Korean Job Discussion Forums

[AsiaESLbound]

Can you tell me of a good cardiologist in Seoul for echo-cardiogram image, blood testing, and other necessary exams? I have dull aches in my left shoulder and often in my left hand when at rest, but feel better when exercising or doing physical work. I went to my local general hospital, my monocytes white blood cell count is crazy high, but I could not get further testing or anything more than doctor acting concerned and simply said, "your white blood cell count is 10,000, but it could go down." I was not referred to any specialist and know I need proper testing. I am a bit worried and willing to pay some money to find out and get help. Both of my parents and a grandpa died in their 50's of heart disease. If you know anything about this matter, family history and feeling symptoms is extremely indicative.

So I am looking to find a specialist in Seoul, call their office for appointment, and then take sick day to go to it. I live 1 hour 40 minutes away.

I regularly exercise such walking and hill climbing, eat healthy in avoiding beef and pork with lots of veggies and fish, and I get dull aching in my left shoulder and hand off and on with palpitations at night that make me lose sleep. I have been fearing to say anything to my co-teachers out of repercussions that could result. They acted like it was a big inconvenient deal when one accompanied me to a non-English speaking dentist for a filling 3 weeks ago. I received a guilt trip over that one the next day, "XXXX teacher, yesterday you were so important, I lost expensive paint brush. Where is it?" Well, where did you leave it? "In the hall." I really hope you find it.

I just want to take care of this without saying anything more than, "I have appointment for exam so I will be taking a day off to Seoul, because I am not feeling 100%."

[balzor]

[AsiaESLbound]

Great, thanks for the links to the major medical centers and international clinics in Seoul. These must be the state of the art modern practices I would rather seek help from over a small clinic in a small town with someone who doesn't speak English. Balzor sounds like you had some anxiety about getting things set up for your job in Korea which is reasonable. I would be amazed if I only had anxiety and wouldn't be surprised if I do in fact have heart disease. I'm going to a cardiology clinic this afternoon. I brought up the courage to tell someone about this a short while ago and got information. If I'm unsatisfied with this doctor or treatment, then I'm going to get full state of the art testing including an echo-cardiogram image in Seoul.

[bish]

It's well worth getting this checked out, if only to give you some peace of mind. I have had to do this twice in Korea and both times it was during periods of stress and uncertainty.

My symptoms were very much the same as yours and from reading some of your posts over the last couple of months it seems like you may be having a hard time here.

Both times it was found I had nothing physically wrong. I have been a worrier all of my life and I think it can start to manifest physically as you get older.

My suggestion would be to get the test done and then look to take a holiday as soon as you possibly can. If nothing shows on the test, I think a holiday will do the world of good...

[balzor]

[balzor]

[AsiaESLbound]

Sleep deprivation can also cause body pain, palpitations, anxiety, and fatigue. I'm a new man after getting an actual 8.5 hours of rest last night due to Zolpidem Tartrate pill.

I got EKG, chest X-ray, and ultra sound done, but these only check for heart damage from a heart attack; not if you have blockage developing in your coronary arteries. Just because I got good results does not mean I am clear. Not until I were to get a high definition coronary arterial scan. Coronary artery blockage is what causes most heart attacks which most cardiologists don't have the high tech machine to examine your coronary condition so they are looking for those already ruined from heart attack. To get a coronary artery check, it requires going to Seoul to a state of the art heart center for an echo-cardiogram or other advanced imaging system which can run 350,000 or more for the test. I feel it's well worth spending the money on if your parents and grandparents had coronary heart disease and you believe you felt mild angina in your left shoulder or arm indicating possibly early stage of CHD.

It makes sense to me to approach health care from a preventative maintenance objective instead of waiting for a life threatening situation to occur due to negligence or ignorance. If a partially blocked coronary artery is discovered before it results in heart attack, you can take statins and get angioplasty or bypass if really bad to prevent heart attack. You gotta go to an expensive specialist if you are educated and concerned, but other wise go to doctors for drugs after you are ruined. The current system is designed for sick people to go to doctor or hospital instead of also attempting to prevent illness through education and full body scans. I think they got it partially wrong on health care. Maybe it's not fully developed due to it's experimental nature?

[mmstyle]

AsiaESLBound,

Perhaps you could let other people here know where you went so that if they need to do a similar search in the future, they will find you post. A bit of info about your experience at the clonic/hospital would help as well (no, I am not looking for a cardiologist, but as someone who has had an echo, I do find it good to know that it is about 350,000 here).

[AsiaESLbound]

I didn't get an echo as it's not available in my area. I went to a small cardiologist clinic above a pharmacy with my co-teacher. He couldn't speak much English, but did explain he can't see coronary arteries due to not having the machine to do high res detail imaging. He told me I could go to Seoul if I wanted a coronary check up exam.

[nathanrutledge]

Any one of the university hospitals in Korea should be able to set you up with what you need. My neighbor and I both had heart surgery before coming to Korea (strange how fate works, putting us as neighbors) and he goes to Ajou University Hospital in Suwon monthly for checkups. I hit up a uni hospital around Cheonon once for a EKG. Any uni hospital will have what you need. Just pointing this out, you say your 1:40 away from Seoul, there is probably something closer that would be fine.