my weight was also normal, can we please double check with an ultrasound like the obgyn suggested?” I can’t even remember what I said, I think I told her that if she didn’t get me the ultrasound appointment I would walk out into the clinic and either ask to see my family doctor or the walk in practitioner and would ask them to get me an ultrasound and tell them how negligent she was being. Extreme? Maybe, but I was also very hormonal. Finally this prenatal doctor begrudgingly set up the ultrasound and in the end I did have another big baby boy in me. He was already measuring 4 weeks ahead of what he should have been. I so wanted to tell the prenatal doctor “I told you so!” But at the next appointment she suddenly started lecturing me that I was eating too much junk food and take out and that’s why the baby was big. She then gave me a chart to follow for foods I could eat and go on a diet. I walked out of that appointment crying, showed my husband the chart and what she said to me, and he just shredded the paper and said “F&$@ that B?$&!” Less then two months later, I had a scheduled c-section and gave birth to a 10lb 5 oz baby boy.
I had to go to an eye doctor in Japan because of inflammation in my eye, and had no idea what clinic to choose. The doc at the first clinic basically told me I needed to go to a “bigger hospital,” but didn’t refer me and the big hospital I was aware of near me, required a referral for a specialist. I ended up going to a different clinic and things worked out. I had surgery and everything all in Japanese, so now I know a lot of eye terminology, even more than the average Japanese person.
This 100%. I never when to English speaking doctors but I went to an English speaking women’s clinic for a yeast infection. TMI but I filled out a questionnaire and said I had pain. WITHOUT EVEN CHECKING ANYTHING he diagnosed me with herpes like???? (It wasn’t but Jesus don’t throw that out there so easily) . I demanded him to do an exam and to give me treatment for the infection which I was 99% sure that’s what it was. (It was) It was uncomfortable him watching me undress etc. Never again. (Of course he was wrong but that whole appointment traumatized me) - also I got a botched root canal done - I was surprised they don’t sedate you for a colonoscopy here…..worst pain of my life. (The ladies clinic was the only time I went to an English clinic, the rest were Japanese only clinics)
My experience teaching here had taught me that a lot of really clever doctors go overseas. I wonder if that’s why these problems happen. I’ve had a hard time with doctors too… it’s a vibe.
I know they won’t see this but bruising without a cause can be as simple as Anemia or scary as internal bleeding, sometimes caused by a broken bone or otherwise internal injury that may show on X-ray. X-ray just ruled out worst case. She should still be tested for Anemia though.
The other day i saw a tiktok which mention that while Japan have better medical infraestructure and health quality, doctors dont have as much experience as mexican doctors, and that is true for all the wrong reasons, in mexico each general doctor on public hospitals see between 20-30 patients a day, and usually those hospitals have around 20 to 40 doctors per shift, health quality its really bad, and for that reason doctors have a lot more experience with sickness and its easier for them to diagnose easily what you have
her in Norway, we have the problem of to many patiens per doctors, quite often a doctor have 1000+ on their list (I have seen doctors with 1500 patients on their list). You nowadays get less time with your doctor, but when you bock your time with doctor, over the phone ore trough the webside, you describe your symptoms, so they already know why you are there. And if it's needed, they will send you to a specialist. For example me, I had experienced a sudden dropp in my physical condition, where I went from being able to run comfortable for 40+ minutts with my 125kg's, to now only manage 2-3 minutes, while being 120kg's. So I am waiting for an appointment at an heart specialist at the hospital, that are going to monitor me, doing exercises. Although, the doctors in Norway are way overloaded, you get help. And if they think your case is serious enough (out of your description), they'l prioritize you in the system. (basically, triage)
Listening to the stories in this video, it sounds like the common issue is the language barrier. It might be really useful to learn to converse colloquially in the native language of the country that you have chosen to live in. I myself lived in Japan for over a decade and can tell you the quality of care improves and the wait times go down if you can speak the language. There is still occasionally a doctor who you might suspect of quackery, but I feel that may apply to anywhere you go. Edit: If you’re not sure where to go for an issue, a university hospital is best, but a local internal medicine clinic (内科) has a high likelihood of being able to get you sorted or point you in the right direction.
I would be curious what her complete blood count looked like. I am glad the bruises are healing, but if she continues to get random bruises I would take her to a hematologist (blood doctor) and if they did not do anything and the problem still persists then an oncologist (cancer doctor). Not to raise alarms because it could be that she randomly has low platelets because her diet changed or something else benign and transient so if the random bruising does not happen again you all are probably good. :) But I would ask for the results of a complete blood count if I were you. On a lighter note, hospitals in western countries were often started by religious orders. Many in the States still are named after saints or various religious orders. And none of them I have encountered across several states have ever behaved so...modestly...with their patients when trying to diagnose them.
It’s very possible it’s normal anemia variations of different vitamins all cause this and happens in women and “The frequency of anemia in Japan is statistically higher than that of foreign countries”
One of my distant relatives had pain in one of her boobs. She went trough 4 physicians who told her that she was fine and refused to do anything until she found a physician who diagnosed her with stage 3 breast cancer. This is a global problem. There is not enough discussion on medical quality in the public discourse. We are just told to blindly trust the healthcare system.
I really hate that about soctors in Japan, they ask you how you want to proceed, what test do you want and what doctor would you like to see? YOU ARE THE SPECIALIST WHY DO YOU ASK ME?
I can't remember if it was epicnamebro or dogen who told the story of a coworker whose appendix burst: They had to drive around to find a hospital that could be bothered to take the guy's appendix out.
I can see why majority of doctors outside of America would have to retake a test or go back to school to practice in America. My cousin originally wanted to come to America to practice Veterinary care but she changed her mind because according to her, she would have to go back to vet school but in America.
The US medical system gets a lot of crap but it is fantastic for people that have serious medical conditions, I have a rare neurodegenerative condition and get free insurance meanwhile if I was back in Italy I would have died a few times over, your just screwed If you need routine medical care and don’t insurance.
@@matthewmammothswine4395 Yea go tell that who doesn’t live in a doctors office and hasn’t experienced the awful antiquated squalid care you get in Europe, if you’re very poor or very sick you get coverage in the US, it’s the normal people in the middle that get screwed heavily.
In future go to see a hematologist if you start getting unexpected or severe bruising. A hematologist is a blood/vein specialist. They can organise the right scans and venograms to get a look at the trauma to the blood vessel that caused the bruising.
The problem is, hématologists aren’t very common in japan. They’re not gonna have their own clinic, and if you’re not in a hospital being referred you will probably never see one. The common clinic types are nose ear and throat, orthopaedic, OBGYN, paediatric, and digestive. So if it’s not any of those you’re gonna have to take a chance.
It’s most likely anemia which is common in a women even they say “The frequency of anemia in Japan is statistically higher than that of foreign countries”
@@foxythecutefox2564 That would have been my first guess. However, in my early twenties I was diagnosed with a blood clotting condition, so always promote caution, especially in women. Hormonal birth control effects clotting factors in the blood, increasing the risk for deep vein thrombosis.
@@thehangmansdaughter1120 yeah, and there are a whole lot of questions a haematologist would ask before writing something off as a basic microcytic anaemia lol. There are different types of anaemia, to begin with, and there are tonnes of potential deficiencies of varying importance.
I had a great healthcare experience in Ireland on my honeymoon. Most of the time in the states no matter where I am I just call my doctor and tell them my symptoms and they either send a script to a nearby pharmacy or tell me what to do. I do have the benefit of being a nurse though when it comes to symptoms and an idea of what I need.
When I was in Japan I went to a “Naika” or internal medicine doctor for most things. That doctor would refer me to someone if needed. But, they were great and understood what to do for most things. If anyone lives in Hirakata shi, Osaka. Message me for help! Also I know a good doctor near futago tamagawa station
My best experience with healthcare was in France! French are quite hypochondriac, so their health care is really good. The French doctor discovered my hashimoto disease and recovered me from anaemia as well. UK healthcare sucks, I never go to doctor here and for dentist and dermatologist I went to private Hungarian doctors. They did excellent jobs and were very polite as well.
I speak fluent french and have had a rough time with french doctors, though no worse than anywhere else. My personal experience had been that they've been incredibly, dangerously dismissive of symptoms and often weirdly insulting or aggressive. When I'm talking to them, that is - when my husband is the patient they're much more interested in what he has to say.
"It's a 3 hour wait" Me, a canadian: Oh wow that's pretty fast The whole crew: wooooah that's such a long time Me: WAT As a canadian, my mom went to the hospital after breaking her knee. She was in excruciating pain and they still made her wait 5-6 hours before seeing her. She had to stay awake all night and finally came back home at 7am with a huge cast. She wasn't able to walk for several months. If you show up with a bruise like that to the hospital, they will literally tell you to go home or go to a public clinique where the wait time can be from 3 hours to 8 hours depending on your place on the queuer and that's only if you can get a spot in the queue.
Ah yes. I had a similar experience here but arguably better. Especially the “Choose your clinic” bit. Luckily healthcare costs here are great so I have mixed feelings on the whole debacle. I lucked out after cycling to 3 or 4 different hospitals that one had English speaking doctors (I’m a language student and it had only been about a month since I started learning so my Japanese was ちょっと at the time). I’ll never forget that night.
Oh my god I've had this exact problem in Korea. I have a little problem, say I need a doctor and partner asks which kind. I'm like... I don't know, I'm not a doctor! and it feels odd going to a big hospital for something small. I have also noticed that a lot of these small specialised clinics... are very much hit and miss, Gacha even. My gyn is brilliant, but every eye doctor I've seen has been awful. That being said, large hospitals have been superb and my cancer treatment was phenomenal and incredibly cheap.
Also, regarding dentists: My husband got dental work done in japan years ago, they used a severely outdated procedure and he's still fixing their f** up 10 years later.
I'm actually having a great experience just googling things to figure out what I should get checked for. I've been pretty accurate with it so far even with more nuanced cases. also, honestly the rough outline of doctor specialties should probably be taught in school.
france healthcare wouldn't cost a single penny and they will find out the cause and treat it , without even knowing who the fuck are you , even an illegal immegrant would get treated
@@foxythecutefox2564we have a doctor shortage rn, so its not the best but yeahh. For reference I live In Quebec, so our doctor shortage is a bit worse and ugh so complicated to get an appointement if you have no family doctor.
Edit: They're so right about having to often self-diagnose!! 🤣😣 Some of my friends and I have also been asked by doctors "What do you think you have?" after not being able to diagnose us (and they all have us some herbal medicine since they didn't know what we had). Also, during the annual health check-up at my job, each year, without any exception, the doctors in charge of blood test never changed their gloves between people at all!! I've observed them for at least ~10 minutes every year, and none of them did it. So unsanitary and dangerous as they're dealing with needles, blood, etc. I've had a few bad experiences with incompetent doctors in Japan. Once, I had a rash, and the old doctor didn't know what it was and had to look in this binder full of pictures. Even then, she and the nurses couldn't figure out what I had and still gave me some pills to take. My Japanese host mom was like "Yeah, don't take those. Let's go to another clinic." Another time was when my Rosacea started appearing on my skin. I was pretty sure that it was Rosacea. I went to that local dermatologist clinic and this old dermatologist didn't know what I had and gave me that cream assuming I had acnea. WRONG!! I burned so much and made everything worst and super inflammed! 😭 Luckily, I only had to go to a second clinic to find a middle-aged lady. She looked at my skin and gave me the right stuff for it. I have other stories, but I'm going to share one last. Over two or three years ago, I had pain in my knees and ankles. I had been playing DDR with my bf for a while, so I suspected something was wrong from all the jumping around at my weight (as I couldn't go up or down stairs without having excruciating pain or get up my futon without it either). That bone doctor said he couldn't see anything on the radiography, so just sent me home saying that I should just take pain killers when it hurts. That's all. Three years later (I've stopped DDR since then), my knees make a grinding sound, and I'm pretty sure I have knee crepitus (so it's only going to worsen as the time goes by). 😭
Wow....not changing gloves between patients 😳 ...and gosh all these stories... I'm so sorry you had to go through so much..and knee+ankle pain is so restrictive and tiring mentally 😢 I hope you have a good rhumatologist now
@@sarroumarbeu6810 I'm planning on going to a clinic again to get another doctor's opinion. For now, I just try to avoid high impact activities and I follow a healthy diet. 😅
I'd recommend coming over to Singapore! Closer by to Japan than flying back to the UK or US, everyone speaks English and it strikes a middle ground between the US and the NHS in terms of affordability and availability
Doctors in Japan drive me insane like 70% of the time. I was shitting blood so I went to a doctor and he was like, “it’s stress.” ?? I told him I had no stress. I was single, in a great low stress job, in a lovely apartment with a good salary. He just kept saying it was probably stress and to stop worrying about it.
6:39 Doing an x-ray for a bruise is like when the ER vet did an x-ray on my cat for a bladder infection and found meta bbs in his body completely unrelated to his bladder infection. My mom was like "I'm not paying for an x-ray, why the hell did you do an x-ray for a bladder infection?" But we've had rotten luck with ER vets, a neighbor's dog from 2 streets down attacks our cat (different cat) and he ends up with internal leaking of interstitial fluids "you're just imaging things he has a heart condition" I did not imagine my neighbor saying "I saw a german shepherd attacking your cat then your cat jumped from a lethal height for cats to flee from it."
With the stories I've heard from these guys Japan sounds like it's a really expensive place to live in, it makes me wonder about the not so rich people that live there. I know that some homeless people get treated like absolutely shit like there was an incident where kids set fire to a homeless man's tent.
I remember researching good countries to live a few months ago and iirc, according to multiple sources, jp is ranked lower in cost of living than canada, france and germany, so dats pretty good. Idk if dat changed tho These guys live in tokyo and since its the capital and where most tourists go, it'd be more expensive there than anywhere else in jp
@@user-me1mv4vy9q it is lower in cost of living but jobs also pay far less and oftentimes even expect people to work over time without pay if its a full time company job
@@danielzhang5842 even if they do, time off is still very important, if you are expected to meet all of these expectations to keep your job and such it results in a very unfulfilling life, as shown by japanese people themselves, choosing not to marry or have children due to the cost of living and time spent working not justifying such a thing.
Chris talked about doctors in one of the reasons why you shouldn't move to Japan video he did and as someone who has both ADHD + G.A.D. (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) I can honestly say that I would probably not go to a doctor in Japan due to their notorious outlook and treatment of people with mental disabilities that're outside of their control. If I lived in Japan I would keep in contact with my doctor in the USA and let her know what's going on and ask what I should do. If it is serious enough I would probably get a flight to go back home to see her. Also the medication I take isn't necessarily something that is readily available in Japan because of their really strict medication laws so I would need to get a permit to get my medication imported to me or given to me because of the fact it's a drug that is abused by a lot of people. If it was an emergency I would go see a doctor in Japan but only if I had someone with me who is Japanese get me to someplace that'll actually help me. I would need a really strong amount of support in Japan in order to stay there.
When you don't know the medical system or you don't speak the language, it can definitely seem impossible to find a decent doctor in Japan. - The closest thing to a GP is the "internal medicine" (内科 naika) doctor. Many people in Japan have them as their かかりつけ医 (kakaritsuke-i) meaning they are their main doctor, know their medical history better than other doctors, and are usually the ones referring to specialists if necessary. I have one myself, trained and worked overseas, accepts insurance, can speak perfect English, makes the best referrals. I trust him completely with my health. - More big hospitals (university hospitals! don't go to a church hospital!) are offering 総合診療科 (sogo shinryo ka) or 総合内科 (sogo naika), which are "general medicine departments" that take patients who have no idea what's going on with them and run a gamut of tests or refer them to the appropriate department. I've only ever had normal doctor experiences here in Japan, but I will say it can be hit or miss still, but I assume the same no matter where I go. I spent months visiting a university hospital trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Hospital had amazing reviews, English speaking, but for some reason I was never referred to other departments to do tests there even though I had symptoms that could correlate with a large number of diseases. In the end, I did my own research and found out I had sleep apnea. I will say one of the most frustrating parts of the medical system in general is almost no doctor understands the body as a whole. How, if you have X condition, you are most likely comorbid for this and that and they should check that. In the case of sleep apnea, that means checking your teeth and nose to see if you brux, have anything restricting the flow of air in your nose, etc. This doesn't apply just to Japan, but the world as a whole. As for English speaking doctors... yeah... I've had a variety of experiences with the level of English. At this point, I go to regular Japanese clinics and just tell them that I'm not entirely fluent, so I might ask questions. Most of the time it goes fine, but sometimes I get weird doctors who suddenly try speaking to me entirely in English even when their English sucks!! I can reply back in perfect Japanese and they'll still speak to me in broken English. Absolutely horrid. I also find the level of care from said doctors to be lower in quality, so I switched in both cases and am happier for it. And for dentists! I tell you, I've been calling dentist after dentist for the past couple of weeks trying to figure out the best one for my specific condition. At first I too thought American dentists were THE best. I researched the heck out of my condition and then called them up. Turns out half of them didn't treat my condition, a quarter could only do very basic treatment before referring patients out to a university hospital, and the remaining were entirely out of pocket and I just plain couldn't afford them. In the end, I turned to Japanese dentists and found the same type of thing, but finally ended up discovering a specialist renowned for my condition who didn't train overseas, but regularly participated in international conferences, wrote papers on it, etc. Studied at arguably the best dental hospital in the country. Turns out, it really, really, really depends on what you need help with... I will 100% say that I've never not been referred to a big hospital when I need a big hospital. But I'm usually pretty proactive and that's a standard question I ask - Do you think I need to go to a big hospital? ...I've been through the ringer with my health while in Japan.
With a bruise I would expect someone to check blood work so maybe a haematologist to be checking clotting factors and as you said platelets, as usually bruising has something to do with the blood, could be low iron or anaemia too, but definitely blood related. This was my immediate thought and I'm not medically trained at all, but have had chronic illness most of my life so have had experience with a lot of problems.
if you can, try to go to a us base if theres near you. i luckily had family stationed near osaka so whenever i got sick id go straight to the base. (i saw people that had no affiliation go onto base for w/e reasons as well) i just dont know the process you have to go through without any connection to the base
Ok, so I've been to Japan for a year and I generally had pretty good experiences with doctors. But that may just be for similar reasons as Joeys knowing Japanese privileges. I mean I'm German and it turns out that most Japanese doctors know German from medical school and are somehow really happy and proud to show off their German skills
Although Norway have similar system as UK, for hospitals and doctors. It isn't luckily as bad as in UK... yet. Although we have to few doctors per patient's. The nurses at local clinics and hospitals are basically doing triage every day (when needed, and depending on patients). You do get help, they send you to the next doctor, if they can't find out, and they talk with other colleagues, to solve a problem. But sometimes you need to push it. unless you have the money or have an health insurance in addition to the "free" health care. you can go to privat hospitals/clinics, and they often hold a high level.
back 2014 right after that HUGE snowfall I slipped and fell down the pedestrian bridge steps over Showa-Dori and found myself hobbling around, my right calf swollen up and bruised black, and obviously in great pain - I rang my travel insurance number and they recommended a clinic just near by - works the doctor there was some super sports rehab guy who had worked in the US for a while it was like getting one of the best rehab specialists in Japan who also spoke fluent English, did an ultrasound, discovered I had done a huge tear of my soleus (inner calf) - rest for 2 to 4 weeks (oh great I have a 1 week snow hiking trip starting in two days, put cold compresses on it (does just rolling up your snow pants while hiking count?), and don't fly for a month due to blood clots (that was easy I was in Japan for another 2 months) - he was so good I felt guilty that I basically ignored his advice (and I did actually suffer for it for a couple years 'cause it didn't heal quite right.
I've lived in the US and Japan and dealt with the health care systems of both. I'll take the US any day. I've had some amazing doctors there. The Japanese doctors didn't even try to help my problems.
Sounds about as correct as what ive heard from others when i was living there. I think i got lucky as a uni student our university hospital was quite good. That said the uni campus clinic was uhhh not great lmao
True. Can't do shit with my condition here (probably Raynaud's syndrome but can't get diagnosed bc of Japanese doctors). The best they could do was to prescribe me a cream with vitamin e so that my bruises and frostbites would heal a bit faster. When I complained that I also have severe joint pain, the doctor just ignored me and couldn't refer me to another specialist either. To make things worse, I live in a smaller city and there are not a lot of clinics here
tbh i feel like JP and US have same doctors. It's all dependent on how much experience/what they have seen. For unknown things, it'll be tricky for anyone. So it's always dependent on how good you are w/ medical history. I've had issues in both countries and it hasn't been too much of an issue. (if you haven't seen a doctor in awhile, always good idea to have blood draw to check cbc etc.) Regarding english- even if you don't speak JP, they will try their best- using a bunch of hand gestures, or using translation apps, and the few words they might know. At larger hospitals, there's a higher chance of getting someone who did their med school/residency in an english speaking country (god bless those who had to then take the national jp medical exam...). You can find english speaking hospitals online but as it was mentioned, it's more dependent on staff... and also yes, you wait in line for several hours. Basically plan the entire day at the hospital if you go that route (esp. if you don't know which department you need to go to).
I live in a third world country and every time I needed medical care I would either go to the ER or to my general practitioner, and in all those cases I was properly tested and derived. This just sounds awful.
Well here in Spain i had to see a dermatologist and it took 6 months for them to give me the actual date of the appointment, which was 1 and a half years away. So i waited 2 years to see a dermatologist. My mother had a hernia and it took her a year to get surgery to fix it, and they botched it, and had to wait another 6 months to fix the botched hernia surgery. One day, the hernia got worse and she started throwing up everywhere and couldnt walk from pain, i called the ambulance and they didnt want to send an ambulance to pick her up. I was yelling at them for an hour on the phone.
I went to an eye specialist in Fukuoka. After use 3 machines and the standard eye check with a nurse, i get to see the doctor. The doctor checked my eye again, and she confirmed i need an eye surgery to fix my retina. She can't speak English but she has book and pictures in English. She use that to tell me how the procedure and surgery will work. It went pretty well. Once i agreed for the surgery, signed a few papers, i had the surgery on the same day. The dentist I went also in Fukuoka, use a Canon camera to take picture of my teeth. She will show the pictures on screen, explaining to me about my teeth and gum. She can speak English well. There was a cavity. Before she fix it, she did an x-ray at that area. Then she proceed. After finished, i still have next appointment. She remind me to bring my own toothbrush for the next visit. At my next visit, she asked me to use my toothbrush to show her how i brush my teeth. Then she asked me to gargle a pink liquid. My teeth covered with pinkish colour. She gave me a mirror. She said the teeth with darker red colour would be the area which i didn't brush well. She also said the way i brush causing my gum to decrease. She showed me the proper way to brush my teeth. I never experience anything like that. Maybe doctors in Fukuoka are the best or maybe i just got lucky. God knows
Additional to what everybody has mentioned (hematologist) it could be hormonal and that would be treated either by a gynecologist or an endocrinologist. Estrogen imbalances can cause easy bruising.
I seem to recall that a certain English speaking expat in Japan RUclipsr with a serious medical problem, residing in Japan with socialized free healthcare, and who`s home country also has socialized free healthcare, came to the USA to get the competent and timely care that they needed.
Okay my doctor must be weird because my doctor does the same thing Connor's did in his last story about the pimple fr lol. My primary doctor, when diagnosing something, will literally tell me everything it *could be* and then he will break each individual possibility into this list based on probability lol. He'll be like "Based on what I see/you said I think it's this - but there is a small chance it could also be this, or this, or this... - but we'll start with what it most likely is and go from there! :)" lol.
This speaks t omy soul. I now have lymphedema in my right foot just because my Japanese doctor diagnosed my foot pain and swelling as a result of blood clotting instead instead of a sprained ankle. It took me 3 months to find a proper doctor just to tell me that I had just sprained my foot, and because it stayed untreated for too long, my infection triggered a lymphedema (life long swelling with no cure). The funny thing in all of this is that my brother (a doctor) got the correct diagnosis and told me all I needed was an anti inflammatory medecine. When I told this to my Japanese doctor he laughed and said your brother does not know what he’s saying 😅
It is creepy how these stores sound a lot like the h animes that exist. Nuns, lions on the wall, doctors not being of any help, waiting for hours until you see something. If they just left the room to explore they may have seen things they didn't want to see and become a plot of a movie they wouldn't want to be part of.
You may be shocked to learn this, but modern hospitals were created by the Catholic nuns to give people a better standard of health, so it's honestly not that surprising. Obviously the doctors did the examining but the nuns ran admin
Patient: *describes potential life-threatening symptoms of an illness
Japanese doctor: sounds like a skill issue
Hmmmm dunno what's that *points at the very obvious symptom that even non-medically trained ppl can identify*
One of my professors had a friend die from a heart attack because the ambulance crew couldn't get multiple hospitals to admit him because they didn't have a cardiologist on duty. As someone who trained as an EMT back in the States, this both scared me and offended me on a deep level.
Canada and USA has had a similar issue over protests and had late ambulances unfortunately cause the same fatal incidents
I had a friend almost die from appendicitis whilst he was sitting in one of Seoul's best A&Es and the doctors were insistent he was experiencing abdominal pain because he's a foreigner who can't eat Korean food. Fortunately, he was already a patient with a Korean doctor who went to med school at Duke, a top med school in the US, and ran the international clinic that catered to foreigners. His wife called Dr. Lee, told him what was going on, he told her to put the A&E doctor on the phone, and read they fella the riot act when he found out the basic workup including white blood cell test hadn't been done. Sure enough, elevated white blood cells, he was wheeled into surgery, and they found he appendix was about to rupture.
Here in the U.S. the problem is healthcare is often unaffordable. It's why people use uber as an ambulance because an ambulance ride could cost you $3,000. Or people just don't go to the doctor at all and hope whatever is wrong with them doesn't get worse.
@@dylanhaugen3739 the reason its expensive is the reason its good, I mean this doctors don't want 30 bucks an hour, they charge their rates for a reason
@@uhlexseeuh the expensive price on the PATIENT has nothing to do with it being good.
If the government took over and paid for all the prices and such that patients had to pay, it would still be great.
Sure, you'd have problems with over-crowding, but you can fix that if you actually implement stuff to stop that (unlike most european countries)
So, the main reason the "good" doctors come to the US, including most of the doctors I have gone to my life, is because they have the ability to make WAY more money than their home countries, whether they studied in the US or abroad.
I have a hungarian friend and a polish friend, and they both talk about how their doctors are crap, and alot of them are basically only doctors in their countries because of activism (wanting to keep the problem of talent flight from ruining their own country) or because the doctors were not GOOD ENOUGH to go to other countries where they would have been paid way more.
In essence, yeah, we have good healthcare in the US, assuming you are in the top 1% and can actually afford to pay the bills.
I mean, hell, with my mother's insurance paying, my $14k bill was put down to $700, but EVEN AT THAT PRICE, how am I supposed to afford that?
The economy is trashed, TL;DR, I can't pay it. it's not an option. I'm already relying on other people's kindness to get by, I don't have money at the end of the month to even do a PAYMENT PLAN FOR $700. All of my friends and family at similar ages don't have money, they all live at home and can't get any money in their savings.
Point is, putting the bills on the patients has naught to do with the healthcare being good, it's what you pay the doctors.
If Doctors in Japan are like Gacha, then doctors in the US are basically guaranteed 5 stars Gacha, but come in pieces and you have to sell your entire house to get one, sell an eye for one and one of your balls to get the last one.
I would say, at least you can pay out your way to that 5 stars. In Japan, wtf you do other than keep looking.
its in premium pay to win currency but its common because they make you pay so much for it in the USA you're basically guaranteed for quality at the least
well there are soo many dentists in the US that if u have a bad experience u can literally just go down the street to a new dentist or probably another dentist at the same place. ive had like 5 different dentists in like 10 years mainly cuz i didnt like one thing or another.
Why do ppl like you always deflect to America when talking about other another country's problem. It's a weird obsession, even if you have American Citizenship.
@@RavagHer sounds like I’m Japan you’d have been fucked.
This really hits close to home.
I had to take an ambulance 3 times in my 1.5 years living in Japan as a language student, and none of the doctors actually helped me... I have vaso vagal syncope (which is a fancy term for common fainting syndrome, but it's extremely uncommon to faint as often as I do) due to really painful periods. I've had these since I was 13, and period pain, even painful ones, are unfortunately seen as "normal" when it isn't. Over time, my episodes have gotten more frequent and more severe. I had been written off often when I was a teen because it's "normal," and I should just "take more pain meds."
The last time I passed out, I was on the Yamanote JR line in July 2022, and the train was halted and everything. The bystanders saved my life! The train staff got an ambulance for me, and I was in level 10, excruciating pain and drifting in and out of consciousness and could barely speak. I was paralyzed by the pain, and the medics thought I couldn't speak Japanese and were frustrated that I was in too much pain to speak, I guess. When they realized it was period pains, they sent me to a women's hospital and said, "They'll prescribe you pain meds for you to pick up because there isn't a pharmacy in the hospital."
Excuse me, WHAT??!
I was completely incapable of walking. How was I supposed to "walk to the pharmacy?" I was like, "Please give me pain meds!" I was vomiting and shaking from the shock my body was in. They didn't give me any meds...
When I arrived, they wanted to insert a pelvic ultrasound probe (which doesn't show ANYTHING according to my American doctors), and I vehemently refused, still in pain.
The male doctor did a normal ultrasound and said, "You just have really bad period pains."
Yeah, no SHIT, Sherlock!
That was the last straw for me.
I quit my schooling, went back to the States, went to a new OBGYN, and explained how I passed out in Japan and how dangerous this has become for me. Turns out, my body produces too much of the hormone for cramping, which means I have to endure near-childbirth-level pain most months :)
I'm now finally receiving the hysterectomy I've needed for the last 13 years!!
The doctors in Japan are even worse than the US about women's health, and they don't know what they're doing. Do NOT rely on the Japanese health care system for your mental health or endometriosis symptoms.
ETA: I've never received an IV in a Japanese hospital? Is that normal? I've been to the ER in America multiple times, and they gave me an IV every time because I was vomiting and pale, along with a blood draw to test my blood. It has literally never happened in Japan. They just let me lay in the hospital bed until the pain subsided and released me. The most they did was a CT scan because I hit my head one of the times when I passed out. Absolutely bonkers.
I'm absolutely furious reading this...I have the same symptoms with a few close calls to passing out in public....how could they not know??!? Or atleast give IV painkillers and anti emetics ..... It's absolutely NOT normal to be paralyzed by pain and they're like "yeah go walk to the pharmacy" ?!????? Gosh I'm so fucking sorry you went through that... medical negligence sucks specially for something as excruciating as endometriosis
On a positive note congratulations on getting the hysterectomy and finally being pain free 🎉👏 ..no understands how fucking horrible endo pain is
As someone with bad period pain, I get you sis
And to my knowledge it is fricking irresponsible to not get you an IV with those symptoms wtf
I’m Japanese I don’t really like going to Japanese doctors for the same reason … My Indian friends father passed away of liver failure after his surgery him and his family stayed in the hospital for everyday for at least a month to check on his dad . His dad passed away at 12am and they only got the news in the morning at 6am from a staff my friend and his family was very furious when they asked the doctors why they didn’t tell them that his dad passed away when he n his family are just in the waiting room everynight n day waiting for his dad to get better the doctors said "we just don’t want to bother you and make you all worried and it can’t be helped he’s already dead " to this day it still bothers me how some doctors here are incompetent 🤦♀️
I have the hormone thing as well, it’s awful. BC fixed it.
As someone with similar symptoms, what is the hormone to check for? I have trouble fighting to get help.
As a Malaysian government doctor, I never even considered not being able to refer someone for anything. Our referral system even in rural clinics are impeccable. Even private clinics can refer to government specialists.
Recently the government had to reject people from Hospitals because they kept coming for small things. So they had to go to GP clinics and if it’s treatable we treat it, if it needs more investigation or more complicated management, we refer back to the Hospital.
I also definitely appreciate KK being able to make some expensive medical test suites accessible to the general public of all financial ability. I had to be tested for TB (xray, mantoux test, blood screening, phlegm test) and it costed me only RM1 per visit.
From my impression of this video, I can't believe it's possible to make the Malaysian healthcare system look better than Japan's. I mean it's a goddamn first world country.
Our KKM deserves the cred it definitely doesn't receive.
@@Lekirius Sometimes I find patients with chronic diseases like DM or hypertension lie about taking their FREE medication to "test" whether they can control their disease on their own. Then after a few months of uncontrolled blood sugar or blood pressure, they would sheepishly admit what they did.
Thousands of ringgit worth of medication down the drain.
I would take a deep breath and ask for the mountains of expired pills to be returned to the pharmacy for disposal.
"Kids who have never seen peace and kids who have never seen war have different values."
- Doffy
Biasanya aku pergi GP sebab senang dapat ubat. Kalau tengok specialist procedure banyak sial.
@@Lekirius bruh same. Before i just didn't care about medical care in our country until i watched how costly it is in the USA even for a merely medical checkup. Here we got sick, go to clinic, pay rm1 and get your treatment.
I don't want to be morbid, but this is what happened with 100T Kyedae. Very tired, started getting massive bruises very easily. Turns out it's leukemia. I also don't want to generalize, but my feeling is the Japanese medical system is hung up on procedures over performance, Syd's symptoms would triggered alarm bells in a practicing GP where I live and would have been triaged quickly into more active diagnosing.
i don't understand how they didn't do a fucking CBC wtf is wrong with japan
But she lives in Canada?
@@raskolinikov6402 There are residency requirements to qualify for free healthcare in Canada. If you live and work in LA most of the year, you aren't considered a resident anymore. but I don't know here situation. The scary thing is Kyedae's form of Leukemia is very aggressive and is the same that Korea RUclipsr HojuSara died of last year.
I live in a 3rd world country with a fairly shit healthcare system that really could use better funding....but even here spontaneous bruising would be a major alarming symptom and would be referred to a specialist asap .... Japan being so aloof with triaging ppl for their various symptoms is just scary...you could be sick with something easily treatable with modern medicine and you'd possibly die because they couldn't be arsed to do a proper exam and do a referral...
Sharla's story of her thyroid issues was enlightening. Japan doctors didnt quite know what to do but check back in a few months. Go back to Canada and they say its serious but we cant do anything for months. Call a US thyroid clinic in Florida and they say, yup we can fix that, can you be here Thursday for surgery.
@@tricksfollies9549 yeah that is why insurance exists. Sucks for people from out of the country.
@@lukestover2207 what you mean it’s still stupid expensive with insurance
@@lukestover2207 as Edward said, it’s still really expensive and you can still get turned down if you don’t have the right insurance
wtf is wrong with those countries , hahaha like litterally wtf , i live in a 3rd world country and its waaaay better then this shit and its fucking free ,
My experience in Canada is that if you don't have a life-threatening emergency then yes, it will take a few months. Things have only gotten worse since Covid with huge understaffing in the whole medical industry.
If you’re ever in a foreign country and you have to go to a hospital, go to one run by the university.
Why a hospital run by a university?
@@prospitdreamer they're more likely able to cater to foreign people. There's a higher number of staff who either trained overseas or come from overseas from what I understand
When I was younger and still on my "I want to live in Japan!" thing, I researched a lot. Found out that hospitals don't use epidurals in labor. It's a no from me
I know that when you’re pregnant in Japan, they have really strict weight limits on how much you can gain weight with your pregnancy. I’m not sure if that’s a part of preventing possible complications with pregnancy. But it makes sense if they don’t have the facilities to give someone an emergency C-section.
At least they don’t have dirty bed and say you can’t breet feed!
@@nerdthatknits which is so stupid given that no amount of prevention can make the risk of complications 0....1st world countries with shit healthcare baffle me 💀
Yet women are 4 times more likely to die giving birth in the U.S. then in Japan. So at a bare minimum they're much better at keeping mothers alive.
Foreign mom in Japan here. You can get an epidural but you have to research where to get one beforehand. I originally wanted a midwife but they had a hospital relationship in case I had an emergency and needed to go. It turns out I needed to go after 36 hours of labor. The doctor was used to foreign patients and the nurses I had were amazing so I had a better experience with that part than even a lot of moms in America experience. Even with research, you're not going to find a lot of info in English. It's called 無痛分娩 mutsuubunben in Japanese.
doctor here. large unexplained bruising, attend a haematologist aka a blood doctor. could be leukaemia, or honestly a variety of different conditions causing low platlets but many will require treatment to prevent harm
It’s definitely rare that it is that especially without other symptoms and alcohol consumption periods and no multivitamins until regular things that women get is ruled out with blood tests for various anemias that cause this definitely wouldn’t jump to the unthinkable scaring a women like that
@@foxythecutefox2564 Punctuation is very important in written English.
@@chair6180 lol indeed but it’s social media so we’re mostly just relaxing with our busy schedules
@@foxythecutefox2564 no, I am not new to social media. Take it or leave it.
Ex: "okay I will pay Lisa"
* "Okay, I will pay Lisa"
* "Okay, I will.... Pay, Lisa!"
* "Okay, I will pay, Lisa!*
* "Okay! I will pay, Lisa."
LOL found it funny that from all the mild conditions that could cause the bruises, you decided to go with "well it might be cancer though" (it really could but you get the point)
As a doctor it really baffled me all the horror stories about medical care in Japan, even foreign with japanese partners that can communicate with the medical staff.
You know, even with all the flaws, it’s much better to live in Japan because their healthcare is much more affordable. Most of the times, you just don’t want to get bankrupt by hospitals like in the US
@@DanielK1213th Bankruptcy is better than dying. Also spoiler you don't have to pay if you don't want to. There is no American yakuza to come break your legs if you don't pay the hospital. They just write it off on their taxes.
I live in a third world country and my dad is a ginecologist from a prestigious unuversity. He has even diagnosed lupus from taking a glimpse to people's hands. Stupid doctors exist everywhere, though. I went to an internist because I was vomiting and had been in pain for months. I ate and then immediately had to empty my stomach. When food stayed in I would be in pain until I vomited again, so I started doing it on purpose when I felt the pain. The doctor straight up tells me that I'm bulimic and I'm shocked like "could this all be in my head omg". Flash forward a couple of years going to 3 gastro doctors that didn't hace a clue. Still in pain, but less. This doctors tells me "I can do an endoscopy in a couple of hours, wait until then". Get out of the endoscopy to find out I had pylori and like severe ulcers and stuff. 2 weeks of antibiotics and that was it. Omg they told me I was bulimic and other one told me that I had a simple case of gluten intolerance. It's like they never went to university in some cases.
Why they didn't order simple blood work literally the minute they heard bruise no impact is beyond my comprehension. I've gone to the ER for stomach pain and they still run me through basic blood work.
For real... These stories about the Japanese healthcare system are just some dystopian shit
Honestly even tho it costs an arm and a leg to get emergency care in America, they at least attempt a full work up that includes urine and blood work and depending on the issue they'll also scan you via ultrasound, CT, MRI without question.
@@trixiebewitched nah that's like the bare minimum anyone should get in an ER.. anywhere ...the USA just has a crazy expensive healthcare system for no good reason since y'all have the money to spare and more.... Too bad
@@trixiebewitched That's because the problem isn't the doctors with US healthcare. They do their job well. Its the privatized system, bloated hospital administration, CEO getting million dollar bonuses, and reliance on insurance to pay for medical fees. Also doesn't help that government aid money goes to the middleman leeches(gov help you pay for insurance instead of directly for treatment) instead of directly to paying the doctors.
Because you can't have a bruise without impact. Many people don't notice or they're the type to bruise easily.
"You need to see a real doctor." That sounds like something straight out of the Simpsons.
If I remember correctly the number of non-Japanese/Foreign doctors in Japan is pretty low,
because to work as a doctor in Japan the Japanese level you need is insane (things like illness names and Kanji)
It's less because of the language and more because of the exam. If you want to just come over and be a doctor you can only treat foreigners in private hospitals and only if you're from a select few countries. If you want to work within the system/ with Japanese people you have to pass their exams and go back to being "a resident" (their equivalent). So basically you become a doctor and then they ask you to go through medical school again. No thanks
Pros of kanji
Yeah I researched into it thinking I might go to work there as a doctor after completing my surgery degree but the process is too tough and you need to super fluent and have to know exactly what their procedures are and not just be a good doctor, where as in most countries the exams are tough but you can actually get through if you’re a good doctor generally.
Yes. Keep in mind there are Japanese nationals who attended medical school or undertook advanced training overseas. Will you find them at a small clinic that caters chiefly to Japanese patients? Unlikely. They'll be at uni hospitals and clinics that cater to a foreign clientele.
When I lived in Japan, I had a weekend of horrible abdominal pain. It was so excruciating that my friend begged me to go see a doctor but it was a Sunday so everything was closed. Monday morning, I went to my supervisor and told her I needed to go to a hospital because I suspected I had a UTI. I’d had one before and it was similarly painful. She took me to a tiny clinic that specialized in urology probably and they did a sample and said it was negative. They basically threw up their hands and I had to leave. Then we drove to a bigger hospital. I waited foreeeeeever to see a doctor. When I went in, he had me lay down and pushed on my abdomen, and when I cried out in pain, he laughed at me. They sent me for blood work, an ultrasound, etc. etc. with more waiting. FINALLY at the end, they did a CT scan and realized it was a buildup of gas (stress induced) and were like “I mean you can take meds but basically just relax more.” After that whole ordeal, my supervisor told me I had to use one of my paid vacation days for that day instead of a sick day. I was flabbergasted and so angry.
Now I live in Korea and I’ve had overall a MUCH better experience in hospitals and with clinics. Things are quicker, cheaper, and more precise most of the time. We do have university hospitals which are huge and have lots of specialists and to get an appointment, you often need a recommendation from a smaller clinic saying you need more specialist care.
All those tests and doctors, and the solution was to let yourself fart? Beautiful
It's insane thinking that a much bigger more populated country like Japan can let someone basically wait with alarming symptoms whilst a neighbouring country... smaller in size and population would just help out right away ... I'm glad it wasn't something life threatening but all the pain must've been really distressing I'm so sorry
I heard Korea has better doctors too!
When i was living in Japan i took my wife to 13 doctors in different places for a problem in her hip. They never found what it was. We got a diagnose back home, when we left Japan :P
What was it? Hopefully it was not something serious
@@rosa3299 the tissue of her c-section healed wrong inside, and was picking some other tissue
I had to see a doctor while in Japan for a, uh, “feminine” issue, but I was in high school and had only been there for a week at that point and was way too embarrassed to ask my host family. So I had to ask the school I was at, and they wanted to know what the problem was. I had no idea what to say so I lied and said I thought I had the flu (it was flu season so I thought it would be believable😅) Luckily the clinic they told me to go to was able to help, and the doctor spoke pretty good English, but the rest of the clinic was full of business men who ACTUALLY had the flu and it was one of the most awkward experiences I’ve ever had 😂
I think as Joey mentioned, it really depends on whether or not you speak Japanese or not. The chances are so much better if you can speak Japanese with a Japanese doctor. This is actually one of the primary reasons why imo it’s really useful to still really study Japanese despite the fact that day-to-day most foreigners can get by with minimal Japanese (obv it takes a lot of dedication to get to that level)
Honestly though, if you move to a foreign country the least you can do is learn the language, we don't expect any less from people that move to a Western country.
Finally a good comment. Same issue in the USA; usually if you don’t speak English they turn you always or have issues. Sometimes there are translators or Hispanic doctors but you’re screwed if they are not
I think a language barrier shouldn't stop you from getting proper care....if a doctor can't diagnose what's wrong with you with a very apparent symptom they must refer you to someone who can.. any decent clinician worth anything would do that...but idk..Japanese doctors sound and act differently from what I was taught in medical school
@@sarroumarbeu6810 Yes I agree - ideally everyone has the right to receive proper care regardless of language (some people have to immigrate to countries in order to literally live and nobody can realistically expect them to learn the language over night). Obviously nobody on trash taste is in that position, but I was mainly pointing out that the title is misleading and it depends on the situation of the person.
From my experience and what I have heard from others, these doctors tend to be "less official" and are definitely never the higher quality ones (probably because the really good ones are popular enough where they have enough cliental so they can just refuse people who don't speak Japanese because they don't want to do deal with it). I would say like 9 out of 10 complaints usually come from these doctors that are catered towards foreigners who don't speak Japanese. Now there is certainly a conversation to be made that this needs to change, but I think it is a bit unfair to label all Japanese doctors under this because the experience is very skewed.
@@songcramp66 exactly, it’s beyond me why foreigners would move somewhere and not learn the language but will say how Japan is a lonely place to make friends lmao
I remember I got some type of lung infection, it took me going to the doctor 3 times over the span of 3 months before they even prescribed antibiotics.
.... That could easily been lethal I'm so sorry....3 friggin months?!? For a very simple antibiotic prescription...omfg
I suddenly feel glad that I have the NHS.
Broke my ankle in December, took 5 hours to be seen by someone, got an x-ray CT scan and a bed within an hour of being seen. 2 surgeries to fix it both successful. Still have trouble walking but my break was pretty bad.
BUT IT WAS FREE AS FUCK BOIIIII
5 hours, thats beyond third world country tier
It is also not free, you pay it through your taxes along with everyone else, stop deluding yourself. NHS is completely useless for non-emergencies as well, good luck if you have a malignant tumor or a deteriorating mistery condition.
Sydney needs to go see a hematologist right away. I don't want to worry you but a low platelet count could be as simple as a vitamin K deficiency or a serious condition like Leukemia. Get it checked again. DISCLAIMER: I'm not a doctor. I just read about medical conditions because I'm a nerd.
More likely that it’s something simple like minor anemia, they drink quite a bit in Japan and alcohol as you know is liver toxic which is also where Vitamin K is made, so unless there is other symptomology it’s not very worrisome and I wouldn’t make a mountain out of an ant hill.
@@BedrockPorkchop It would still probably be a good idea to see a hematologist just to rule anything out. It's better to cover all your bases cause there is a chance it is something that is more serious and is in its early stages. But it could also be what you just said. No harm in getting it checked.
I’m a doctor and u are right a Hematologist is the right dr to go to
Going straight to the cancer, something a real doctor would never do, could be low platelet though, low iron, other vitamins.
@@DarthCody700 ya know a hematologist isn't an oncologist.... right? In fact, the deficiencies you mentioned could be handled by the doctor who is specialized in blood....I wonder who that is
This seems so weird to me. When I was in the ICU at least 3-4 specialist came to see me unprompted. They were all collaborating together. And my general doctor would have definitely referred me to someone if asked on any regular visit.
I had awful degrading experiences of medical care in Japan, including being rejected because I didn't speak Japanese. They just shuffled me out, crutches and all and asked me to come back when I had a "Japanese person" accompany me. Medical care may be more accessible and affordable in Japan but the actual care itself is dismal at best and horrendous at worst, especially if you're not local.
I'm sorry but what exactly do you want them to do if you don't speak Japanese and they don't speak English? Use Google translate and hope it doesnt spit out nonsense that they would be legally liable for?
@@BlueCoolOla i expect them to adhere to the Hippocratic Oath all medical professionals swear to. And they could speak English - minimum but it was there and Google Translate and DeepL go a long way to bridge communication gaps. Japan just has a reputation for not even bothering to try to meet you even a quarter way when it comes to language barriers. They'd rather toss you out instead of finding ways to work around an issue. But I guess from your logic if a Japanese person is abroad and needs medical help, because they can't speak English well, we should also refuse them care to the possible detriment of their health and safety right?
@@raven_bard Because machine translators ARE super unreliable and if they accidentally ended up hurting you due to miscommunication then that would also be violating the Hippocratic oath. I agree that Japan is really bad at accommodating people and that's a problem but with very sensitive issues like people's health, I can't blame them for not compromising.
@@BlueCoolOla not compromising be letting the patient suffer is that your logic
@@jormungund3106 or not compromising by not killing a patient due to a mistranslation. That logic goes both ways when you operate on what ifs.
As much as I hate how expensive U.S. healthcare is, even with insurance, I’m happy that we’re at least thorough, know what to do, and have actual physicians and clinics that can figure out the problem quickly or easily refer you to a specialist.
I think it's proof that each system has ups and down but yeah we need to lower the cost of health care right away.
True… the US definitely has the best practice when it comes to allopathic medicine
@@jesssc402 most doctors in US are indians or chinese tho ..😂
Yes, cost is high but if you have insurance at least you can get answers and feel better
@@nikkizerocool9101 have you seen insurance here? It can cost way too much too, and if you don’t go to the right hospital, your insurance won’t cover it, which is pretty stupid.
Lived in Japan for over 10 years and gave birth twice there. I was constantly fearing for my life and my kids’ lives. I didn’t trust any of the doctors. Even worse they’re closed on holidays… also I have rh negative O- blood. They acted like I was some kind of leper. If I had ever had a serious injury and needed a blood transfusion I would just die. (Almost NO Japanese people have RHO- blood)
This is all kind of strange to me since I’ve lived in Japan for 20+ years and basically had nothing but good experiences with medical and dental. Maybe because I live in a small town, so they have to keep up their reputation, or..? But seriously, my wife and I have had 2 babies here, multiple operations (and all kind of other stuff that life throws at you) I can honestly say I have full faith in the medical and dental system. Is this the same country??
It helps if you can speak Japanese I guess.
My inaka experience is the same! And the local doctor, who lives and works pretty much across from us opens up on holidays and at night if you have something immediate. Dental care is also good. I’ve gotten one of the weirdest compliments from one nerve doctor when I hurt my neck. We did an Xray and he was like “I’ve never seen a neck as long/so many spinal discs in a neck. Well, you’ll get neck pain if it’s that long”.
Maybe Tokyo (?!and Osaka, etc.) are different. And yeah, I guess if you can’t speak the language. Also, it seems that younger doctors are not really up (have the courage) to just diagnosing you, they’d do tests on you until the end of days. It’s the old ones who diagnose from experience and are (mostly?!) right.
Even our vet is really really good! So yeah, weird that people have these experiences in Japan. I guess I’ve just been lucky! My kid has special needs so that side of medical care and diagnosing has also been really spot on.
In Canada, if the doctor at the clinic doesn’t do a referral, they will suggest to you who to contact. Long story short, at my last check up, my doctor noticed that my jaw was out of whack, and while it didn’t hurt he highly suggested I go see a chiropractor to get it pushed back into place.
So far the doctors I have seen have been really good and I only have ever got into an argument with was my prenatal doctor. It was my second pregnancy and since my first son had been a big baby, 10lbs 10oz, the obgyn who delivered him suggested that if I get pregnant again, I should get an ultrasound in the third trimester. Well I get pregnant with baby 2, tell the prenatal doctor at the clinic what the obgyn told me and she was in full agreeance. But when I was 30 weeks and asked if she could book me an ultrasound, this prenatal doctor suddenly changed her tune and said I didn’t need one. I tried to be polite and we went back and forth a bit “your measuring normal, your weight is normal, your not having a big baby”, to which I argued “I measured normal last time, my weight was also normal, can we please double check with an ultrasound like the obgyn suggested?”
I can’t even remember what I said, I think I told her that if she didn’t get me the ultrasound appointment I would walk out into the clinic and either ask to see my family doctor or the walk in practitioner and would ask them to get me an ultrasound and tell them how negligent she was being. Extreme? Maybe, but I was also very hormonal. Finally this prenatal doctor begrudgingly set up the ultrasound and in the end I did have another big baby boy in me. He was already measuring 4 weeks ahead of what he should have been. I so wanted to tell the prenatal doctor “I told you so!” But at the next appointment she suddenly started lecturing me that I was eating too much junk food and take out and that’s why the baby was big. She then gave me a chart to follow for foods I could eat and go on a diet. I walked out of that appointment crying, showed my husband the chart and what she said to me, and he just shredded the paper and said “F&$@ that B?$&!”
Less then two months later, I had a scheduled c-section and gave birth to a 10lb 5 oz baby boy.
I had to go to an eye doctor in Japan because of inflammation in my eye, and had no idea what clinic to choose. The doc at the first clinic basically told me I needed to go to a “bigger hospital,” but didn’t refer me and the big hospital I was aware of near me, required a referral for a specialist. I ended up going to a different clinic and things worked out. I had surgery and everything all in Japanese, so now I know a lot of eye terminology, even more than the average Japanese person.
This 100%. I never when to English speaking doctors but I went to an English speaking women’s clinic for a yeast infection. TMI but I filled out a questionnaire and said I had pain. WITHOUT EVEN CHECKING ANYTHING he diagnosed me with herpes like???? (It wasn’t but Jesus don’t throw that out there so easily) . I demanded him to do an exam and to give me treatment for the infection which I was 99% sure that’s what it was. (It was) It was uncomfortable him watching me undress etc. Never again. (Of course he was wrong but that whole appointment traumatized me)
- also I got a botched root canal done
- I was surprised they don’t sedate you for a colonoscopy here…..worst pain of my life.
(The ladies clinic was the only time I went to an English clinic, the rest were Japanese only clinics)
My experience teaching here had taught me that a lot of really clever doctors go overseas. I wonder if that’s why these problems happen. I’ve had a hard time with doctors too… it’s a vibe.
I know they won’t see this but bruising without a cause can be as simple as Anemia or scary as internal bleeding, sometimes caused by a broken bone or otherwise internal injury that may show on X-ray. X-ray just ruled out worst case.
She should still be tested for Anemia though.
Indeed there’s all different types as well and “The frequency of anemia in Japan is statistically higher than that of foreign countries”
The other day i saw a tiktok which mention that while Japan have better medical infraestructure and health quality, doctors dont have as much experience as mexican doctors, and that is true for all the wrong reasons, in mexico each general doctor on public hospitals see between 20-30 patients a day, and usually those hospitals have around 20 to 40 doctors per shift, health quality its really bad, and for that reason doctors have a lot more experience with sickness and its easier for them to diagnose easily what you have
her in Norway, we have the problem of to many patiens per doctors, quite often a doctor have 1000+ on their list (I have seen doctors with 1500 patients on their list). You nowadays get less time with your doctor, but when you bock your time with doctor, over the phone ore trough the webside, you describe your symptoms, so they already know why you are there. And if it's needed, they will send you to a specialist.
For example me, I had experienced a sudden dropp in my physical condition, where I went from being able to run comfortable for 40+ minutts with my 125kg's, to now only manage 2-3 minutes, while being 120kg's. So I am waiting for an appointment at an heart specialist at the hospital, that are going to monitor me, doing exercises.
Although, the doctors in Norway are way overloaded, you get help. And if they think your case is serious enough (out of your description), they'l prioritize you in the system. (basically, triage)
Listening to the stories in this video, it sounds like the common issue is the language barrier. It might be really useful to learn to converse colloquially in the native language of the country that you have chosen to live in.
I myself lived in Japan for over a decade and can tell you the quality of care improves and the wait times go down if you can speak the language. There is still occasionally a doctor who you might suspect of quackery, but I feel that may apply to anywhere you go.
Edit: If you’re not sure where to go for an issue, a university hospital is best, but a local internal medicine clinic (内科) has a high likelihood of being able to get you sorted or point you in the right direction.
It sounds like hospitals need to start offering a Japanese translater service as an extra add-on.
That way, the Gajin leave the premises sooner.
wtf dude
@@ramboturkey1926 I was obviously being facetious.
@@mattcgw so obvious
@@ramboturkey1926 it was
I would be curious what her complete blood count looked like. I am glad the bruises are healing, but if she continues to get random bruises I would take her to a hematologist (blood doctor) and if they did not do anything and the problem still persists then an oncologist (cancer doctor). Not to raise alarms because it could be that she randomly has low platelets because her diet changed or something else benign and transient so if the random bruising does not happen again you all are probably good. :) But I would ask for the results of a complete blood count if I were you.
On a lighter note, hospitals in western countries were often started by religious orders. Many in the States still are named after saints or various religious orders. And none of them I have encountered across several states have ever behaved so...modestly...with their patients when trying to diagnose them.
It’s very possible it’s normal anemia variations of different vitamins all cause this and happens in women and “The frequency of anemia in Japan is statistically higher than that of foreign countries”
One of my distant relatives had pain in one of her boobs. She went trough 4 physicians who told her that she was fine and refused to do anything until she found a physician who diagnosed her with stage 3 breast cancer. This is a global problem. There is not enough discussion on medical quality in the public discourse. We are just told to blindly trust the healthcare system.
I really hate that about soctors in Japan, they ask you how you want to proceed, what test do you want and what doctor would you like to see? YOU ARE THE SPECIALIST WHY DO YOU ASK ME?
When you pull that 5 star seasonal doctor: yeah baby I'm going to get healed today
There is a hospital in the US where I live that is a 12 hr wait in the waiting room before you are seen
Just remember, Don't get sick here on Sundays.
I can't remember if it was epicnamebro or dogen who told the story of a coworker whose appendix burst: They had to drive around to find a hospital that could be bothered to take the guy's appendix out.
I can see why majority of doctors outside of America would have to retake a test or go back to school to practice in America. My cousin originally wanted to come to America to practice Veterinary care but she changed her mind because according to her, she would have to go back to vet school but in America.
The US medical system gets a lot of crap but it is fantastic for people that have serious medical conditions, I have a rare neurodegenerative condition and get free insurance meanwhile if I was back in Italy I would have died a few times over, your just screwed If you need routine medical care and don’t insurance.
Canadas has USA doctors employed and it’s cheaper so if people needed Canada is an option
It’s fantastic for people who have a lot of money, that’s about it 😂
@@matthewmammothswine4395 Yea go tell that who doesn’t live in a doctors office and hasn’t experienced the awful antiquated squalid care you get in Europe, if you’re very poor or very sick you get coverage in the US, it’s the normal people in the middle that get screwed heavily.
@@steffanofumo 😂
In future go to see a hematologist if you start getting unexpected or severe bruising. A hematologist is a blood/vein specialist. They can organise the right scans and venograms to get a look at the trauma to the blood vessel that caused the bruising.
The problem is, hématologists aren’t very common in japan. They’re not gonna have their own clinic, and if you’re not in a hospital being referred you will probably never see one. The common clinic types are nose ear and throat, orthopaedic, OBGYN, paediatric, and digestive. So if it’s not any of those you’re gonna have to take a chance.
It’s most likely anemia which is common in a women even they say “The frequency of anemia in Japan is statistically higher than that of foreign countries”
@@foxythecutefox2564 That would have been my first guess. However, in my early twenties I was diagnosed with a blood clotting condition, so always promote caution, especially in women. Hormonal birth control effects clotting factors in the blood, increasing the risk for deep vein thrombosis.
@@thehangmansdaughter1120 yeah, and there are a whole lot of questions a haematologist would ask before writing something off as a basic microcytic anaemia lol. There are different types of anaemia, to begin with, and there are tonnes of potential deficiencies of varying importance.
I had a great healthcare experience in Ireland on my honeymoon. Most of the time in the states no matter where I am I just call my doctor and tell them my symptoms and they either send a script to a nearby pharmacy or tell me what to do. I do have the benefit of being a nurse though when it comes to symptoms and an idea of what I need.
When I was in Japan I went to a “Naika” or internal medicine doctor for most things. That doctor would refer me to someone if needed. But, they were great and understood what to do for most things. If anyone lives in Hirakata shi, Osaka. Message me for help! Also I know a good doctor near futago tamagawa station
My best experience with healthcare was in France! French are quite hypochondriac, so their health care is really good. The French doctor discovered my hashimoto disease and recovered me from anaemia as well. UK healthcare sucks, I never go to doctor here and for dentist and dermatologist I went to private Hungarian doctors. They did excellent jobs and were very polite as well.
I speak fluent french and have had a rough time with french doctors, though no worse than anywhere else. My personal experience had been that they've been incredibly, dangerously dismissive of symptoms and often weirdly insulting or aggressive. When I'm talking to them, that is - when my husband is the patient they're much more interested in what he has to say.
"It's a 3 hour wait"
Me, a canadian: Oh wow that's pretty fast
The whole crew: wooooah that's such a long time
Me: WAT
As a canadian, my mom went to the hospital after breaking her knee. She was in excruciating pain and they still made her wait 5-6 hours before seeing her. She had to stay awake all night and finally came back home at 7am with a huge cast. She wasn't able to walk for several months.
If you show up with a bruise like that to the hospital, they will literally tell you to go home or go to a public clinique where the wait time can be from 3 hours to 8 hours depending on your place on the queuer and that's only if you can get a spot in the queue.
Christian hospitals that also have nuns still working there exist here too. But i dont think they are THAT conservative usually
Ah yes. I had a similar experience here but arguably better. Especially the “Choose your clinic” bit. Luckily healthcare costs here are great so I have mixed feelings on the whole debacle. I lucked out after cycling to 3 or 4 different hospitals that one had English speaking doctors (I’m a language student and it had only been about a month since I started learning so my Japanese was ちょっと at the time). I’ll never forget that night.
Oh my god I've had this exact problem in Korea. I have a little problem, say I need a doctor and partner asks which kind. I'm like... I don't know, I'm not a doctor! and it feels odd going to a big hospital for something small. I have also noticed that a lot of these small specialised clinics... are very much hit and miss, Gacha even. My gyn is brilliant, but every eye doctor I've seen has been awful. That being said, large hospitals have been superb and my cancer treatment was phenomenal and incredibly cheap.
Also, regarding dentists: My husband got dental work done in japan years ago, they used a severely outdated procedure and he's still fixing their f** up 10 years later.
I wish we could have a website to rate and comment experiences on doctors so we can know who is good and who isn’t worth the time.
I'm actually having a great experience just googling things to figure out what I should get checked for. I've been pretty accurate with it so far even with more nuanced cases.
also, honestly the rough outline of doctor specialties should probably be taught in school.
Basically, if you get sick in Japan, just pray on it to go away and google it. Damn.
American healthcare might cost you a leg, but at least you will find out why you have bruises on that leg.
What leg?
@@xXDESTINYMBXx third leg
france healthcare wouldn't cost a single penny and they will find out the cause and treat it , without even knowing who the fuck are you , even an illegal immegrant would get treated
Canada is a better option honestly
@@foxythecutefox2564we have a doctor shortage rn, so its not the best but yeahh. For reference I live In Quebec, so our doctor shortage is a bit worse and ugh so complicated to get an appointement if you have no family doctor.
Edit: They're so right about having to often self-diagnose!! 🤣😣 Some of my friends and I have also been asked by doctors "What do you think you have?" after not being able to diagnose us (and they all have us some herbal medicine since they didn't know what we had). Also, during the annual health check-up at my job, each year, without any exception, the doctors in charge of blood test never changed their gloves between people at all!! I've observed them for at least ~10 minutes every year, and none of them did it. So unsanitary and dangerous as they're dealing with needles, blood, etc.
I've had a few bad experiences with incompetent doctors in Japan. Once, I had a rash, and the old doctor didn't know what it was and had to look in this binder full of pictures. Even then, she and the nurses couldn't figure out what I had and still gave me some pills to take. My Japanese host mom was like "Yeah, don't take those. Let's go to another clinic."
Another time was when my Rosacea started appearing on my skin. I was pretty sure that it was Rosacea. I went to that local dermatologist clinic and this old dermatologist didn't know what I had and gave me that cream assuming I had acnea. WRONG!! I burned so much and made everything worst and super inflammed! 😭 Luckily, I only had to go to a second clinic to find a middle-aged lady. She looked at my skin and gave me the right stuff for it.
I have other stories, but I'm going to share one last. Over two or three years ago, I had pain in my knees and ankles. I had been playing DDR with my bf for a while, so I suspected something was wrong from all the jumping around at my weight (as I couldn't go up or down stairs without having excruciating pain or get up my futon without it either). That bone doctor said he couldn't see anything on the radiography, so just sent me home saying that I should just take pain killers when it hurts. That's all. Three years later (I've stopped DDR since then), my knees make a grinding sound, and I'm pretty sure I have knee crepitus (so it's only going to worsen as the time goes by). 😭
Wow....not changing gloves between patients 😳 ...and gosh all these stories... I'm so sorry you had to go through so much..and knee+ankle pain is so restrictive and tiring mentally 😢 I hope you have a good rhumatologist now
@@sarroumarbeu6810 I'm planning on going to a clinic again to get another doctor's opinion. For now, I just try to avoid high impact activities and I follow a healthy diet. 😅
@@sarroumarbeu6810 Also, thanks for your kinds words! 😊
3 hour wait
everyone: oof
portugal: that's adorable!
I'd recommend coming over to Singapore! Closer by to Japan than flying back to the UK or US, everyone speaks English and it strikes a middle ground between the US and the NHS in terms of affordability and availability
Doctors in Japan drive me insane like 70% of the time. I was shitting blood so I went to a doctor and he was like, “it’s stress.”
?? I told him I had no stress. I was single, in a great low stress job, in a lovely apartment with a good salary. He just kept saying it was probably stress and to stop worrying about it.
6:39 Doing an x-ray for a bruise is like when the ER vet did an x-ray on my cat for a bladder infection and found meta bbs in his body completely unrelated to his bladder infection. My mom was like "I'm not paying for an x-ray, why the hell did you do an x-ray for a bladder infection?" But we've had rotten luck with ER vets, a neighbor's dog from 2 streets down attacks our cat (different cat) and he ends up with internal leaking of interstitial fluids "you're just imaging things he has a heart condition" I did not imagine my neighbor saying "I saw a german shepherd attacking your cat then your cat jumped from a lethal height for cats to flee from it."
With the stories I've heard from these guys Japan sounds like it's a really expensive place to live in, it makes me wonder about the not so rich people that live there. I know that some homeless people get treated like absolutely shit like there was an incident where kids set fire to a homeless man's tent.
It was to keep him warm
I remember researching good countries to live a few months ago and iirc, according to multiple sources, jp is ranked lower in cost of living than canada, france and germany, so dats pretty good. Idk if dat changed tho
These guys live in tokyo and since its the capital and where most tourists go, it'd be more expensive there than anywhere else in jp
@@user-me1mv4vy9q it is lower in cost of living but jobs also pay far less and oftentimes even expect people to work over time without pay if its a full time company job
@@MontySlython I'd assume they take account of income in determining the cost of living.
@@danielzhang5842 even if they do, time off is still very important, if you are expected to meet all of these expectations to keep your job and such it results in a very unfulfilling life, as shown by japanese people themselves, choosing not to marry or have children due to the cost of living and time spent working not justifying such a thing.
would have never expected that in japan, i thought there were like a 5 star doctors everywhere
Japanese doctors be like: Bro RIP! 💀
Chris talked about doctors in one of the reasons why you shouldn't move to Japan video he did and as someone who has both ADHD + G.A.D. (Generalized Anxiety Disorder) I can honestly say that I would probably not go to a doctor in Japan due to their notorious outlook and treatment of people with mental disabilities that're outside of their control. If I lived in Japan I would keep in contact with my doctor in the USA and let her know what's going on and ask what I should do. If it is serious enough I would probably get a flight to go back home to see her. Also the medication I take isn't necessarily something that is readily available in Japan because of their really strict medication laws so I would need to get a permit to get my medication imported to me or given to me because of the fact it's a drug that is abused by a lot of people. If it was an emergency I would go see a doctor in Japan but only if I had someone with me who is Japanese get me to someplace that'll actually help me. I would need a really strong amount of support in Japan in order to stay there.
When you don't know the medical system or you don't speak the language, it can definitely seem impossible to find a decent doctor in Japan.
- The closest thing to a GP is the "internal medicine" (内科 naika) doctor. Many people in Japan have them as their かかりつけ医 (kakaritsuke-i) meaning they are their main doctor, know their medical history better than other doctors, and are usually the ones referring to specialists if necessary. I have one myself, trained and worked overseas, accepts insurance, can speak perfect English, makes the best referrals. I trust him completely with my health.
- More big hospitals (university hospitals! don't go to a church hospital!) are offering 総合診療科 (sogo shinryo ka) or 総合内科 (sogo naika), which are "general medicine departments" that take patients who have no idea what's going on with them and run a gamut of tests or refer them to the appropriate department.
I've only ever had normal doctor experiences here in Japan, but I will say it can be hit or miss still, but I assume the same no matter where I go. I spent months visiting a university hospital trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Hospital had amazing reviews, English speaking, but for some reason I was never referred to other departments to do tests there even though I had symptoms that could correlate with a large number of diseases. In the end, I did my own research and found out I had sleep apnea.
I will say one of the most frustrating parts of the medical system in general is almost no doctor understands the body as a whole. How, if you have X condition, you are most likely comorbid for this and that and they should check that. In the case of sleep apnea, that means checking your teeth and nose to see if you brux, have anything restricting the flow of air in your nose, etc. This doesn't apply just to Japan, but the world as a whole.
As for English speaking doctors... yeah... I've had a variety of experiences with the level of English. At this point, I go to regular Japanese clinics and just tell them that I'm not entirely fluent, so I might ask questions. Most of the time it goes fine, but sometimes I get weird doctors who suddenly try speaking to me entirely in English even when their English sucks!! I can reply back in perfect Japanese and they'll still speak to me in broken English. Absolutely horrid. I also find the level of care from said doctors to be lower in quality, so I switched in both cases and am happier for it.
And for dentists! I tell you, I've been calling dentist after dentist for the past couple of weeks trying to figure out the best one for my specific condition. At first I too thought American dentists were THE best. I researched the heck out of my condition and then called them up. Turns out half of them didn't treat my condition, a quarter could only do very basic treatment before referring patients out to a university hospital, and the remaining were entirely out of pocket and I just plain couldn't afford them. In the end, I turned to Japanese dentists and found the same type of thing, but finally ended up discovering a specialist renowned for my condition who didn't train overseas, but regularly participated in international conferences, wrote papers on it, etc. Studied at arguably the best dental hospital in the country. Turns out, it really, really, really depends on what you need help with...
I will 100% say that I've never not been referred to a big hospital when I need a big hospital. But I'm usually pretty proactive and that's a standard question I ask - Do you think I need to go to a big hospital?
...I've been through the ringer with my health while in Japan.
3 Hours is actually pretty good for non-emergency. My cousin had to wait 6 hours to get 3 stitches for a deep cut on his face in a UK A&E!
With a bruise I would expect someone to check blood work so maybe a haematologist to be checking clotting factors and as you said platelets, as usually bruising has something to do with the blood, could be low iron or anaemia too, but definitely blood related. This was my immediate thought and I'm not medically trained at all, but have had chronic illness most of my life so have had experience with a lot of problems.
if you can, try to go to a us base if theres near you. i luckily had family stationed near osaka so whenever i got sick id go straight to the base. (i saw people that had no affiliation go onto base for w/e reasons as well) i just dont know the process you have to go through without any connection to the base
2:23 - That sounds a lot like Dr. Vindaloo from Courage the Cowardly Dog
Ok, so I've been to Japan for a year and I generally had pretty good experiences with doctors. But that may just be for similar reasons as Joeys knowing Japanese privileges. I mean I'm German and it turns out that most Japanese doctors know German from medical school and are somehow really happy and proud to show off their German skills
Man, as a Canadian, I heard "3 hour wait" at the hospital and immediately thought "Oh, so it wasn't that bad then". Huh.
Although Norway have similar system as UK, for hospitals and doctors. It isn't luckily as bad as in UK... yet. Although we have to few doctors per patient's. The nurses at local clinics and hospitals are basically doing triage every day (when needed, and depending on patients). You do get help, they send you to the next doctor, if they can't find out, and they talk with other colleagues, to solve a problem. But sometimes you need to push it.
unless you have the money or have an health insurance in addition to the "free" health care. you can go to privat hospitals/clinics, and they often hold a high level.
1 How do you know how bad it is in the UK? 2 This was about Japanese doctors.
We need to know what hospital Sydney went with the weird nurses and sister, so we do not go there if we're in a medical emergency in Japan.
And they still have a long life expectancy. Amazing!
back 2014 right after that HUGE snowfall I slipped and fell down the pedestrian bridge steps over Showa-Dori and found myself hobbling around, my right calf swollen up and bruised black, and obviously in great pain - I rang my travel insurance number and they recommended a clinic just near by - works the doctor there was some super sports rehab guy who had worked in the US for a while it was like getting one of the best rehab specialists in Japan who also spoke fluent English, did an ultrasound, discovered I had done a huge tear of my soleus (inner calf) - rest for 2 to 4 weeks (oh great I have a 1 week snow hiking trip starting in two days, put cold compresses on it (does just rolling up your snow pants while hiking count?), and don't fly for a month due to blood clots (that was easy I was in Japan for another 2 months) - he was so good I felt guilty that I basically ignored his advice (and I did actually suffer for it for a couple years 'cause it didn't heal quite right.
I've lived in the US and Japan and dealt with the health care systems of both. I'll take the US any day. I've had some amazing doctors there. The Japanese doctors didn't even try to help my problems.
Sounds about as correct as what ive heard from others when i was living there. I think i got lucky as a uni student our university hospital was quite good. That said the uni campus clinic was uhhh not great lmao
USA: are you challenging me?
" Throat Nani " 😂😂😂😂😂😂
True. Can't do shit with my condition here (probably Raynaud's syndrome but can't get diagnosed bc of Japanese doctors). The best they could do was to prescribe me a cream with vitamin e so that my bruises and frostbites would heal a bit faster. When I complained that I also have severe joint pain, the doctor just ignored me and couldn't refer me to another specialist either. To make things worse, I live in a smaller city and there are not a lot of clinics here
That sounds a lot like EDS. You should look into that if you haven't.
tbh i feel like JP and US have same doctors. It's all dependent on how much experience/what they have seen. For unknown things, it'll be tricky for anyone. So it's always dependent on how good you are w/ medical history. I've had issues in both countries and it hasn't been too much of an issue. (if you haven't seen a doctor in awhile, always good idea to have blood draw to check cbc etc.)
Regarding english- even if you don't speak JP, they will try their best- using a bunch of hand gestures, or using translation apps, and the few words they might know. At larger hospitals, there's a higher chance of getting someone who did their med school/residency in an english speaking country (god bless those who had to then take the national jp medical exam...). You can find english speaking hospitals online but as it was mentioned, it's more dependent on staff...
and also yes, you wait in line for several hours. Basically plan the entire day at the hospital if you go that route (esp. if you don't know which department you need to go to).
I suggest asking to get blood vitamin levels checked could be a type of anemia
I live in a third world country and every time I needed medical care I would either go to the ER or to my general practitioner, and in all those cases I was properly tested and derived. This just sounds awful.
Hematologist, Garnt! It might be leukemia!!!!
Well here in Spain i had to see a dermatologist and it took 6 months for them to give me the actual date of the appointment, which was 1 and a half years away. So i waited 2 years to see a dermatologist. My mother had a hernia and it took her a year to get surgery to fix it, and they botched it, and had to wait another 6 months to fix the botched hernia surgery. One day, the hernia got worse and she started throwing up everywhere and couldnt walk from pain, i called the ambulance and they didnt want to send an ambulance to pick her up. I was yelling at them for an hour on the phone.
Bro the waiting list for that derma is ridiculous, just choose other options bro
"at least i dont have ass herpes." is probably the best motivational quote of the century.
Is it easy to become a dr in Japan cause I’m the uk it’s hard af and takes ages
@16:18 Gonna check for the videos/streams where Connor squirms in his seat to relieve his Ass Herpes symptoms now!
I went to an eye specialist in Fukuoka. After use 3 machines and the standard eye check with a nurse, i get to see the doctor. The doctor checked my eye again, and she confirmed i need an eye surgery to fix my retina. She can't speak English but she has book and pictures in English. She use that to tell me how the procedure and surgery will work. It went pretty well. Once i agreed for the surgery, signed a few papers, i had the surgery on the same day.
The dentist I went also in Fukuoka, use a Canon camera to take picture of my teeth. She will show the pictures on screen, explaining to me about my teeth and gum. She can speak English well. There was a cavity. Before she fix it, she did an x-ray at that area. Then she proceed. After finished, i still have next appointment. She remind me to bring my own toothbrush for the next visit. At my next visit, she asked me to use my toothbrush to show her how i brush my teeth. Then she asked me to gargle a pink liquid. My teeth covered with pinkish colour. She gave me a mirror. She said the teeth with darker red colour would be the area which i didn't brush well. She also said the way i brush causing my gum to decrease. She showed me the proper way to brush my teeth.
I never experience anything like that.
Maybe doctors in Fukuoka are the best or maybe i just got lucky. God knows
Additional to what everybody has mentioned (hematologist) it could be hormonal and that would be treated either by a gynecologist or an endocrinologist. Estrogen imbalances can cause easy bruising.
5:13 an anime plot 😂
Another warning about unknown bruises, especially if they appear on arms and lower legs. They also could be a symptom of Leukemia.
I seem to recall that a certain English speaking expat in Japan RUclipsr with a serious medical problem, residing in Japan with socialized free healthcare, and who`s home country also has socialized free healthcare, came to the USA to get the competent and timely care that they needed.
Is this Sharmander? I remember she flew back to Canada but I can't recall if she also went to the US for what she needed treatment for.
🤓
Yeah because they can afford it. What good does it do the average or poor American that our health system is suited for wealthier people?
@SpoiltLittlePrincess Yeah she went to a hospital in Florida a few years ago to get checked out
@Drkbowers1 The fuck you mean? You get a decent job and you get health insurance that will cut that cost down ALOT.
Damn USA healthcare is starting to sound better and better after the shit they went through
Okay my doctor must be weird because my doctor does the same thing Connor's did in his last story about the pimple fr lol. My primary doctor, when diagnosing something, will literally tell me everything it *could be* and then he will break each individual possibility into this list based on probability lol. He'll be like "Based on what I see/you said I think it's this - but there is a small chance it could also be this, or this, or this... - but we'll start with what it most likely is and go from there! :)" lol.
Lmaoooo that should be the doctor's internal monologue not a conversation with the concerned patient that just wants treatment to feel better wtf xDD
Isn't that basically google with extra steps?
I mean if you hear hoof beats look for a horse not a zebra as the saying goes
This speaks t omy soul. I now have lymphedema in my right foot just because my Japanese doctor diagnosed my foot pain and swelling as a result of blood clotting instead instead of a sprained ankle. It took me 3 months to find a proper doctor just to tell me that I had just sprained my foot, and because it stayed untreated for too long, my infection triggered a lymphedema (life long swelling with no cure).
The funny thing in all of this is that my brother (a doctor) got the correct diagnosis and told me all I needed was an anti inflammatory medecine. When I told this to my Japanese doctor he laughed and said your brother does not know what he’s saying 😅
no such thing as perfect health care i guess
It is creepy how these stores sound a lot like the h animes that exist. Nuns, lions on the wall, doctors not being of any help, waiting for hours until you see something. If they just left the room to explore they may have seen things they didn't want to see and become a plot of a movie they wouldn't want to be part of.
A hospital run by nuns!?!?
What is this Fire Force!?!?
Latom 🙏
You may be shocked to learn this, but modern hospitals were created by the Catholic nuns to give people a better standard of health, so it's honestly not that surprising. Obviously the doctors did the examining but the nuns ran admin