Medical Attention

It all started with a sinus infection. I’ve had it for weeks if not months but I finally couldn’t ignore it any more and decided to suck it up and go to the doctor. I’d heard some horror stories about the doctors here in Georgia. Doctors that don’t speak a word of English, bribing people to pass their certification exams, and prescribing dangerous medicines for the wrong illnesses. But, I figured this was just a sinus infection and couldn’t be that hard to screw up.

For us TLG teachers to go to the doctor, we must first call the health insurance hotline (whose operators speak amazing English by the way) and get recommended to a clinic. They text messaged me the address of a clinic in my city and told me that the doctor would wait for me to show up since I would be a little late.

I arrived at 4 o’clock and was shuffled into a room where a woman who didn’t speak a word of English took my blood pressure and pulse and took all my information. I was getting worried that this woman was the doctor, but then I was shuffled into the next room where I was met by the doctor and to my relief, he spoke perfect English. I lucked out by getting a doctor that has worked for various international organizations before. He was very professional, more professional that I’ve seen in Korea, that’s for certain. He listened to what I said were my symptoms and he agreed that it was probably a sinus infection , but he’d have to do a blood test to check my white blood cell count. After the nurse took my blood he told me, “I’m going out for a while, wait here for the blood test results and I’ll be back.” I didn’t think it was possible to run a blood test that quickly, but 30 minutes later he was back and had the typed up results in his had. Slightly elevated levels of white blood cells. He wrote me out a prescription and sent me on my merry way to the pharmacy to get my antibiotics and nasal spray.

The nasal spray started to work immediately and I started feeling much better by the next morning. I took my antibiotics with my breakfast again and then again with my “lunch” (which is just cake since that’s all my school serves in the food department) at 11. After school, I went to the internet café to check some email and make some skype calls. I go to one particular internet café because it tends to have the most working microphones. But, the downside to this place is that the air inside is terrible. I can’t put my finger on what makes the air so bad, sometimes it’s from people smoking, but even when no one is smoking I tend to leave there after my time is up feeling a little nauseous. But, usually with some fresh air I feel better. Even after my 15 minute walk home I still wasn’t feeling better. Perhaps it’s the fact that stepping outside doesn’t mean getting fresh air anymore. Once evening time comes around everyone starts lighting up their wood stoves and burning, not only firewood, but anything and everything combustible from broken lacquered furniture to plastic bags and everywhere in between. I used to love the smell of a wood stove in America, but here the air reeks of burning trash. Not helpful to my nausea.

I lied down for a while but still didn’t feel better. Then I threw up. There wasn’t much in my stomach to throw up, considering all I’d had in the past 8 hours was one cake, a persimmon and a cup of tea. Then I threw up again. Then I threw up again, but there wasn’t anything left to throw up this time and I just had the dry heaves. I felt for sure that some dinner would help, maybe it was just my empty stomach making me sick. But no, 20 minutes after my small dinner of one piece of bread and sauce, that came up too. And again.

Then my family started to worry about me. They send the son out to the store to buy me some Borjomi mineral water, which is the Georgian version of ginger ale for an upset stomach. They thought for sure that would work. I wasn’t so sure. Then all that Borjomi came back up too. And again. I lied down on the couch under a blanket shivering and went to sleep. A while later I got a phone call from the health insurance folks I had spoken to the day before. My host mother had called the TLG representative and she had called the health insurance. “Ms. Lynch, you have two options. First, we can call you an ambulance and you can go to the hospital to be treated,” woah, woah, I’ve only been throwing up for 4 hours, there’s no need to call an ambulance. “Otherwise, you can wait until tomorrow and you can go to the doctor.”. I told them that I would be fine, I would wait until tomorrow to go back to the doctor.

Then another phone call came. This time it was the TLG representative again. I told her that I was fine… well, relatively speaking, and I wasn’t going to die. Then I asked her to translate for my host mother that I would go to the doctor in the morning and not to worry about me. Dispite even getting a translation for “don’t worry” for my host mother, she clearly was still worried. I fell asleep again and then I was woken up to my host aunt telling me that my host mother’s brother, who happened to be a doctor was on his way over with some “medicament”. She said, “He will come in 10 minutes.” This was at 9 or 10 o’clock. At 1 AM I was woken up when he finally arrived, with an IV pack in his hand ready to rehydrate me. I kind of had a feeling this was going to happen. At this point, it’s too late to say no. Plus, I probably did need it. How long would it take? 25 minutes. Ok. Now the only question was, how safe is it to administer an IV in one’s home?

 This was too priceless of a moment to let it go by without a photo...

They set up a table with a chair on top to hang the IV from next to the sofa where I had been sleeping. He swabbed my arm down with vodka to disinfect. The doctor found the vein without too much trouble, but then they realized that whenever he leaned over to put the needle in, his shadow blocked the light and he couldn’t see the vein. Eventually he got the needle in and started the IV but after 5 minutes, he decided that this was a “tsudi vena” bad vein. Oh, did I mention he didn’t speak a word of English?

He decided that he’d have to set up the IV in my hand rather than my arm, but he needed a smaller needle. Half the folks in the house jumped into the car and went with him to some hospital somewhere to get another needle. They were back just 10 minutes later and before I knew it I had an IV drip into my hand. This, however, did not stop the vomiting. My poor host mother had to hold a bag for me while I threw up more since I couldn’t hold it myself with my arm in the IV.

The other problem now was that it was getting close to 2 am and now the IV was on a slow drip since hand veins are smaller than arm veins. My poor host mother stayed up until after 3 am when the IV finished and took out the needle (the doctor had long taken off by then). I stayed on the couch to sleep because I couldn’t have possibly gotten to the toilet from my room in the middle of the night in my condition (it’s not easy when I’m healthy now that I think of it). They brought me another blanket and I slept fitfully the rest of the night, but without throwing up again.

In the morning, I was able to eat a piece of “dry bread” and a cup of tea. I finally got to the doctor around 2 pm. Everyone in my family had been making theories about why I was sick. I attributed it to the medication. My host mother and aunt believed I had eaten unripe fruit because they saw that I had eaten an orange that was still green with my breakfast. But, the orange tasted fine and I refuse to believe that an unripe orange at 8 am could give me dry heaves 15 hours later. When I explained to the doctor what I had done the day before he immediately asked me why I had taken my antibiotic so early at 11 am. That was my only break when I could eat I explained, but he told me that I really should wait at least 6 hours, preferably 8 hours between taking pills.

Anyway, I guess we’ll never know the real reason why I got so sick, but he decided that I needed another IV, which somehow turned into two more IVs. I sat laying in that cold office getting my IVs playing games on my cell phone for the two hours to pass the time. But, when I was finally finished, I felt rejuvenated. I had had to take a taxi over to the clinic because I just hadn’t had any strength to move, but now I felt like I could walk home, heck, I felt like I could even go teach a class or go do something, anything. I left there with orders to start taking my medicines (properly spaced this time) as soon as I was feeling better again. And the next afternoon I was on a bus to Tbilisi to spend my weekend in Kakheti. I just hope that if I follow the instructions this time I won’t have any more problems!

오색약수: Osek Medicine Water

After we descended from Seoraksan a few weeks ago, we found ourselves in the spa town of 오색, Osek. Osek is well known because of a little drip of water which some people have found to have medicinal properties. This water is called 약수 (약 (yak) meaning medicine and 수 (su) meaning water) and it contains very high concentrations of minerals, particularly iron.

Folks wait in line to get some of the water that basically trickles out into a little basin. And folks get angry if you take too much since it takes such a long time to come out. We filled half a water bottle and had to move on to prevent the annoyance of the other people in line.

I'm not sure what I expected it to taste like... maybe something like water... but I was in for quite a surprise because it really tasted like pure iron. We overheard one girl saying it tasted like rusty nails, and I think that hits the nail on the head (sorry, bad pun) for how this stuff tasted like. But, despite the taste, people were talking in line about how they wanted to collect a lot and bring it home to their family members. It's got a reputation for being something like a fountain of youth.

Because of this little trickle of water, the town has become a popular spa town and various hotels in the area offer all kinds of mineral baths. We were hot and sweaty from climbing so we found a cheap bathhouse where we could sit in mineral water (not quite like what comes out of this little trickle though) and get ourselves clean.

Osek is located at the base of Seoraksan. Many local and intercity buses stop by and you can even take a bus from Seoul to here (though I can't guarantee how many stops you'll make in between).


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Laser Hair Removal... Failure

So, I went all the way to Gangnam to go see a doctor on Tuesday morning to see about getting laser hair removal. I was seen right away by the doctor, who specializes in English speaking clients. His English was very proficient. He gave me a little introduction to what Laser Hair Removal is all about and explained to me that hair to be removed needs to be dark and coarse. Then he told me that my hair is not dark or thick and the results would be 50% at most if he did the procedure. Not to mention he would have to set the laser to stronger settings and need more treatments, for lower results.

I'm very happy that he was honest with me. He could have told me anything and I would have believed it and gone through with the procedure. My only complaint is that he didn't look at the actual hair that I wanted to remove. I assume that he was looking at the hair on my head, which is a fine texture, and may look light when the light hits it (like through the light from his window), but it is definitely brown hair. The hair that I want to remove feels very coarse to me, though I'm no doctor. Maybe there's something doctors can tell by seeing the hair on your head to tell about the rest of your hair? Another idea I had was that his equipment was mainly for Korean hair which is obviously very dark and so my medium brown hair would be too light for the equipment in his office. I had two friends who went to this clinic and were very happy. They both had brown hair, but maybe a shade or two darker than mine...

Anyway, now I'm stumped whether or not to get a second opinion. I don't want a doctor to tell me it's going to work when it's not going to work. At the same time, I'd be happier if a doctor looked at the hair I want to remove before making further judgment...

Any suggestions?

Looking for Advice about Laser Hair Removal

I've only known one other blogger to write about this subject, though there are many threads on Dave's ESL (here, and here) . I would like to get laser hair removal here in Seoul. It seems there are many places around, but, as I'm looking to get it done in a very visible place, I want a very trustworthy place that has a good reputation. It seems that most of the places that have been listed on Dave's are clinics specially geared towards foreigners (Western and Japanese mostly) and therefore, it seems that their prices are higher than your normal clinic that caters only to Koreans. I feel that my Korean skills are high enough that it can compensate for any lack of conversation skills from doctors that are skilled in their trade, but not in English. If I can, I'd like to go to a place that doesn't overcharge their patients for the extra service of speaking English.

So, here are the questions. Have you gotten laser hair removal in Seoul?, if so, where?, how was the price?, how were the results?, would you recommend it? Obviously, if they can speak English well, it's a plus, but if not, I'm ok with it.

Even if the price is high, though, I'm still ok with it, as long as it has good results... I just hate the idea of being overcharged just because I'm a foreigner. Please let me know your experiences in general. Thank you.


Some friends of mine went to :
Nova Skin and Hair Clinic
02-563-7977
ijune@novaskin.co.kr

if I don't get any replies here, I'll go here, but, as it's in Gangnam, it's a bit inconvenient for me to get to...

Seoul Yangnyeongsi Herb Medicine Museum

So our Korean class met on Saturday to go to Seoul Yangnyeongsi Herb Medicine Museum in Jegi-dong on Saturday. We had a large group of us, and evidently they had never had a group of foreigners come to the museum before. The museum was fairly interesting, and a nice woman tried her best to give us an English guided tour. She was a bit uncomfortable with speaking English and so she often refereed to my boyfriend to translate. Even still, the tour was nice enough.First task was to learn to wrap our own medicine. The medicine was some nice smelling dried orange peels... speaking of which.. they are still in my purse.. and I'm doubting my wrapping job held up for two days in the bottom of my purse... uhoh..

The next task was learning how to grind the medicine with mortar and pestle or these rolling contraptions that I have no word for in my vocabulary.

Here's our volunteer tour guide and my boyfriend trying their best to translate complicated medical information into English. The books in the glass in front of us are copies of the first Korean herbal medicine guide book, written by a fellow named Ho Jun a few hundred years ago.

We were educated a bit about ginseng. We learned that white ginseng should not be taken by people with high blood pressure, or if you are feverish. Red or black ginseng on the other hand is suggested for everyone. The four plants at the bottom are wild ginseng. Not farmed, but found growing in the mountains. One of these plants is worth about $30,000 USD according to a seemingly knowledgeable man who started to follow our tour around and correct our tour guide on everything she said. If you eat one of these before the age of three, you will lead a very healthy life. Here is the male parts of a seal. It's said that if men eat just a little of this with the rest of their herbal medicine prescription, they will have lots of stamina. Interesting idea...

The museum didn't take long to get through and a group of us downtown to the Jongno area for dinner. That was a fun time too, and maybe I'll post about that later.

Walking to Jegi-dong and around Kyungdong Market

As I said in my last post, I found a way on Google Maps to walk to Jegi-dong by following the Cheonggyechong to another small stream right up to the main street and walking a little more and arriving right where I wanted to be. Well, I followed that path correctly, but as it turns out, that second stream stopped about 100 m down because it was under construction (how can a stream be under construction? Only in Seoul would this be possible). So, we walked down some back streets to come and arrive in Jegi-dong. As I suspected, it was about a half an hour walk.




We arrived in Jegi-dong but we were about 2 hours early for the field trip. I grabbed some lunch at Kimbap Chongguk and then we decided to walk around Kyungdong Market. This was not my first time to Kyungdong Market. Last time was to find some traditional Korean medicine. This time around we had time to just wander freely. This market is a must see in Seoul if you're interested in unusual things, or just need a fresh dose of culture shock.

Kyungdong Market is most famous for it's medicinal market, though they sell fresh seafood, fruit, vegetables and assortments of other random things that you'd expect to find at a market. It's actually a great place to buy vegetables. They have some of the cheapest prices I've seen in this city.
These wriggly little fish are used to make chueotang; a soup made of these fish ground into a paste.

Deer antlers are a rather expensive but popular medicinal item when making hanyak, Korean traditional medicine.

Duck Eggs. I learned a new word yesterday: 오리 (ohri)-duck.

Bees for sale.

Down in the fish market...

10 points to the first person to guess what kind of meat this is correctly... hint, look at the feet.

Love me some dried fish

Chicken is ridiculously cheap at the market. One whole chicken is only 2,000 won ($1.71 USD)

The next adventure after looking through the market was the Seoul Yangnyeongsi: Herb Medicine Museum for our field trip, but I'll write about that in the next post.

Cured, no thanks to three different doctors..

As I wrote about last week I've been having some medical problems for the past month and a half. I was being treated for a bad UTI, but my white blood cell count was still reading high even after the bacteria stopped showing up in the results. So, obviously they gave me even stronger antibiotics. The antibiotics seemed to do little to knock down the white blood cell count and I went to a urologist at a big hospital to get treated. By that time I had finished my antibiotics, and strangely, as soon as I stopped the antibiotics I started to feel better, surprise surprise. When I went to the doctor, he suggested I take another urine sample, X-ray and an ultrasound.

While I was waiting to get my results, I did a little research online and saw some people who had the exact same symptoms as me. Various problems were suggested, such as kidney stones, upper kidney infection or bladder cancer. But the explanation that made the most sense to me was that in some people, antibiotics have been known to cause kidney inflammation, therefore causing discomfort in urination and high white blood cell counts. The only cure? Stop taking the antibiotics.

On Thursday, I went back to see the doctor. The X-ray and ultrasound came up clean, but the urine still had some white blood cells, he was about to recommend ANOTHER course of antibiotics, when I suggested the genius idea of checking one more time, since I've felt much better since getting off the antibiotics, and a week later I was feeling almost back to 100% health. Well, the urine test actually only took less than an hour to get the results, and he was surprised to see that the white blood cells went away without antibiotics. Even after that point, he still told me I could go on some antibiotics for a few days if I wanted to clear the last of the "infection" out. If I get better off antibiotics, and get worse on antibiotics, WHY WOULD I TAKE MORE ANTIBIOTICS??? I respectfully told him that I was happy without the antibiotics, and he seemed to agree with my decision. He wished me well, and I went on my way, thinking to myself that I was cured... no thanks to the doctors. So, the moral of the story is, it doesn't matter what country you're in. You need to do what makes your body feel the best and don't always take the doctors word for everything.

Medical Attention

Sorry for the lack of posts nowadays. Life has been a little crazy. For the past month now I've been to two separate doctors trying to get, what everyone thought was a UTI, treated. After a month of antibiotics, two different ones, one being the strongest and newest on the market, plus an antibiotic injection giving me only minimal improvement and still showing high white blood cell count in my urine samples, I was finally referred to a hospital for further examination.

I know that I am an adult, and fully capable of going to a hospital with English translators to accompany me on my hospital adventure, I felt a lot more comfortable going with someone I knew. For that reason, my boyfriend took me to the National Medical center at Euljiro-5-ga (right by dongdaemun stadium) because it is next to his office. Being a smaller, public hospital, there were no translators or doctors that are referred to international patients because of their language skills. That actually makes me feel better, I'd rather see a specialist that can't speak a word of English, than some doctor who isn't the best in the hospital, but is bilingual. On the other hand, this is a small, public hospital, so you have to wonder how good the care really is...

Anyway, after a rather stressful Thursday afternoon, going to the hospital just to make an appointment and being late for work and slightly ticking off my boss, Friday morning I went to the hospital for my consultation. After a rather uncomfortable waiting room experience, surrounded by Korean men at least 40-60 years older than me, I went in to see the top doctor in the urology department. He was very professional, and coincidentally, spoke English very well. He agreed with the gynecologist I had been seeing and told me that this was not a UTI. No UTI could survive a month course of antibiotics. He had some guesses as to what it might be, but sent me in for further tests to be sure. I took another urine test, three cups of urine this time (two of which had no cover, and all three were left on a counter top to be examined later... lovely) and an X-ray, presumably to check for kidney stones. Monday I have an appointment for an ultrasound and then Thursday I'll go back for a diagnosis. Monday and Thursday I'll have to miss some classes, but when my boss realized that it was not some ordinary problem, she seemed much more sympathetic to my case. Koreans are very health sensitive, I find, and going to the doctors during work hours has never been a problem for me.

I'm hoping that whatever the problem is, that it is not too serious. Though I was in a lot of pain, mostly in the lower abdominal area, still, just early last week, since Wednesday I've had almost no pain. Maybe whatever it was has run it's course. I'm off the antibiotics and I feel a lot better. If you've ever had any similar experiences, let me know, I have no idea what the problem could be...

Doctors and lack of sanitation...

For the past two weeks I've been having some bladder issues... more information than you need to know, but I need to give some background to this story. I waited so long to see a doctor because I was in Bali with no insurance and little faith in a medical system on a tiny island in the south pacific. Finally today after waiting so long I went to a doctor in the same building where my hagwon is located. I would have sworn someone told me that this doctor spoke really good English so I decided to go there instead of an international clinic. I went in and, as usual, didn't need an appointment, and I was seen in 5 minutes later.

I sat down in front of the desk... because doctors offices resemble a real office more than any examination room, though there was a bench to lie on in the corner, if necessary. He looked a bit nervous when I walked in... then he asked me in Korean, if I could speak Korean... I told him.. just a little... I didn't really want to risk screwing up a doctor's visit with my 2 year old level Korean. I have no idea how to say things like urination and bladder. So, I explained my symptoms in English, and at first he didn't seem to understand, but in the end, his English started to sound better as he probably became a little more relaxed. He prescribed me some antibiotics, pain killers and something for the digestion of the other pills because he said it might upset my stomach. Then he asked me to pee in a cup so that he could check, and tomorrow he can give me the results. Seemed reasonable enough to me.

He brought me out to the front desk and the receptionist gave me a plastic cup... with no lid. Then she told me to go to the bathroom down the hall... aka outside of the office, down the hall to the public bathroom for the building. Pee in the cup with no cover there, then bring it back. Ok... fine... gross and awkward to carry an uncovered cup of your own pee down a hallway in a building with lots of other, non medical buisnesses, but ok, fine. She gave me no disinfectant wipes to wipe the cup with either. So, I did it and brought it back. She took the cup of pee, and with no gloves, poured it into another tube to do tests.

Would something like this fly at home?? I think not. But then again, I did pay 4,500 won ($3.60) for the exam, then another 2,900 won ($2.30) for two days worth of prescriptions until I get a real diagnosis. I guess I can't complain. Lets just hope that this thing clears up with the drugs. That will be the real proof. Although, I would help if I didn't leave my pills at work...

Swine Flu Comes To Seoul...

Swine flu has made it's way to Korea... I suppose it was inevitable. Unfortunately, it came by means of newly arrived English teachers from the US. I am already anticipating the suspicious stares I will start receiving once the word spreads. The word has been spreading fast among English teachers since one of the Americans quarantined has started a blog to tell the world about his experience.

I found this blog yesterday. Also, yesterday one of my co-workers also received a phone call from the Korean Ministry of Health (?) to ask if he has experienced any flu-like symptoms, since he was recently abroad. Abroad being Japan.

Today I opened my email to find an e-mail from a girl working in a hagwon in Seoul who's hagwon has now "forbidden" it's teachers from visiting places with high concentrations of foreigners and have highly recommended that they stay in within their dong.

Hi Jo-Anna,

I teach at (school name redacted). I'm writing in in regards to the swine flu quarantine. Today, our director told us that we can not go to places like Itaewon or Hongdae since there is a high concentration of foreigners there or they will fire us. They have also strongly urged us not leave our area (JangAn-Dong). They said it was a decision made by the (school name redacted) Directors. I was just curious if your school has told you the same.

Thanks for your help!

Well, the answer to that is... as of yet... no. Later I received this response from her:

We're specifically banned from Hongdae and Itaewon and strongly discouraged to leave our neighborhood. We were also told to stay away from festivals or areas with lots of foreigners. We had planned a trip to Sokcho next weekend for one of the teacher's birthday's and we were told we couldn't go there either. To my knowledge, there are very few foreigners in Sokcho.

This is sort of absurdity is just the sort of thing most of us have come to expect here in Korea...

Today I got home from work to read an article about the matter in the JoongAng Daily, the article reads as follows:

Foreign English teachers epicenter of new flu cases

May 26, 2009

The number of confirmed influenza A(H1N1) infections in Korea jumped to 22 over the weekend after the nation’s health authorities discovered that a group of 15 English teachers recruited from abroad by a private language institute in Seoul have caught the virus.

This is the first group to contract the disease in Korea. Until now, the handful of domestic cases involved travelers either returning or transiting through the country.

As a result, the Education Ministry yesterday ordered every education office to provide information on the number of foreign teachers who entered Korea after May 11 and report by 5 p.m. if anyone is currently showing flu symptoms. The ministry also made it mandatory for teachers who have just come from Mexico, the epicenter of the flu outbreak, and the United States to not start work until after seven days of arrival. Those affected include teachers at private language institutes as well as those who teach at public elementary, middle and high schools and universities

As of Saturday, the number of confirmed domestic infections totaled 10, including six teachers from the language institute. On Sunday, health officials confirmed that another 11 patients - including eight foreigners from the language institute and three Korean children from New York - had caught the new strain of flu. One more infection from the institute, a 24-year-old American male, was confirmed yesterday, according to the Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A 28-year-old female who departed from New York and arrived at Incheon International Airport yesterday morning via Japan was classified as a “presumed patient” and was under further testing as of yesterday afternoon. She and the 18 newly confirmed patients were hospitalized.

Chungdahm Learning, a Kosdaq-listed firm that runs two private English-language franchises, recently recruited some 70 new teachers from eight countries including the United States and Canada.

The new recruits stayed at the same residence in Seocho-dong, southern Seoul, during a training period from May 16 to 22. They were supposed to be dispatched to the company’s branches nationwide after the training.

The company, which serves 60,000 elementary, middle and high school students, said in a regulatory filing yesterday that it temporarily shut down its branches yesterday and will keep them closed until June 2.

A spokesman for Chungdahm Learning said the institute did all it could, claiming it checked the temperatures of the teachers and sent them to local public health centers for further checkups.

But the disease control center, which operates under the Health Ministry, found that the company continued the training sessions as recently as last Friday even though some teachers have started showing symptoms of the flu. Those teachers also hung out in public spots each day after the sessions.

“It seems the institute didn’t have any idea how serious the situation was,” Jun Byung-yool, head of the center, said in a press briefing. “If the institute knew the United States is one of the countries with the flu outbreak, it should have taken every necessary preventive measure with the teachers.” Jun said he is considering mandating temporary suspension of private language institutes where teachers test were found positive for the new influenza.

The first domestic outbreak of the latest strain of flu occurred on May 2. Infections hit three but stayed at that number from May 7 until May 19, when health authorities found another case.


By Seo Ji-eun [spring@joongang.co.kr]


I'm just curious if anyone else's hagwon has mentioned anything like this one woman's school has? Is this going to hit all our hagwons soon???


UPDATE 5/28/09: Today my school suggested to us that we "try to avoid" Hongdae and catching Swine Flu in general. Fortunately, we were not told that if we went there we'd be fired, or anything of that sort. Surprisingly, nothing was mentioned about Itaewon, which has a much higher concentration of foreigners than Hongdae.

A doctors visit in Korea

So, I caught a cold. Yet another cold. This is the fourth cold I've had since October.. I think that works out to be a cold every other week almost. I don't know if I've ever been so sick so much in my life. Is it the children? Is it the air pollution? Is it the Yellow Dust? Is it living in a city with so many people? Maybe some bad mix of those factors... who knows.

Anyway, every time I get sick, everyone tells me to go to the doctor. Now, this just seems silly to me. Would I ever go to the doctor for a cold at home in the States? Never. Too expencive and too much of a hassle. But, I was feeling so miserable that I finally conceded and went.

In the same building as my school, there is an ear nose and throat doctor. Most doctors offices seem to have specialties here, I don't think people necessarily have a primary physician... or maybe they do.. I'm not sure. Anyway, on my first attempt to go, I brought a Korean friend with me, but when we got there at 2:00 there were about 8 people ahead of me in line. They told me I could put my name in, but I had class in 50 minutes, and I wouldn't be able to wait that long. Luckily, one of my friends offered to teach my second class of the day so that I could try again.

The second time was much more successful. I walked in, the office was empty. All I needed to show was my Alien Registration Card and give them my phone number and address. They shuffled me straight in to see the doctor. There was no assistant asking me 100 questions that have nothing to do with my cold (I think my last physical included questions like: do you wear your seat belt? and do you get enough sleep at night?). I had no Korean with me to translate, but the doctor knew enough English to get by, and I used the little Korean I know for medical stuff. She took my temperature, looked in my ears, nose and throat. She asked me a few questions, and as she asked these questions, she typed in her computer various prescriptions for each of my symptoms.

The best (and incidentally the worst) thing she did for me was give me a nebulizer, since I have asthma and I was having a little trouble breathing. It was a big, strong dose and I could breath wonderfully afterwards. I haven't used one of those machines since I was little. Unfortuantly, My body always has some bad side affects to asthma medication. I get shakes when I take my inhaler, and this was like the shakes x 20 because it was such a high dosage.

After the nebulizer treatment, I went back to the front desk, where the receptionist charged me a whopping 3,500 Won (aprox $2.71 USD) and handed me my typed up perscription to bring to the pharmacy downstairs. I barely made it down the stairs in all my shaking (why didn't I think to take the elevator?) and I went to the pharmacy, which is also in my building. I gave the woman at the pharmacy my perscription, and she had it filled, and placed in little packagaes that I should take for morning, and evening. The grand total for these pills was another 5,200 Won. I sort of feel like I have an aids coctail, since I need to take 6 pills at a time. Mixing all these medicines makes me a little nervous, but so far, I haven't had any problems.

So, in the end, I went to the doctor and the pharmacy and only spent 8,700 won. Even better, is the fact that the whole process took only half an hour: from seeing the doctor, to getting nebulizing treatment, to going to the pharmacy and getting back to my desk at SLP. AMAZING. Why can't our medical system be so good in the U.S.???

Granted, I know this is only one experience, I guess I can't speak for the system as a whole. But really.... I pay very little out of my paycheck, and doctors visits and prescription drugs are so inexpencive. Why can't our medical system be so good in the U.S.???