It’s closing in on four days with very little continuous sleep now. All of this because of an itchy throat? It’s getting downright ridiculous. After posting yesterday, my wife and I went to the local doctor.
I’d never been there before, but in the same apartment complex shopping center there was a tiny clinic. It’s literally operating at the entrance of our apartment complex. This tiny “hospital” is set up in the corner of the second floor. Also on the same floor: an Art school, English school, and a hot dog restaurant. Elsewhere in this building you can also rent videos, get a (bad) pizza, go shopping for vegetables or fruit, visit a butcher, baker, or hair dresser, or go buy some real estate. I’m not sure what else can be accomplished at this place. I had no idea there was a clinic inside before yesterday. There might NOT have been a clinic there last year. I don’t know how long this place has been operating.
We went into the local clinic to find it was full of children. They said they weren’t a pediatrician office, but there was no one over 13 looking sick besides me. They had lots of signs up for different treatments they offered that weren’t for children, but showed a Disney film on the television. Half the children seemed to have what I was suffering from, a sort of cold, cough, zombie like state.
The main two reasons I wanted to go to the hospital were my cough, and the whole, “I can’t sleep” problems. I also had a headache (from the not sleeping), and was feeling a little weak.
They checked my temperature. My fever had subsided. I got examined by someone I think was an “Ear.Nose.Throat” guy, but I’m not entirely sure. I’m guessing because that’s what he asked about and what most of his posters, diagrams, and devices were geared towards. He checked my ears, which seemed odd, since I complained about my throat being sore. He said he wanted to make sure there wasn’t an infection in both places (or something).
The entire interview was entirely in Korean, which should have been a big warning sign that maybe this guy wasn’t someone I should be visiting. He asked me for my approximate weight, and was unwilling for me to go out and get on the scale in the waiting room to check it exactly on my own.
He tried to examine my throat next. I’m entirely too sensitive about non-food items in my mouth. He gave up after his tongue depressor kept making me gag after about ten seconds of saying “Ahh”. He also listened to my chest.
He went on to ask some questions that my wife helped translate for me. I had some stomach problems earlier. Turns out eating fruits and vegetables was a bad idea during my illness. Damn my intake of fiber and vitamins! Orange juice! No, don’t drink that! Why would I ever thing those things were a good idea to consume?!
The doctor recommended eating a sort of soup made from rice and water. You cook rice, then add water. It’s bland-tastic! I’ve been eating it for breakfast now for two days and it’s like swallowing 100 spoonfuls of medicine. Since I am sick I’ll continue to eat this as long as I have stomach problems, since it doesn’t upset anything, but it is rather boring.
He got very concerned and asked me about penicillin for a few minutes. He asked four or five times if I had any penicillin allergies. He said, and I’m paraphrasing my wife’s translation, “Westerners don’t take penicillin often like we do, they have allergies. Do you have allergies?” I told him I don’t.
Looking it up later, it seems it was a smart question to ask, as the side effects of penicillin allergies include rashes, bumps, and death. He added that to the prescription. He also offered to give me a “take home IV drip bag”. Wow! My very own drip bag? To go? He’d poke me with a needle and let me wait for the bag to drain at home. Then I could take it out on my own. We turned him down, as my stomach problems weren’t quite that severe and I wasn’t dehydrated enough to need it. He also offered to give me a shot of “something” before I left. I asked if I needed it because of my illness. He didn’t press me and offered no follow up information.
The whole “I’ll give you a shot” offer is a common medical practice in Korea. Older Koreans feel like they need a shot if they go to a doctor for any reason. Doctors simply jab them and send them on their way to get the rest of their medicine. I’ve had it done to me when I first arrived in Korea. It’s the placebo effect in action, or at least I hope it is because pumping sick people full of one dose of antibiotics then sending them out seems like a way to breed a super-bug.
I wasn’t given a diagnosis, or told what I had. He did tell me to stop using Q-tips to clean my ears, as it was simply pushing the wax in deeper. If that had been a problem I had come to him to see, I’m sure I would have cared. He told us that this flu, or whatever it was, was going around with children at the moment. He thought I must have picked it up there.
He also did the whole “taxi cab driver” set of questions on me. “Where are you from? Oh you’re married? How long did you live here? Can you speak Korean well?” It was really annoying. Even my wife thought he was being too chatty. Perhaps he was bored of looking a sick children’s dirty ears all day.
We went downstairs and paid at the pharmacy in the same mini-mall. The pharmacy took the sheet we got from the doctor upstairs, and divided the medicine into packets. Each packet has the time you are supposed to take it. Yesterday night, I took my dose of medicine, then failed to sleep, again. Not only could I not sleep, but I had my cough. What the hell was this medicine for? I laid in bed for a total of two or three hours, then got up to watch a movie on television. Total mony spent on this trip to the doctor? 3,000 won. Medicine, 3,000 won. At least it was cheap.
This morning, my wife admitted the doctor had told her that some of the medicine he had prescribed would prevent me from sleeping well. Since all I wanted from the entire trip to the hospital was some cough syrup strong enough to knock me out for a few hours, this got me a little frustrated. Four days with poor sleep does this to me too. All I want is some NyQuil with a big fucking Q.
We went to a new pharmacy and brought my pills along. We had to go to a new pharmacy, because it is Sunday, which means doctors offices and pharmacy places close. (Yeah. Don’t get sick on Sunday.) Since pharmacies cut up the different pills for dosages, and they didn’t give us back the list of drugs I was supposed to take, only the medicine, I have a bag of “mystery pills”.
The new pharmacy could only identify three of the seven pills in my packets. I already knew which one was the penicillin (which I should take, if I have strep throat.) There were two large Tylenol painkillers in the bag as well, but since I have a headache due to noting being able to sleep, I don’t want to take those. I’d like to sleep. The other mystery drugs can go to hell.
This new pharmacy gave me new medicine. It’s not cough syrup, which doesn’t EXIST here or something, but another set of pills and some powder stuff as well. However, the box of cough pills has a picture of:
Which looks like someone coughing, or possibly laughing. One of the words does mean “phlegm” (karae) so that’s a hopeful sign. After eating rice cake soup (Yay! Something different that’s not rice-water soup! No really, I like this stuff!) I took the medicine and collapsed for an indeterminate amount of time on the couch. My wife, who is now getting very tired from taking care of me and being kept up all night from my coughing has actually been asleep longer.
I think the medicine is helping, but I’ve had so many different herbal remedies thrown at me in the past few days in combination with the pills I don’t know what’s working, or not working. I’ve had: Omicha Tea (translated as the fruit of Maximowiczia typica. No idea what it is. Seems to work.) , Quice Tea (good for a cold sore throat. Didn’t do anything.), few shots of Mugwort mixed with honey (With a sore throat, anything soothing helps. Didn’t do anything to stop my coughing), Barley tea (If I drink this any more I think I’ll be sick).
It’s extremely frustrating to be sick, worse when you can’t sleep, and a nightmare when doctors don’t speak English. We didn’t check the doctor out before we went, so shame on us as well. I’m still sick, and I don’t think it’s anything more than the flu. Why does it have to be so difficult?
