Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rowdie3]

Well, I am finally coming out of my drugged out stupor so thought I would get online and post about my week.

Was in Chiang Main last week all alone. Had done all of the cool adventurous stuff and decided to give the ziplining course a try on my last day. Bad idea. Despite warning the staff of my uncoordinated and and unathletic nature, I was encouraged to give it a try. Made it to the third line when smash!! Hit the platform foot first breaking my lower leg and ankle. Took three hours from that moment to get to the ambulance (was carried/dragged out by the zip line course workers, my cab driver, and an EMT. Took another two days of flights and hospitals to get back to Korea.

So, here I am lying in my hospital bed. I was admitted on Saturday morning. The leg was xrayed and the bone set (painfully). I met with the head of the department's doctor on Monday who confirmed the initial recommendation of surgery which was scheduled for Tuesday. I don't realy remember much from that point to now. I have watched A LOT of CSI and played A LOT of spider solitaire.

So, I know I'm babbling, but I don't have many people to talk to these days.

Tips for hospital life:

-have a friend bring you a bag of underwear, t-shirts, etc. Keep it under your bed so you can reach it.
-keep track of your cell phone charger and laptop charger cause if they go missing it's very hard to organize a search.
-contact as many people as you can and invite visitors. This really breaks up the day.
-if you have any discomfort, tell the nurse. Everytime I have told them of a problem, it has been helped.

to be continued...

[CentralCali]

From personal experience, here's a suggestion: ask your friends to bring both fruit juice and fiber drinks when they visit. I discovered very quickly that the hospital food is short on those. Apparently, that's because the patients get them from their visitors.

[Junior]

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

Sorry to hear about your accident. Feel better soon!

[cragesmure]

Yeah, my sympathies. Thankfully, my experiences in Korean hospitals have been limited to visiting friends and for health checks. Get that leg better soon so you can go back to kicking some arses. Get well soon.

[Crockpot2001]

Loads of personal experience here too. The constipation is likely secondary the anesthesia which can be wildly constipating, stopping motility in me for days. Grunting on the can with a broken leg + hip is NOT fun, lemme tell ya. Grunting in general is bad but that's up to you and your tailpipe.

I found it best to load up on water well before partaking in laxitives or fiber based products to insure you're not creating what amounts to a tumbleweed in your gut and poor hydration. With the dry air right now it makes sense anyway. Prune juice works pretty well and adds fluids as do whole fruits and veggies. If you are cathetered then the fun is that you never feel like you gotta pee.

[rowdie3]

I came back to Korea because I have medical insurance here and friends nearby to visit.

Here's what has happened today:
My Mom called the Canadian embassy today. They have called me a few times. Nice people. They set up a guy to come to my room to rent me a wheelchair and sell me crutches right in the room so that was handy.

Found out that there is a pin in my ankle that will have to be surgerically removed in 8 weeks, so that is a bummer.

The nurses hired two women (sisters I think) to come and wash me in my bed. This involved a lot of nudity and general embarrassment for me, but nothing you wouldn't see outside of a sauna. Feels nice to be lying here with clean hair and a fresh change of clothes, and the women were kind and respectful.

Tried to stand up today but still too woozy from the surgery to have good balance.

Food here is good but I'm not eating much of it. No appetite.

Any hosptial tips much apperciated.

[Crockpot2001]

[AsiaESLbound]

I think it's absurd that it had to be set up to be sold crutches and wheelchair in a hospital in-patient room. Don't they have these sorts of things for insured patients? Come on. Don't they have everything a patient needs in the event no one from the outside is able to assist? I've read about how stuff isn't provided, because family and friends are supposed to cover it, but not everyone has family and friends present so that makes no sense.

Korea....

I sure wish you well in the New Year on getting better and doing more of what you enjoy doing.

[Robbo]

I hopeyou feel better man, that sounds rough! I've had more hospital visits than I care to remember. Make sure you get some vitiman supps. to replete your stores. Believe me it helps. Be well

[bluelake]

Get well soon!

My one and--so far--only time in a Korean hospital was back in 1994. Days earlier, I found out the hard way I wasn't immunized for measles as a child, I then had a secondary infection of pneumonia, and a tertiary infection of pleurisy (which is what ultimately put me in the hospital).

I spent a week in the hospital (private room) and got no rest whatsoever. Friends and family took turns sitting in my room watching me like I was going to expire at any time. The food was not only hospital food, it was Korean hospital food (I love Korean food, but the stuff they served in the hospital was terrible); oh, well, I didn't have much of an appetite anyway... I had loads of drinks brought in, as is usual in Korea.

I was glad to get out of there and have no desire to return. It's an incentive to stay well.

[goniff]

which hospital are you in?

korean hospitals can seem like zoos to those from the west who are used

to something different but the quality of care is still pretty high...

[Died By Bear]

One of my friends was getting off a bus in Seoul, when the driver took off as he was stepping off the bus. He somehow landed underneath the bus and his leg was run over. He spent months and months in hospital. Captn Corea knows him too, really sad to see him in hospital for that long.

Sad thing is, he got no compensation for pain and suffering from the bus company. Korea doesn't roll like that.