"Injections" in Taipei

By Perrin

“Where are we going?”

“To get shots.” Said my dad.

“Ya right” I said with a small laugh. It simply couldn’t be, but I had heard no joking tone in his voice. I was worried that it was going to be true.

“No, really. We have to get the Japanese Encephalitis shots for going to Thailand and China. Your mom already got it.” My dad replied.

“What?! Why do we have to get shots?! I thought we were done with all of them before we got here.” I was angry and now, anxious. 

“Well we weren’t sure if we had to get it, so we waited until we got here but the doctor thinks it’s a good idea.” My dad said to my sister and I who were both getting a little nervous.

Japanese Encephalitis is a disease that you get if you’re bitten by a mosquito  and you can die from it. If you live, you can lose your hearing, and/or it can affect your brain. The mosquitos that carry it are usually found in more rural places in Asia. All babies in Taiwan get the shots when they are just born and everybody says its good to have, so that's why my parents decided to get it.

In Taiwan shots are done very differently than in America. The hospital seems to trust people to do the right thing without one doctor doing it for you. The first thing you need to do in the process of getting shots in Taipei, is check in at a desk where they ask you all the questions a usual doctor would ask when filling out a form: Do you have any allergies, have you stayed overnight in the hospital before, and what is you weight, age and height? That was a fairly uneventful, boring part of our visit to the McKay hospital.

The boring question room.

Next, we went up to the second floor via the magic carpet-like escalator and took our own blood pressure with a special machine that you put your arm through. You then jot down the numbers that it shows and give them to the nurse when it’s your turn. When we got called in from the waiting/blood pressure-taking room, a female doctor who spoke surprisingly good English welcomed us to a room that looked vaguely like a doctor’s office in America. She asked us what medication we wanted and why, so we told her that we needed the Japanese Encephalitis shots.

Picking up the medicine. 

        Instead of the doctor getting the medicine and doing the shots for you like in America, you go to the “Hospital Pharmacy” yourself to pick up your medicine and the actual syringe.Then you “follow the blue line” to the sign labeled “Injections”. By this point I was pretty nervous. I think the woman that was giving the shots noticed, so when it was my turn, I gave her the medicine, she set it up and when she was about to do it (or maybe after I’m not sure because I didn’t feel it) she slapped my arm, not too hard but it seemed to have done the job. Afterward, when I came out smiling, my dad and I both said that it had been the best shot that either of us had ever had. We went in scared, and we walked out smiling. 

Before my shot. I am telling my mom not to take a picture of me.

During the shot.

After the shot.