Hospital Hiatus: Part Three

Straight up chillin'

Precaution: this post contains graphic images of my injury.

Greetings, all! Welcome to Part Three about my unexpected journey in the Korean healthcare world. If you missed parts one and two, check them out! Part one explains some of the background about how my injury happened, and the beginning phases of being admitted to the hospital. Part two continued with my journey of hospital admittance, and a loooooong road trip that potentially saved my life. Part three will venture into my second week of my hospital stay, where I start to feel all too comfortable with my adapted hospital lifestyle. I also had the opportunity to escape from the hospital for a few hours in order to attend Fulbright's Thanksgiving Dinner, and was tempted to run away forever... This post is full of my scatter-brained stories and struggles, so I'm sorry in advance for the lack of continuity. Let's get started!

Hope and Dawn

While week one of my hospital stay was mostly filled with uncertainty, immense pain, and wrapping my mind around everything that was happening, week two became much more relaxed and A LOT less painful. I think my usual outgoing personality showed, too, as I warmed up to my doctors, nurses, and neighbors on floor 12. The second week kicked off with a new roommate, who turned out to be closer to my age and seemed to be spending more time in the hospital than I was (yikes!). She was admitted for an infection in her jaw, which she had to get some fat/muscle taken out of her calf and placed in her mouth. I am not quite sure how it happened, but she had an outgoing attitude about everything which made it easy to get along with her. I hope she continues to have a healthy recovery and maintains that positivity!

Sunrise photo waiting for the doctors

The IV from Hell

My schedule throughout the second week was much the same as the first (except I upgraded to only one cleaning per day!), so I won't bore you with that. Instead, I want to write about some random incidents that were quite entertaining and unexpected. One story has to do with switching my IV antibiotics; the doctor told me that I needed stronger medicine now that they had identified the type of bacteria. And since MRSA is a super strong, it can take many forms and becomes resistant easily. So, my first day on this new IV was insane. The doctors and nurses repeated multiple times about the side effects of this drug (rash, itching, swelling), and that if I had any side effects I should push the help button immediately. Me, acting nonchalant because I've never had a bad reaction to medicine, didn't think too much of what they were saying. Don't get me wrong - I was cautious, but confident that I would be okay. But oh man, the first time they hooked me up to the new drug, I could feel it. The nurse even made it drip pretty slow, but they weren't lying when they said how strong it was. I felt like I was hallucinating - my head suddenly became itchy and I was scratching uncontrollably. I think I moved too quickly because I got some blood on my gown, which was likely from the IV that I ended up ripping out... Needless to say, I pressed my help button and the nurse rushed back in as I told her what was happening. She sat by my side while the remainder of the IV dripped, and I finally settled down. After that first dosage, I was extremely cautious, and luckily I never experienced any intense side effects after that (besides some skin peeling).

On the mend during week two

Unfortunately, a natural side effect to taking multiple drugs at a time is an imbalance in the bacteria in a female body part down south. Week two caused some aggravation with all of the medicinal changes, so I requested to see the gynecologist. Randomly, while I was hanging out with two friends one evening, a male doctor, maybe a gynecologist (??? still don't know) stormed in and requested to speak with me in private. My friends and I were confused, but I said okay and was wheeled off into an examination room. I put two and two together and figured that this guy was related in some way to the gynecology department, and I saw an exam chair and thought he was there to take a look. But nope. INSTEAD, he just asked super invasive questions about my sexual history which seemed entirely irrelevant to treating a yeast infection (a common thing for females to experience when taking multiple antibiotics). So, after about a fifteen minute interview which was awkwardly conducted in Konglish, he shuffled me back to my room. As he was leaving, I asked if I would be receiving medication or at least going to see a gynecologist the next day, and his response was "Maybe?" LITERALLY. I'm like.... what does that even mean!? Needless to say, I didn't hear back from the gynecologist until the day I was discharged (which was five days later). Basically, they did nothing about my yeast infection, even though I kept nagging to the nurses and doctors every day, but it was out of their control too because they're just there to take care of me. They kept passing along word, but no action was taken until D-DAY. Finally, my all-star nurse took matters into her own hands and got me some medication before leaving. Why did it take so long for that to happen... I'll never know.

Thanksgiving Dinner 2015

With the Fulbright Family

Anyway... each year, Fulbright hosts a Thanksgiving dinner for the ETAs to get together and enjoy some American goodness! I was worried that I might not be able to attend due to my stay in the hospital, but luckily for me, my doctors and nurses were able to hook me up with a temporary leave approval (thank you nurses! ♥). I was so excited to wear normal clothes again! I was granted VIP access to the Fulbright van and rode with our executive director, who is so fun to talk with and share stories. Last year I was a little bit intimidated by her, but during my second year I've had more opportunities to talk with her, and she's a very warm and kind-hearted person. I am thankful to have her as our director! At the dinner, I was able to see a lot of friends and tell the story about how my foot got hurt over and over again. I felt lucky to have such a caring community by my side throughout all of this. Thanks Fulbright Fam! AND THE FOOD. Man, it was SO NICE to have an American Thanksgiving. And the fact that I had been eating hospital food for two weeks straight made it that much more enjoyable. I ate three plates of food. Turkey, stuffing, pie, mashed potatoes, casseroles, cakes, everything. I felt like I was going to explode. It was sooooo delicious. Thanks for another great Thanksgiving dinner, Fulbright!

Having fun with my equipment

Helping me get food

FINALLY, a few days after the magical Thanksgiving dinner, was the day of my departure (Monday, November 16th). I couldn't believe that it was finally here. I felt like I needed some sort of training program to teach me how to be functional in the real world again. Unfortunately my condition still wasn't anywhere ready to be back to teaching again, let alone walking. I was still on crutches and wrapped up in my cast. I was so scared about what was going to happen, and nobody was telling me what was going on. I felt reassured when the doctor said that I should just go home and rest this week, but yet Fulbright and my school were telling me otherwise and wanted me to get back to teaching right away. I was so stressed out and emotional, and I broke down. It was my first time crying since I was admitted to Severance. Hospital life was like living in a dream. I didn't have to do anything but worry about my health and I had people to take care of me. And all of a sudden I was expected to be functioning 110% by everyone around me which was not possible whatsoever. Stressed, confused, emotionally and physically exhausted, I left the hospital and was on a train back to Suncheon (near my hometown of Gwangyang), unsure of what was going to happen next. My next post will talk about what happened after D-DAY, so I'll hold that thought! Stay tuned for PART FOUR of Hillary's Hospital Hiatus. Until then, enjoy some random ramblings:

Week Two Stats:
- 16 visitors (Hope Schaeffer, Dawn Barcelona, Erin Hassanzadeh, Kelsey Williams, Deborah Ok, Arria Washington, Erin Deskin, Teresa Baek, Emily Lembo, Katrin Marquez, Emily Shoemaker, Morgan Fryer, Kevin Duong, Zerin Tasnim, Amelea Kim, Kelsey Hagenah) - THANK YOU!
- 3 people who washed my hair (Deborah Ok, Teresa Baek, Amelea Kim) - THANK YOU!
- 2 new roommates (One who had a jaw infection, one who had carpal tunnel in her hands)
- 5 nurses who laughed at my corny jokes
- 3 doctors who started talking to me about things other than my foot
- Ate 4 burgers, 12 chicken nuggets, and 2 McFlurries from McDonald's
- Ate 10 donuts from Krispy Kreme
- Received 8 boxes of Pepero (Korean version of the Japanese snack Pocky)
- Nagged about my yeast infection to the nurses more than 7 times

Other miscellaneous struggles faced during my hospital stay:

Kevin and Zerin

- Communication barriers: Although my Korean skills are decent enough, knowledge of any vocabulary related specifically to my condition was lacking. I don't even know what a lot of medical terminology means in English, let alone in a second language. My doctor spoke fluent English, so I never had an issue understanding what was actually going on with my healing process, but most of the nurses used limited English. I remember one instance in particular when a nurse and I were exchanging dialogue in our respective native languages, giving giving each other completely blank stares and using a lot of body language. It was like talking to a brick wall and it sucked because I knew what we were trying to communicate was important. She eventually went to go get an English phrasebook, dated back to 1999. The phrase she was looking for wasn't even in there... #FML. Some way or another we ended up getting our points across, and I think we formed an odd friendship after that due to the fact that we both struggled so hard and really tried to understand what the other one was saying.

Teresa

- Bathing/showering: I couldn't stand, put any pressure on my foot, or get any part of my leg wet, so showering was a major struggle. Unfortunately I had to resort to giving myself sponge baths. Every other day I decided I should clean myself. I went to the bathroom, stripped down, wet my towel, lathered up, sat on the toilet and scrubbed away. The whole process was so exhausting for me and it took [what seemed like] FOREVER (maybe 20 minutes). I couldn't wash my own hair either, so I always had to wait until a friend came to visit and have them help me with that. My roommates must have thought I was crazy because I refused to let the old ladies scrub me. Besides, those ladies only came on Tuesdays and I wanted to be bathed more than once a week. Hygiene is such a different story here than it is in America. I consistently had to ask my nurses for new patient gowns rather than a fresh one magically arriving in my room every day. And I swear my four roommates never changed their gowns either. I don't even remember them taking showers or having someone help them. I decided it was better to just not ask questions about this and do my own thing. My superstitions were confirmed one evening when my [Korean] friend was washing my hair in the sink, and roommate number 3 made a side remark to my friend about why she was washing my hair in the sink. At the same time she was saying this, two doctors came in to talk to roommate number 3 and started giggling at the sight of my friend washing my hair. I guess patients just don't want to be clean when they're in the hospital...

Deb!

- Asking questions: Why don't doctors and nurses like answering questions? Is it because I'm an American, or is it just the Korean way to never ask questions? This question will probably never be answered...

- Hospital food: The cooking ladies, bless their hearts, are the sweetest people ever, but man, did I get sick of that food. Thank goodness for friends who brought me snacks and food. I tried to save face by eating all that I could and returning my food as strategically as possible... and also removing my name from the tray so that maybe they wouldn't realize it was me who consistently wasted food... :(

- Having control of the TV remote: ALL FOUR of my roommates ALWAYS stole the TV remote from me. I was always civil and kept the remote in the designated spot it was supposed to be, but my roommates always strategically placed it with their personal belongings, making me feel bad if I wanted to watch something but didn't work up the nerve to ask. I remember on one instance it was about midnight, I was exhausted, my roommate was already passed out, and the TV was blaring. I'm a light sleeper, so I was ready to turn that damn thing off. Unfortunately, my roommate had fallen asleep with the remote in her hand... Somehow I mustered up the energy to sneak over there and stole it from her without waking her up. +5 points for me.

Done being poked

- Being tied down to my IV: I swear every time I wanted to go wander around in my wheelchair or needed to go pee or actually do something was the EXACT time that my nurse would come in with my IV, which thus pinned me down to my bed for an hour or longer. On that note...

- Nurses poking me with needles: Both of my arms were bruised like never before after two weeks in the hospital. Some nurses were much better than others at sticking the IV needles in my veins -_- AND it's like they would come in randomly in the middle of the night and poke me in the dark while I was dazed and confused about what was going on. Oh well.

Sunset

- Trying to make small talk: I typically don't find myself an intimidating person, as I usually have a big smile on my face when people meet me (even in the hospital I thought I was pretty close to being my usual self). But, in the land of Korea, foreigners are the scariest thing to roam this Earth. I had to work really hard to get my doctors, nurses, and roommates to warm up to me throughout my hospital stay. I'm a fan of talking, and while I had visitors to keep me company, the majority of my day was spent with nurses and doctors who I saw a lot more frequently. First week was a major fail but by week two I think people warmed up to me. I just had to be a bit more invasive than I normally would be... and make a lot of jokes. At least they laughed at my corny jokes. But nonetheless, they are all friendly people and I'm thankful for their comfort and care throughout my stay. They are very good at what they do.

See you next week! Thanks for keeping up with my blog!

Erin and Kelsey

Arria and Erin

Kelsey

Emily, Katrin, Emily

Morgan and Katrin