Dr. Carolyn

it's been a whirlwind of a week. like, literally a whirlwind. as in, the world has been whirling around me as if i'm on one of those nausea-inducing amusement park rides. this is not a metaphor people, i'm talking a serious actual case of extreme vertigo. have any of you ever experienced vertigo? the U2 song makes it sound like a lot of fun, but it's not.

it all started about a week ago when i started to feel like everything was moving, no matter how hard i tried to focus my eyes on something, causing an intense headache and eye sensitivity. i thought maybe my eyes were just tired but it progressed to the point where Monday morning, i went to school and told them I needed to go to the doctor. so my korean teacher friend at my school traslated on paper what my symptoms were (terribly headache, dizziness, imbalance, eye pain) and since the doctor spoke some English, I also tried to explain. naturally, his diagnosis was food poisoning. wait, what? clearly something was lost in translation here. when i tried to explain further, he simply said it was a tension headache, gave me a whole bunch of pills of which were not explained to me, and sent me on my way.

i was not at all convinced this was just a headache, and i had to take the rest of the day off to sleep in my bed, with the lights off, shades drawn, and covers over my eyes, trying to avoid all light and movement. tuesday i slept in, went to school after lunch, then headed to the hospital to the neurologist, where i made my way through two floors of giggling nurses and staff trying to give me directions and instructions. apparently it is just HILLARIOUS watching a white girl in serious pain try to understand what to do and where to go in a hospital where no one speaks english. anyway, the neurologist also looked clueless and told me it was just a headache, and gave me more painkillers.

my symptoms persisted and the neurologist wanted me to get a CAT scan, which is expensive and seemed extreme to me. so i did some research of my own, with some suggestions from the fam, and diagnosed myself with an inner ear infection. top symptoms are vertigo, headache, nausea, and trouble hearing. all of which i had. so good ole dad called the doctor back home who told me what antibiotics i needed, and i marched into the doctor Friday morning, handed him my print out of inner ear infection symptoms, with the exact medication i needed, and after about 20 minutes of mumbling under his breath in Korean and pulling out books and doing some clicking on his computer, he begrudgingly gave me the prescription.

however, despite the frustration with the language barrier and a different way of doing medicine, I have to say that the Korean health system rocks in that going to the doctor costs about $2, and getting a full 10 day treatment of antibiotics cost me $5. and that's expensive compared to all the other pills i got.

so i really hope these antibiotics do the trick. i've had two sleepless in a row now due to all the pain in my head and behind my eyes. :( these painkillers just aren't doing it for me.

on a brighter note, it was my Grandma Sybesma's 88th birthday yesterday. Happy birthday Grandma! She's the spunkiest 88 year old I know!