During Part 1 of my Korean adventure, I was very, very ill twice. Both times the cold/flu/cough/illness/earaches lasted up to one full month. I’ve had many friends tell me that during their first year here they were often very sick also. There must be something about so drastically changing your environment that causes this. There’s a new climate, new germs, and a new way of thinking about health care.
When I was very sick in October, I was starting to be desperately ill, and my director’s wife took me to the “hospital” to see “a famous internal” (doctor). We were told the wait would be one hour, which made my boss very frustrated (that it would take so long), and made me very surprised (that it would be so short for a same-day walk-in). In the meantime, she insisted on taking me to a restaurant to eat some spicy soup. She said that spicy foods are supposed to help fight illness. She also insisted that I drink only hot water or tea, and not cold water, when I’m sick. She said it soothes the throat and is easier for the body to handle while it’s fighting the illness.
We saw the doctor a short while later. I wrote my long list of symptoms in Korean (from my Lonely Planet Korean phrasebook), and my boss talked to the doctor on my behalf. He spoke no English, but I could understand his motions to open my mouth when he wanted to stick the biggest tongue depressor I’ve ever seen into it. It was huge, metal, and unsanitized. Maybe it was before he used it on me (I doubt it), but it went back into the can afterward, to be used again.
Then I was instructed to go behind a curtain with a girl. I asked what was happening, and my boss said, “shot.” Lovely. I loathe shots. But this girl was very fast and efficient, and to alleviate any pain and make the fluid move around faster, she smacked my butt as she administered it. It was odd. No one ever told me what it was, but it was yellow, so maybe it was a vitamin shot?
He gave us a prescription, and we went to the front desk to pay. I was shocked that the bill was 13,000 won, or about $12 USD. Since I didn’t have insurance yet, this was actually the entire cost. We went downstairs to the pharmacy where we got a cocktail of pills in packets, separated for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There were like 4-6 pills in each packet, plus I was given the thinnest cough syrup I’ve ever seen. The total for my “medicine” was 15,000 won. None of it worked at all, but at least it was cheap and tasted okay.
During our visit, my boss was instructed that I needed to rest and get well or I would get much worse. Otherwise, I would not have been allowed to use my sick days. More on sick days later. I went home to sleep. I spent the next 3 days sleeping and watching movies.
The last week in December was my vacation. The last few days I was starting to get sick, and by my first day back I was really ill. I had no choice but to go to work though, because otherwise they would have thought I was trying to extend my vacation. They wouldn’t have believed I was actually sick. I wouldn’t believe someone with that kind of timing, so I went to work.
Day by day I got sicker and sicker. My director spent the entire day on Wednesday at the same school as me (which is very rare), and when I saw him briefly the next day, he was also very sick. He saw me and yelled at his wife (in Korean), “Why is she here? Get her out of here! She will get
everyone sick!” So she came over to me and told me we were leaving. It’s a shame showed up at work at 8:30pm. I could’ve used more than 30 minutes of leaving early. I had coughed to the point of vomiting many times that day. The next day I stayed home.
By the following Tuesday I was not improving, and maybe even getting worse. I called and said I wasn’t coming in again, and wanted to see another doctor. Jeff came down to get me and we went to the actual hospital nearby. It took longer to provide my insurance information over the phone via Candy than the rest of the visit took. Once payment was guaranteed, the doctor saw us immediately and spoke a little English. I tried to explain that I grew up used to strong medicine and that I needed an antibiotic. He seemed incensed and told me that he was giving me medicine and he wanted me to take it, and not question his knowledge. He was offended that I would question anything, and I was offended that I wasn’t allowed to.
We went to the counter to pay our bill, which was a 13,000 won copay. Again, I thought that was cheap, and they thought it was exorbitant. We visited the pharmacy next, and even the pharmacist double-checked that the lengthy list was correct. She gave us more packets, this time with 8 pills per serving. I went back home to bed.
It was made clear to me that I was expected to return to work the next day. So I did. I didn’t get too much better, but maybe a little. The pills were finished in 4 days, and I took another downturn. My left ear closed up, and I could only hear echoes. It was so painful, and disorienting. A couple of days later I was taken to an ear, nose, and throat specialist. He was an Oriental Medicine ENT specialist, with lots of fancy equipment, but no real medicine. I was told I had an ear infection, sinus infection, and bronchitis (more or less). He put me on many machines of questionable effectiveness. We went to the pharmacy again, and got some more pills, and went to school.
My ear stayed closed and painful for one full month, to the day. I couldn’t lay on that side for very long, couldn’t listen to music with headphones in that ear, and couldn’t hear in that ear without them. Finally, by the first of February, it was over.
It was horrible. It took 4-5 weeks to get over something that would’ve been gone in 3 days at home. The experiences didn’t leave me with much faith in Korean “health care”. They are concerned more with prevention (diet and exercise) than with cures. I’ve been told that there are International Clinics in Daegu, close to downtown, but they are too far to get to and back before work since I’m so far from town. Maybe next time.
