On Thursday evening I had a sore throat rapidly manifest itself. Just like the kids at Becket, the Korean students I teach are walking little petri dishes. I hoped it would go away soon.
Friday night: fever. Damn. And my throat is starting to get REALLY REALLY uncomfortable. Like, it hurts to drink water or even open my mouth. Eating is basically out of the question.
So it gets bad enough that I want to go to the hospital, since I'm pretty sure I have strep throat (bacterial infection), and trying to "wait it out" will just prolong my suffering needlessly.
So I go the Emergency Room (there's one a short walk from my house). I'm anticipating having to drop a couple hundred USD on this trip, but that's still nothing compared to an E-Room trip in the States.
A guy who can speak a little English comes and asks me what's wrong. I tell him my symptoms, and he takes my temperature and looks down my throat. (39.6 Celsius, I learned later, converts to 103F. Whoah, Mama!) I tell him I want an antibiotic, and he agrees. He wants to hook me up to an IV and give me a shot in the butt (they are really passionate about the shot in the butt here--seriously, no matter what you go to the ER for they try to give you one. And he really tried to sell it too!), but I just want to grab my meds and GET OUT.
As I'm leaving, I pay the bill. Not even thirty USD, and that's INCLUDING the medicine. Go Korea.
Bravo for the hospital folks - I trust the discount meds did the trick?
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