ENT

deery-lou.
today i went to see dr. kim for my follow up. i had to go by myself since jeff's mom wasn't available. luckily i semi-remembered where the doctor's office was. at least i thought i did. i entered the building that i thought it was and hopped on the elevator to floor 5. nothing looked familar. the one dr. kim sign i saw was for skin care. i checked floor 6. nope. then down to floor 4. nope. i went outside and walked into some other buildings. my mind was a blank. i tried to call jeff's mom but no answered. i walked over to her pharmacy. she wasn't there but the other lady told me in broken english one building over, floor 5. i was right the first time. if only i had actually looked while i was up there i would have notice the doctors office across from the skin care doctor. the check up went fine. i understood about half of what she was saying to me. i told her that on sunday my ear felt plugged and that i couldn't hear very well out of it. she said something about an allergy then said i must go to floor 4 to see ears, nose, throat [ent] doctor. ok. and she also prescribed two weeks worth of the meds i was taking before. she wrote out a note for the ent doctor and said something about vitamins. whatever. i paid the receptionist [7,000 won] then headed down to floor 4. i looked around and all i could see was a giant pharmacy called vitamins something, and dr.kim's plastic surgery. why are all the drs. here named kim. i went into the pharmacy thinking that perhaps i misunderstood my dr. kim. i handed the woman the note and my prescription. they just gave me the meds. i asked her about the note and she said "anyo" waving her hands. i paid my 30,000 won and left. in the hallway i stood trying to figure out where the ent doctor was at. i walked toward the plastic surgery sign. to the right was a doctors office. i figured what the hell and went inside and handed the receptionist my note. bingo. after ten minutes i was called into to see the doctor. like my other doctor his english was very minimal. he asked me several questions and then i told him my symptoms. he looked into my ears, throat, and then stuck some metal things and a light up my nose. going to the doctors is always an experience but when theres a complete language barrier it makes it quite interesting. anyway, he said something about me having a stuffed nose and i answered yes. the next thing i know he shoots something up my nose and then place another metal thing that starts sucking things out. he told me i had some kind of ear allergy. the exact name i'm really not sure of. he told me to sip some water and hold it. then i had to place this tube in my ear. on the three he told me to swallow. i did and at the same time he squeezed this tube that forced air up my nose. we did it again, however, this time he counted in korean. after that i had to take a hearing test. now imagine you're getting ready to take this test and the nurse starts explaining what to do all in korean. yes, thats exactly what happened. i managed to figure out that every time i heard a beep i needed to press this button. during the test i could barely hear anything. the beeps were so faint and noise from outside kept drifting in. i was imagining that they were going to tell me i was going deaf. would that be the icing on the cake. after i finished the test i went back to see the doctor. he told me everything was normal. thank god. he then prescribed some meds for me to take 3 times a day for two days. in two days i need to see him again. the nurse then took me to a breathing station where i had to breathe in some fumes for ten minutes or so. after that she gave me a shot in my hip. i don't even know what she gave me. the visit to the ent cost me another 30,000 won. i decided to take this prescription to jeff's mom since the other people couldn't really speak english. luckily for me she was there. she apologized for not being able to go with me. she asked how i was and i told her that i had to see an ent doctor too. i handed her the prescription and she filled it for me. she told me that i need to eat 3 meals a day and take this stuff 30 mins later. then she said how jeff always tells her i'm hungry. which is true. its hard to eat 3 meals when you only have 5 mins. between classes. it only cost 8,000 won plus she gave me a free drink. score. so now i'm taking a pretty blue pill, a long white pill, a round white pill, half of a yellow pill, and a square pink pill. plus sucking on the space pod. i have 46 inhalations left. i also decided to take a break from taekwondo this week. its all about rest, rest, rest.

be well…