The doctors tried to force anti-psychotics on me when I was actually severely B12 and Iron anemic, causing me to hallucinate.

When the facility’s doctors figured out my hearing voices wasn’t schizophrenia, they dropped me like a hot rock and told me to ask about my blood results (which I practically had to BEG them to do) the next time I saw my family GP because my “Vitamin B levels were a bit low”. Ten months later I was passing out and constantly dizzy and HAD to go to the doctor. I lost some sensation in my fingertips and was getting jaundiced to the point where everybody I regularly met started asking me if I’d been tanning. My red blood cell count was so low for so long that when I finally started getting treatment (after the move) I was getting bruises from the increased supply. It took three years for me to get to decent enough levels and I’m still having regular blood checks to keep me on track.

Thank Christ the NHS is there, though. My case was rare but it would’ve been a whole lot worse if my parents had to pay.

The doctor gave me some anesthetic for the pain and looked at my eye, he had an intern with him, i had about intermediate level japanese at the time and both the doctor and my host mother knew some english so communication wasnt a problem. He ended up telling me that he couldnt see anything however he did think there was something causing the issue and that i needed to see a specialist so he advised i keep washing my eye and see a specialist ASAP, he really didn’t withhold any information from me at all, he was just straight up honest. So i had to wait the weekend out until the specialist clinic opened, which meant that by the time i got there i had a very nicely bloodshot and swollen eye.

And this is what blew my mind, i waited 30 mins, they walked into the specialists office, she dropped anesthetic in my eye so i couldnt feel anything. She lifted up my eyelid to check if she could find the problem. She then plucked something from under my eyelid then showed my the small splinter which had been embedded quite far into the back underneath side of my eyelid and had be scratching against my eye when it moved. I should note that before she did anything she told me what she was going to do.

I was then taken into a room where they gave me an eye patch and a cream to put on my eye which stopped the pain and caused the blood shot part to heal within a week ( it actually only took my 2 days to completely heal).

All of the medication and two doctors visits cost me a total of about 3000 yen. Or $30 ish Australian Dollars. I did have a student card though. From my own experience, i think the Health System in Japan is pretty amazing.