Sick

With all the media attention on English teachers and swine flu, it was perhaps inevitable that yours truly would end up getting sick. Not with swine flu, I hasten to add, but with my perennial tonsillitis. Last year, I ended up staying in hospital over my birthday due to quinsy (a complication arising from severe tonsillitis), so this year, I wanted to have a nice time to make up for last year. Sadly, it was not to be.

I woke up on Saturday with a bit of a sore throat which got worse as the day wore on. I met the girls at New Phillies to see Keith's play "Silly Cow" (very funny BTW) and then we headed over to Sinchon for some Mexican food and to hit some Hongdae bars. By the time we got to the restaurant, I was feeling distinctly worse and hopped on the bus back to Bucheon. The next day (my birthday), I had a fever, severe sore throat and was unable to swallow or talk.

One of my co-teachers took me to the hospital which is only a couple of blocks away from my apartment building. The Information for Foreigners desk was closed and the few staff we could find could not speak English. Eventually we stumbled into the Emergency Care section where we found an English speaking nurse who quickly arranged for me to be seen by a doctor. Within half an hour, I had received an injection of antibiotics, an injection of painkillers and a 3 day prescription of antibiotics and was told to call back in the week to see a doctor in the ENT clinic.

Today I went back to the hospital and found someone on the Information for Foreigners desk who took me to the ENT clinic. I saw a doctor who spoke excellent English who examined my tonsils and used some sort of sucking device to remove the "bacterial pools", yum! Another prescription of antibiotics and painkillers. Off to the pharmacy within 20 minutes. I don't know whether they just whisk foreigners through the system, but so far I've only had to wait about 5 minutes to see a doctor.

I'm not entirely sure how the health insurance system works. I have a health insurance card and a certain amount is deducted from my salary each month for health insurance, but I still have to pay a fee when I visit the doctor (it was a hefty 63,000 won (around £32) for visiting the Emergency Care unit on Sunday, but only 16,000 won (around £8) at the ENT clinic today). The doctor told me I could schedule a tonsillectomy while I am here which is tempting as the NHS seem reluctant to whip out my tonsils despite me getting ill so often, but it depends how much it would cost me and how long I would need to take off work (although I could always schedule it at the end of my contract).