Hospital bound, day 2.

After my final testing for the day, an EKG test at 11pm and a few episodes of Nurse Jackie, I decided to sleep. Did it happen, ehhhh,...not so much. My roommate snores, I was unbelievably hot, lying in my own puddle of sweat, and people kept coming into the room. I would have asked for a fan but with the Korean fear of fan death, I'm pretty sure that's it's not possible to get one.  Don't beleive me?? Read for yourself...  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

I was served breakfast about 7:40am, I opted for the western style breakfast as it was recommended to me by the nurse. Koreans eat basically the same for ever meal, rice, soup, kimchi. She told me it was bread instead of rice. Sure, why not. What did I get, you ask? I got 3 slices of super sweet cinnamon raisin bread and a roll that tasted like a thick egg cake. I got a bowl of, what I think was gravy...it tasted like gravy at least, a bowl of corn flakes, with luke warm milk and a chicken salad. I ate the cake roll, the dry corn flakes and the chicken salad (at least the parts that weren't doused in salad dressing).

..............

It's now almost 11am and I have had three people come in and tell me surgery is tomorrow and everything will be fine. Is that comforting? I don't know.

..............

It's 6pm, I'm trying really hard to hold myself to together. I've been here all day and the hospital has done nothing productive with me. A staff member from the International clinic came to visit me at 5:15 and asked if I was able to communicate with my nurses ok. Yes, I am able to communicate with them ok, because they haven't done anything with me. I ask her when I am suppose to change rooms because they told me yesterday the cheaper 6 bed room would be available for me today. She tells me that there isn't one available but maybe tomorrow. Really, because that's not what they said yesterday. First red flag.  She then asks if I'll have someone here to help after surgery. I tell her no, there will be a few people in and out but nothing for long-term. She tells me I should hire a private nurse because it will be hard and very difficult to move. Immediately following she tells me there are probably none available because I need to call in advance. Why would you say anything then? Or better yet, why wouldn't you have told me 2 months ago when I made the appointment? I tell her, I'll be fine and I'll manage.  She still pushes it, and says she can call to see if one might still be available. I tell her I'll ask my nurse and doctor to see what they think and I'll let her know. My nurse comes in shortly after and I ask her. She basically gives me the same spiel, making it sound like I wont even be able to go to the bathroom on my own,"Yes...I think so... maybe, yes, you will need " she says. WHY is it so hard to give a definite answer in this god damn country!!!!!! I tell her it's either; yes, I do need one or no, i don't know need one, not maybe. If I need one, I will get one. If I don't, I'm not. She still doesn't give me an answer. Now, I'm stressed. I was stressed before but now I feel the tears coming. I suck it up, and decide I'll just ask the doctor when he comes because he's suppose to make the rounds soon. After that loveliness, she asks if I had heard of the complications that can happen with the surgery.  I tell her, I know some them...she asks if I have signed a paper from the doctor. No, no paper from the doctor. She starts explaining one of the complications but not with my knee, with my lungs from when they put me under. If I don't breath properly after I wake up, whatever they used to put me under can damage my lungs and esophagus, so I need to make sure to breathe in through my nose and out my mouth and cough it out. UHHHHh......seriously. Where the F*** am I? I'm going in for knee surgery and I have potential to mess my lungs up?! I understand there are complications with any surgery but how she's explaining to me makes me really scared and nervous. That would only be my luck, to come out of knee surgery with a damaged lung. After she teaches me how I am suppose to breathe, she leaves.  A few minutes later my doctor comes in "How are you? Do you have any questions about the surgery?" Me: "Well, I was fine until I just found out 10 mins ago that I needed to hire a private nurse. Do, I need someone here after surgery?" Doctor: "No, you'll be fine." "Ok! Nope, no, other questions." He leaves. All that BS, for nothing.

I wish that I had someone with me to experience the madness that I deal with here. Not to experience the physical pain but to witness the mental pain. Sometimes, I feel like I'm crazy and I'm blowing things out of proportion, which maybe I do, I don't know but I feel I'm a pretty rational person... I have a lot of patience, I see both sides, and I usually give people the benefit of the doubt but this place....oh, man, this place makes me want to hit things.

The next 48 hours:  

       8pm- tonight I get more blood drawn and an IV hook-up

      12am- No food or liquids- which the nurse put a sign on my bed to remind me, but weird, it's in Korean.

        5am- An IV

      10am- I get wheeled to the O.R.

      11am- surgery

       ? am- try not to ruin my lungs and breathe whatever shit they put in them, out.

   Drugs, drugs, and more drugs! No food, but drugs!

        8am Saturday- soup and stairs   

What's funny (or really, not), no matter who comes in to see me, I have to tell them what any of the other people said. I've had to tell everyone except for the doctor, that my surgery will be on Friday at 11am multiple times, it's like they don't believe me.. There is no chart, no communication through the hopsital staff except for me. Am I comfortable with that, does it make me feel comfortable...not at all. 

I'm crossing my fingers, thinking good thoughts, and hoping for the best...shoot, I might even pray that everything turns out o.k. 

~After I finished writing this my doctor's intern came to explain my operation. He asked me if I had any questions. I took the opportunity to asked him about what ever the nurse was telling me about damaging my lungs. He laughed and said the only thing the breathing apparatus will do is that it might give me a sore throat for the abrasiveness of it going in and coming out but there are no fine particles or anything else. Then before he left, he told me I had to go take another x-ray because they took the wrong one yesterday.....nice, right? 

Hospital bound

I am honestly boggled by how Korea functions. I scheduled surgery in May for July 29th. I was told I needed to check into the hospital by 5pm, July 27th. I got a call 3 weeks ago maybe, asking if I was still having surgery and if July 29th was still ok. Uhhh, yeah, buddy... My knee isn’t going to heal itself and if I changed the date I’d have to wait another 4months! Later, I tried to contact the hospital to get information regarding a few things but the line was always busy or no answer, voicemail is non-existent here, so there goes that option. I tried to email several times but every time the email would get sent back to me. I tried multiple addresses but all did the same. Do you know how frustrating that is?!!!  So, now here we are on July 27th, I can’t leave work until 3:30 because my 240 co teacher can’t teach an extra forty minutes. I get home 3:45ish, phone rings, I pick up. It’s the hospital calling to see if I’m coming in. “Yes, I am. I was told I needed to be checked in by 5pm, I just got off work, I’m collecting my things and I’ll be there asap.” “Oh, really... ok.” Get to the hospital at 4:40, I go to the international clinic to check-in. They are confused. "Can I help you?" "Yes, I have surgery scheduled for the 29th, I need to check-in." "Do you need to make an appointment for surgery?" “Um, no....I already have an appointment. I have it on Friday.” I give them my ARC (green card). Them still confused, “Do you need to make an appointment?“ “No, I have an appointment, on Friday, the 29th, for the ACL." "DO you know your doctor's name?” "I don't" (you'd think that's weird but they always verbally tell me his name, and then write it in Korean. I'm a visual person so the odds of me remembering it, not so good plus I hear it once every 3 months.) Them: You don't know his name?" Me, super annoyed, frustrated. “No, I don’t know it." They tell me they don’t have the hospital’s files on their computer, and hand me back my card. Me....flabbergasted, Um, ok...what am I suppose to do about that? Why am I paying extra then for you guys to handle my information and appointments? Is this really happening?  Another lady takes my ARC card again, and she tells me she finds my information. Thank you! The lady who was helping me before then proceeds to tell me they had two accounts for me. One was with the wrong number but if they entered in my name both accounts would come up, so they'll cancell the wrong one and fix it. Wow...that’s comforting.  

I get escorted up to my ward, 94. They take me to my room and a nurse comes in to take some information and do a leg palpation test (nothing on my knee). She asks me if I take any medication for the knee. I tell her I do, I take Ibuprofen every day, all day. She’s surprised that I say this and asks me for it. I hand her my unmarked bottle filled with Costco IBuprofen and Aleeve, and then she tells me she’s going to keep it, to ask the doctor if I can continue to use it after the surgery. UHhhhh....are you serious? They are NSAIDs, of course they are fine to take after the surgery. Give me back my drugs, lady!!  I find out later that she thinks they are prescription meds from the doctor I tell her the docotor didn't give me anything for the pain except crutches but she still refuses to let me have them back. After, I have to go out out with her to the nurse’s station because She forgot to get my vitals.  After I get weight and my height taken (not my blood pressure), she asks me the routine questions, do you drink? How much? (I might have lied a bit) Do you smoke? ...are you pregnant? I’m handed a small cup and told to go back into my room and change into the hospital clothes, where they laid out a medium. My roommate tells the lady who escorted me in that I would probably need a bigger size because the clothes fit small. So, the lady gives me a large. Nice...now, I’m fat. Thanks roomy, maybe you should get some Botox! I go into the bathroom to change and the clothes are enormous, I could fit three of me in them...I don’t like my roommate. 

After a while, I get taken down to an x-ray room, where I’m pushed, turned, rotated in all sorts of uncomfortable positions. When I’m finished, They open the door and basically push me out. I was expected to find my way back to my room which I did but I’m pretty sure I went up the service elevator, and then my roommate found me wondering the hall and guided me back to the room. In my room, I found my dinner which was cold, and the milk warm.  A few minutes later my doctor comes in with his entourage of 5 others (Asan is a teaching hospital) and asks me why I don’t have all my range of movement back. I didn't have to the courage to tell him I went to Mud fest and tried to belly slide on a giant blown up slip'n slide but failed and tweaked it having to crawl out. I did the best I could, Doc, it’s painful and you didn’t give me any exercises to help me do it. 

Now, I’m just hanging out in my room, the air is stale and has no circulation. I’m hot and unbelievably bored. It’s going to be a long week.

I'm starting to think, it's me.

We had a break in our monsoon season so I went on a bike ride yesterday with my friend Travis. I needed a leisurely ride to get a little exercise and out of my house. We went along the Han river which is a huge river that divides the city. Think the Willamette's Esplanade along the Columbia . It super nice, minus all the other people who enjoy the same thing but as the sunsets, it's cool to ride with all the city's lights. Around 8:45pm, Travis wanted to stop for water where I told him I'd probably head back shortly since I had to work the next morning. Instead of just turning around, we decided to ride to a bridge that we could cross and do a big loop. Upon our route back, we found our path flooded by the river. Sweet. With me being in the lead at this time, I, of course, decided to go through it... I mean why not, other people were! Everything was fine, the  water only came up to the bottom of my pedals so the feet only got a little wet but no big deal.  The water made it a little tough to pedal but it was manageable. Then, all of the sudden it dropped 4 inches. Now, the shoes are definitely wet! I start to get a little worried I'm not going to make it and that I'll have to walk through it as a failure. Nope! Not this time...duuhhn-dunn-nanahhh!!! As I said in my head when I made all the way through with water draining out of my shoes! Then, as I'm laughing and apoligizing to Travis about making the decision to ride through it, I about run over a big ol' fish that had clearly been there for a while.... I decided to apoligize to him too!  After our little obstacle, we continued our ride, soon after Travis's bike starts making a noise and he's like "Shit! I think I got a frog stuck in my tire!" Me, super confused and laughing, being the good friend that I am, finally stop to see what he's talking about. Apparently a frog was in the path and  jumped just as he was going by, creating it to get stuck between his tire, the brakes, and all that mess of things there. I just stood there with a queazy look on my face as he's carefully trying to un-wedge it.  After a bit,  it makes a leap for it and jumps, wobbly off the road. I don't know if it was a good thing it was still alive or not, but it was. At that point I told Travis, I was glad that happened to him and not me! And then again....We were off!

Travis was in the lead the whole time, except the part when I took us through the water. Weird, right?! He was on a mission, pedaling way faster then I wanted to, but I could keep up so I was just following his lead. There was some sort of Y in the road and Travis follow the way that looked like it stayed straight. After a few minutes and a few unfamiliar sites, I made the conclusion, we weren't on the Han any longer. Instead of going back to the Y, I decided to take a short cut that I thought would have met up with the Han sooner or later....I mean come on, we didn't ride THAT far. We precede to ride on the path and at one point I again, was in the lead. The path had become a bit narrow and there was a lady in front of me. I noticed some barriers ahead(I'm assuming to keep the cars off) and I didn't feel like getting cut off by the lady and crashing, especially since there was a family sitting right by it so, I left some space and  went through the barriers after she did her thing. As, I'm riding I hear people make the -the really BIG deep breath in and Oh!!! (I don't really know how to describe it) and then a loud crash. I look back and it's Travis on the ground. He hit the barrier and flipped over his handle bars! I tried sooooo hard to keep a straight face!!! ...but I couldn't help it and laughed silently. I finally pulled myself together and got the nerve to ask, what happened?!!  I think, it was still a bit too soon....Sorry Travis. :( After a while I again told him that I again, was glad that happened to him and not me!  I don't think he appreciated that too much.

After more riding we never found the Han. We kept riding in the directions that we thought my lead us there. After asking 4 different people, all which told us different ways. I decided I was over it and it was time to find a subway station. The first one we found was Sindap, so we followed road signs to get there.  We never found it.... but it did bring us to another station where we luckily caught the last train. It wasn't our line so we had to transfer. I finally got back to my house at 1am, 4 hours later... exhausted.

I don't think Travis will ride bikes with me again.

Not a good picture, and not a picture from this night but it's a picture of the Han from the bike path.

And then, there is some good.

I had a good day today!! So, I figured I better write about it.

It might just be because of the place I'm in on my roller coaster,  from my attempt to go for a jog (which lasted 6 minutes before my knee decided it was time to stop) or the fact, I actually got a good night sleep that last couple of days... but I didn't want to shot anyone today, so I consider that a good, heck...great day! :)

Last week on Monday, my phone decided to stop working. Why? I have no idea. I went to the dealer to ask them. After a conversation of them only speaking two English words, no and ok, ok...they tell me the problem is with the phone, it's dead and wont charge... solution: call service. Really? What is service going to do over the phone? This is typical Korea. How are they going fix my phone over the phone? That's why I came here, the actual phone shop.  The phone dealer people proceed to give me a number.  I ask if this service-uh speaks English, They respond, ok, ok, ok... aka doubt it. I give the number to my co-teacher Adeline and ask if she could call and find out what I need to do.  She calls and tells me they close at 6pm (I work till 630) and gives me a map of the service center closest to the area...something that the phone dealer guys could have done. Anyhow, I go on my lunch today expecting a mass amount of people and someone who speaks no English that gives me a very noticeable sigh when they see that the next customer is me. To my surprise, I was the only customer and she welcomed me, with still, no English but she didn't have the "oh god" look on her face. After only a few words she new exactly what I was talking about (or so we will find out to tomorrow) and after she takes my phone somewhere she tells me 1 hour, but I tell her I have to pick it up tomorrow. ...which again only took a few words and gestures. Mission complete!

I can not tell you how satisfying it is to have something work out in Korea.   The simplest of tasks turn out to be your worst defeat. I think I have done more research via internet while here in Korea then I ever did through my whole college career. No joke.

Anyhow, moving on. After work, I rode home on my bike not having to slam on my brakes for any reason. Not for someone stopping mid-stride, not for a group of people linked arms that cover the whole width of the sidewalk, not for any other biker or scooter, not for the mass amount of people at bus stops staggered just enough to where you have to get off your bike and walk through because they wont move, even if they look straight at you, not for people who are clearly walking on one side of the sidewalk that you go to the other side to avoid them, only to have them cut you off at the last second....I could go on and on but you get the gist. I even didn't have to stop at crosswalks... It was purely amazing!!!

Later, I went to the street market to buy some vegetables. The man who I bought mushrooms from, laughed at me for my Korean, English, and Konglish mix of words that I chose to use when I pointed to the mushrooms trying decide how to ask fro them. I finalized my answer to "mushrooms du-gae Ju-seh-oh!! After that he decided to teach me how to say mushrooms, which entertained the lady two stalls down. How do you say mushrooms, you ask? I already forgot. Kong-gae-nee, maybe?? I don't know...if I can't see it written down, there's no way I'll remember it! Besides the veggies, I found a cheap 6,000w skirt that I can wear to work, You may find that weird but my clothing options are quite slim. I hated clothing shopping in the States and in Korea, it's 400 times worse! Anyhow, I tried it on at home and even though it gives me a muffin top from the beer/bugolgi and lack of kimchi gut I've managed to form, I don't even care... I'm quite satisfied with my purchase!

What else.... Oh, after I told my co- teacher that I wanted a signed paper from my current insurance carrier stating that they will in fact be extending my coverage after August 23rd and my new contract state the same thing. My Director gave me the new contract....I'm still waiting to get the one from the insurance carrier but at least it's a start.


All in all, you probably read this thinking, and this was a good day, because??? Let me tell you, these days, I take the little things and hold on to them. I have become the go to person for medical advice. As depressing as it is, it's something, right? I couldn't tell you how to order something at a restaurant but I could tell you where to go if you need medical attention, where's the closest hospital, which ones speak better English, what to expect when you go.... I can tell you what OTC drugs they have at the pharmacy and how to ask for them. I have an array of medical shit I've acquired in my apartment, to scared to throw it out, incase I have to use it again. You'd think I was an 80 yr. old women with all the crap I have!


4 months, 26 days