Doctor's Visit

As I said in an earlier post, I took a friend to the hospital last week. She had a form of laryngitis, which I then looked up and found to be contagious. Awesome. So on Tuesday when my energy was waning, my throat burning, and I was making a hacking noise that sounded something akin to a velociraptor from Jurassic Park, I knew it was time to take some action. I didn't want a camera shoved up my nose or land in the hospital for five days like my friend.

 I called up a friend who had been to a doctor in my town numerous times and asked if she could take me. We showed up at the doc's at 9:45 ish and was told I had Bronchitis because when he listened to my lungs he said they went "beep, beep". Err...beep beep? Is that normal for, er, bronchitis in humans? Or just robots? He told me he was going to give me some meds and two injections. I'm not a wuss when it comes to shots. I'd actually prefer them to pills. However, this was before I had a Korean nurse administer these shots. They had to go in the bum of course and for some reason, she slaps the area while she's shooting you up. I mean slapping like you stole something from your Granny's closet and she caught you. Nobody can spank like Granny, am I right? It was painful! I mean geez woman, just stab them in there and be done. So with a few slaps on the ass, I was out of there limping out by 10:00. Love it.

After a small doctor's visit fee of W3,000 and a five minute trip to the pharmacy that cost another W3,000 I was loaded with what we affectionately call "pill cocktails" and some sort of nasty syrup thing in individual packets. I was only given a two day supply, which by American standards is not enough. I'm used to getting a 7-10 supply. So...now that my subscription is up, I'm feeling better. Go Korea. $6.00 and 20 minutes. You rocked my sickness Korea.

However, there's one small thing. There always is. My friend who frequents this doctor asked what the diagnosis was and what drugs I was given her response was, "Bronchitis? Yeah, that's what I always have. Six pills and mucus syrup? Yeah, I get that stuff all the time. Isn't the syrup yummy?" So...not only does the doctor know how to say only one disease in English, but he also gives us the same medicine. And, the mucus syrup is...well...I mean come on, it's mucus syrup.