Culture shock: Being in the hospital in China

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Hi everyone! I wanted to share an experience that I had in China before returning to the United States. I was having some issues and wanted to get checked out. I went to one hospital that was across the street from the school I was teaching at and it was a joke. My co-teacher went with me to translate, but he had trouble understanding what the problem was. He thought it was something simple like a cold or something, but it turned out that it was much more. They asked for a urine sample, but when I gave them the sample, they refused it because it was not clean (feces was coming out in the urine). We tried to explain with my nephew's minimal Chinese (but far better than mine) that I had a fistula but all the doctors there said it was impossible. My boss showed up while they were giving me an IV (their solution to everything including the common cold). He decided that I should go to the "number one" hospital (as the one we were at was private and not necessarily very good). We went there and told the doctors there everything that we had told the doctor at the first hospital and they just laughed at us and called my nephew a liar because what we were describing was impossible. I guess doctors in China are not accustomed to people telling them about medical issues. They decided to admit me to the hospital so they could run some tests. The first thing that surprised me was how cold the hallways were. Everywhere we went, we had to have a coat on. When they put me in a ward, it was warm, but once you left the area where people had to sleep, there was no heat. I was taken to get a CT done and I was bundled up in my winter coat because the hallways were not heated. Then when they gave me the contrast, they gave me a large container with hot water and said I had to drink three of these containers in a relatively short time. In America, I always had cold drinks so that was hard getting used to. Another thing was the food. If you wanted to eat, someone had to go and buy food for you. The hospital didn't provide meals like they do in America. The nursing staff only checked on you if they had to give an IV or provide some specific treatment. I was in the hospital from Sunday night until Wednesday morning and I hope I never have to be in a Chinese hospital again. I think the hardest part for me was that very few people working in the hospital spoke English at all, and those that did had very minimal skills so it was hard to understand what they were trying to get at. One doctor that could speak English told my nephew that I had colon cancer (I get back to the states and it turns out it was a recurrence of ovarian cancer occurring in the colon) that caused the fistula. I think the worst part about the whole experience was that they wanted me to pay up front for care even though I had insurance. If I wouldn't have had any money, they would have let me die (or so it seems). Needless to say, I returned to America for treatment rather than risking getting part way through and running out of money. Have you had a similar experience? Let me know. Thanks!