to the doctor...

today, for the second time since my arrival in korea i went to the doctor. this time was quite different than the first.

mrs. Che, one of the english teachers at my school, brought me this time (i guess jay didn't want to have to deal with it). we went to dr choi... the place i went last time, but were told that he would only be in around 10:30 - an hour and a half away. so we went down the street to dr jeong's ENT clinic (ear, nose, throat).

after waiting about ten minutes i was brought into his office where i was sat in a chair surrounded by medical equipment. it almost felt like going to the dentist, except the chair didn't recline. he put on a head lamp - made him look like he should be 200 feet down a mine shaft, not in a doctors office...

he looked at my throat, which he said didn't look so bad - "gamgi" he said, which means "cold" - as if i had to be told that! anyway, then he put this metal tong-like utensil up my left nostril and spread it, to get a better look up my nose. then his assistant sprayed some air, then some liquid, then some more air... all while he was looking up my nose. it was the strangest thing i've ever experienced at the doctors. then they did the same to my right nostril.

then the korean banter started and i have no idea what was said after that... i guess he was just telling her that i was sick and needed a shot - something you always get when you go to the doctor. a lot of people think it's just some kind of placebo to make the patient feel like something is being done, and i'm starting to believe it. when you ask what it is for, no one ever seems to be able to give me a straight answer... but i got it anyway, IF it does do something, then i want it... after the way i've been feeling for the past five days, i'll try anything, and hey, maybe the koreans know something about the common cold that they haven't shared with the rest of us!?!

so after my diagnosis, i was sat in front of a machine that sprayed hot, wet air and told to open my mouth and breathe for one minute... another oddity, but it did feel good on my lungs. then to the little room for the shot and i was released.

all of this cost me just over three dollars. we then went to the pharmacy where i was given pills and cough syrup. all of it individually wrapped for each dose.
no tricky bottles and figuring what is what, just take the pills in each pouch and take the amount of cough syrup that you need... seems so much easier than back home... of course, they do give you four times the number of pills here...

then after a half hour at school waiting to see if i was allowed to go home, i did. i've been napping off and on all day...

tomorrow i'm off to changwon in the morning for some big foreign teacher meeting that people only found out about today or yesterday... gotta love the last minute-ness of everything here... for someone who loves to know "the plan" and what is going on, this is one of the more difficult aspects of living here...

for those of you who are worried or concerned for my well-being here, i'm doing okay, i think that getting sick just made a lot of small things seem a lot worse... i know that everything will work out in the end - i am in control of my own life, and i can go home really, whenever i want... i just hope it doesn't come to that. maybe the meeting tomorrow will make things a lot clearer for all of us. at the very least, i'll get to see a bunch of peeps i haven't seen since august.