Trip to a Korean ER

In my previous post, I wrote that I had a busy week of parties and fun.  However, the end of my weekend was not fun.  I woke up on Sunday, after a night of celebrating my birthday and drinking, not feeling the greatest.  However, I had to go to my co-teacher's wedding.  I felt fine all day except for the ride back from the wedding.  I started to feel pain in my stomach and chest area.  I didn't think too much about it; I just figured it was a hangover.  It got worse as the night wore on.  We decided that it was heartburn.  I got maybe an hour of sleep total that whole night.  I was in so much pain that it literally made me sick.  This was the worst heartburn I'd ever had.  I called into work that morning.  After Zach left for work, I climbed into bed and was able to get about 3 hours of sleep.

When I woke up, I went to the pharmacy to try to get some relief.  There is a pharmacy within walking distance of our apartment so I decided to go there.  Unfortunately, they were closed.  I had to take the bus to find a another one.  I finally found one and when I walked in I showed them the translation for 'heartburn'. The lady reached for a bottle of liquid and made me drink it on the spot.  It only cost $3.  She then left.  I stood there confused for a minute not knowing if she was getting my real medicine or not.  She saw me standing there and motioned that I was finished.  I couldn't believe it!  All I wanted was a bottle of Tums or Pepcid AC.  I walked out of the pharmacy crying because I knew I was not going to get relief from that bottle of liquid.  Besides, it tasted nasty and was making me sick.  I walked back to the bus stop and found another pharmacy.  This one gave me two boxes of medicine that actually looked like they were for heartburn.  The only problem is that I didn't know how many to take or when.

I came home and took the medicine right away.  I had never been in so much pain from just heartburn before.  It was awful!  The medicine actually worked and I was able to get a little more sleep.  Zach came home and we ate some leftovers from Thanksgiving.  I tried to be careful about what I put on my plate but it was no use.  The pain and burning came back even stronger.  I took more medicine but it did not help.  That's when we decided that I needed to go to the hospital.  I just was not getting any relief.  I called one of my co-teachers to help.  She came to our apartment and took us to the ER.  I was given two separate shots for the pain (one shot was in the hip), an antacid, and an IV because I was slightly dehydrated.

The pain finally died off and I didn't feel quite so sick.  At midnight, we left the ER.  The most positive part of this experience was the ER bill.  We only had to pay 36,000 Won (about $36) for the whole ER visit, shots, meds, IV, etc.  I couldn't believe it!  We caught a cab home and I slept like a baby!  I did not go to school today but I plan on returning tomorrow (Wednesday).