I've got the Itis! BRONCHitis!

Hello ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Korea. Sort of. If you have been paying attention to previous entries, you may remember that I have been talking about being sick, ohhh.... since I got here. Well, those of you who know me well know that I refuse to take medicine, or go to the doctor, or really do anything towards my well being in these situations. True to form, I delayed getting help in lieu of my tried and true method of drinking lots of orange juice and spitting all day long. It almost worked. Actually, it didn't work at all. As I got progressively sicker, I began to fear I had the dreaded meningitis (sp?), but I was assured that if that were the case, I would already be dead. Those fears laid to rest, I continued to avoid medical assistance for another week, until finally I caved and took the advice of my co-teachers to go see a doctor.

So to the doctor's office I finally went, following the directions of my esteemed colleagues. As it turns out, I followed their directions to the right building, but the wrong office. I ended up in an Oriental / Herbal medicine clinic, and, thinking that I was in the right office, I stayed and recieved treatment. This treatment consisted of this so called doctor asking me what my problem was (he spoke fine English), to which I replied by listing my ailments. After hearing me out, he proceeded to take my pulse in both wrists, and asked me to stick out my tongue. Satisfied with his examination, he had his assistants provide me with "the appropriate" medicine, and I was off. It took about 20 minutes, and cost 20,000 Won, or about $15. Now I was pretty happy about this at the time, but I soon changed my mind. The medicine I recieved was, obviously, wholistic (as opposed to lots of pills), and consisted of 6 pouches of the most putrid smelling and foul tasting liquid one would ever hope not to drink. But drink it I did, six times, and so awful was it that I wretched it up shortly after twice. And alas, after all this pain and suffering, it did nothing to cure my ailments.

So I tried again, this time being escorted to the real doctor's office by my lovely boss Veronica, where I was a large white man in a room full of babies, toddlers, mothers, and grandmothers. It was a pediatricians office... I felt quite comfortable, aside from being miserably sick. At least I felt better than one little boy, who vomited into his mother's hand, and eventually on the floor, as he waited to be seen. He seemed much better afterward, quite a trooper by my count. So long story short here, this doctor did a proper temperature, stethescope, and throat check, and determined that I had bronchitis. She prescribed a shit load of pills and told me to come back on Thursday. This whole trip took about 45 minutes (the place was real crowded) and cost just over 5,000 Won, or about $3.50.

I am currently feeling much better, and it looks like I'll be at full capacity (for the first time since I've been here) by Thursday. My biggest regret in the whole month-long sickness and getting better: not waiting 4 weeks; not going to the wrong doctor first (though that does stink); but having to drink that awful herbal shit, and to no avail. If you ever come to Korea, bring you own cough medicine, and DO NOT try theirs (I bought some at a store hoping for something different from the herbalist, it was the same). I promise you it is unpleasant, and no matter how much you want to try the local things, this is not something you should do.

More to come after my next trip to Seoul.