It's been a long, long week.
Friday night I took a nap after school and woke up with a tickle in my throat. As there was a cold that was going around the school, I figured I was probably coming down with it and went to bed early.
Saturday morning I woke up with a full-fledge cold. Both times now that I have come down with a cold in Korea, it has surprised me just how fast it goes from nothing to full assault. As I have an open class on Thursday (I will explain what that is later) I figured I would go against my nature and buy some medicine to help the process along even though there's really nothing you can do to cure a common cold.
I bought some medicine (the "magic pills" is what I call them) and proceeded to spend the rest of the day in bed as they were extremely strong for my system. They made the world a fuzzy but colorful place, to put it mildly.
Sunday, I was able to get my hands on some cough syrup--which lasted 24 hrs as the bottle was tiny. I still slept all day due to the magic pills.
Monday, I called in sick (as mentioned a pretty big deal in Korea), took my medicine and went back to bed. I was feeling so lethargic and absolutely no better than the day before. I slept the entire day, waking only to cough and blow my nose. I have never had a cold effect my daily life as much as this one has in terms of energy and being able to do things.
Monday night around midnight I woke up not being able to breathe. I was wheezing so much from my cough and couldn't seem to get enough air. At this point I was just sick and tired of the magic pills that weren't working and the cough that was progressively getting worse instead of better (and the fact that I couldn't breathe) that I went to the ER. I figured at the very least they could give me cough medicine so I could stop coughing so much so my throat would stop closing and I would be able to breathe again.
Instead, they gave me a chest x-ray, antibiotics ("I think maybe your tonsils are swollen." You...think? Maybe?), and a shot to reduce the swelling in my throat. He said that the reason why my throat was swollen was because of my coughing--at this point, I am starting to feel like I could be a doctor here.
The shot did help me breathe better though. It also kept me awake until 5am and then I had to get up for work at 6:45. That was fun. (Also, as a side note: the ER visit, x-ray, shot, AND drugs cost me 14,000 won. About $13. Go Korea!)
Tuesday I went to work. I had to talk about American foods so I did quite a bit of talking despite not really having a voice and coughing every other word. They sent me home after I was done teaching as I looked and sounded so horrible.
When I asked why I couldn't get cough syrup here, I was told that it doesn't work. I was also asked if the medicine made me dizzy, feel sick, and generally very not myself. When I said yes, I was told that this was Korean style and it meant it was working.
Today, I once again went in feeling the worse yet this week and having very little voice. My co-teacher was lovely and did the majority of the teaching, but I still had to ask some questions and have them repeat a list after me. That very little made my throat despise me. After class, my co-teacher brought me to the clinic (an ear, nose and throat specialist--who incidentally graduated from UM in A2! So we had much to talk about) to be checked out.
He suctioned out my nose (which HURTS) saying that he couldn't believe how much I was able to hold in there (heh, he should see the two rolls of tp I have gone through at home and the countless tissues at school :-p) and poked around at my tonsils (yeah, that hurt, too :( ) and then declared that I had tonsillitis, gave me some MORE meds to take (I am now on 5 pills 3times/day and he actually gave me cough syrup!) and told me to come back on Friday for a check up. They then hooked me up to a nebulizer for a bit and then sent me on my way.
Total visit, 6,000 won for doctor and 14,000 won for medicine (+ bug spray and Vitamin C tabs). I just can't get over how cheap health care is here. I'm pretty sure if you combine everything I have paid together it would still be less than a visit to the doctor back home, let alone anything else. Hopefully these pills will do the trick.
Tomorrow I have the open class. This is basically when the principal/vice principal, teacher from our school and other schools all come in and evaluate a class that we teach. It's the fourth class (in a row) that I teach and if I feel anything like I did after today's 4th period, it's not going to end well. But I don't really care. We have 4ish of these a year.
But hey, I think I am already maybe sort of starting to feel better. I have been awake since 5:30--and it's now 9:30! Pretty sure this has been the longest stretch of awakeness since Saturday. I am definitely crashing soon though.
Friday night I took a nap after school and woke up with a tickle in my throat. As there was a cold that was going around the school, I figured I was probably coming down with it and went to bed early.
Saturday morning I woke up with a full-fledge cold. Both times now that I have come down with a cold in Korea, it has surprised me just how fast it goes from nothing to full assault. As I have an open class on Thursday (I will explain what that is later) I figured I would go against my nature and buy some medicine to help the process along even though there's really nothing you can do to cure a common cold.
I bought some medicine (the "magic pills" is what I call them) and proceeded to spend the rest of the day in bed as they were extremely strong for my system. They made the world a fuzzy but colorful place, to put it mildly.
Sunday, I was able to get my hands on some cough syrup--which lasted 24 hrs as the bottle was tiny. I still slept all day due to the magic pills.
Monday, I called in sick (as mentioned a pretty big deal in Korea), took my medicine and went back to bed. I was feeling so lethargic and absolutely no better than the day before. I slept the entire day, waking only to cough and blow my nose. I have never had a cold effect my daily life as much as this one has in terms of energy and being able to do things.
Monday night around midnight I woke up not being able to breathe. I was wheezing so much from my cough and couldn't seem to get enough air. At this point I was just sick and tired of the magic pills that weren't working and the cough that was progressively getting worse instead of better (and the fact that I couldn't breathe) that I went to the ER. I figured at the very least they could give me cough medicine so I could stop coughing so much so my throat would stop closing and I would be able to breathe again.
Instead, they gave me a chest x-ray, antibiotics ("I think maybe your tonsils are swollen." You...think? Maybe?), and a shot to reduce the swelling in my throat. He said that the reason why my throat was swollen was because of my coughing--at this point, I am starting to feel like I could be a doctor here.
The shot did help me breathe better though. It also kept me awake until 5am and then I had to get up for work at 6:45. That was fun. (Also, as a side note: the ER visit, x-ray, shot, AND drugs cost me 14,000 won. About $13. Go Korea!)
Tuesday I went to work. I had to talk about American foods so I did quite a bit of talking despite not really having a voice and coughing every other word. They sent me home after I was done teaching as I looked and sounded so horrible.
When I asked why I couldn't get cough syrup here, I was told that it doesn't work. I was also asked if the medicine made me dizzy, feel sick, and generally very not myself. When I said yes, I was told that this was Korean style and it meant it was working.
Today, I once again went in feeling the worse yet this week and having very little voice. My co-teacher was lovely and did the majority of the teaching, but I still had to ask some questions and have them repeat a list after me. That very little made my throat despise me. After class, my co-teacher brought me to the clinic (an ear, nose and throat specialist--who incidentally graduated from UM in A2! So we had much to talk about) to be checked out.
He suctioned out my nose (which HURTS) saying that he couldn't believe how much I was able to hold in there (heh, he should see the two rolls of tp I have gone through at home and the countless tissues at school :-p) and poked around at my tonsils (yeah, that hurt, too :( ) and then declared that I had tonsillitis, gave me some MORE meds to take (I am now on 5 pills 3times/day and he actually gave me cough syrup!) and told me to come back on Friday for a check up. They then hooked me up to a nebulizer for a bit and then sent me on my way.
Total visit, 6,000 won for doctor and 14,000 won for medicine (+ bug spray and Vitamin C tabs). I just can't get over how cheap health care is here. I'm pretty sure if you combine everything I have paid together it would still be less than a visit to the doctor back home, let alone anything else. Hopefully these pills will do the trick.
Tomorrow I have the open class. This is basically when the principal/vice principal, teacher from our school and other schools all come in and evaluate a class that we teach. It's the fourth class (in a row) that I teach and if I feel anything like I did after today's 4th period, it's not going to end well. But I don't really care. We have 4ish of these a year.
But hey, I think I am already maybe sort of starting to feel better. I have been awake since 5:30--and it's now 9:30! Pretty sure this has been the longest stretch of awakeness since Saturday. I am definitely crashing soon though.
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