Jen Goes Under the Knife in Korea: Jen is Tired

I’m not really physically tired.  In fact, I feel almost as good as new, which sort of adds to the mental tiredness because it begs the question Why Am I Still In Here?  I’m tired of the hard beds. I’m tired of relying on friends or coworkers for food and moral support and to watch my cat.  I’m tired of old, sick Korean people.  I’m tired of a shared bathroom down the hall.  I’m tired of waiting, and I’m tired of not knowing what I’m waiting for.  I’m tired of hearing people vomit.  So yeah, I’m pretty much tired of the hospital.  

My daily schedule looks something like this (and I’ve been here too long if I even have a daily schedule):  

Three times a day - nurse checks vital signs (blood pressure, pulse, and temperature), another nurse brings me my meds (1 pill for nausea, 1 codeine, and sometimes 1 something else I don’t know) and explains every single time that I need to take these 30 minutes after I eat my next meal, another nurse gives me antibiotic shot that is painful and makes me briefly nauseated.  These three things do not happen at the same time.  I would vote for consolidation of efforts, but I think there is a “Vitals Signs” nurse, and a “Antibiotic Administration” nurse, and so on.  I hate the antibiotic shot the most, however, all of these things suck the most in the morning, when they are all performed between the hours of 5am and 7am.  Most annoying part of the whole thing is “Body Weight” which sucks because I have to get out of bed and also the way the nurses say the words “body weight” (bah-dee wait?) with the emphasis and a slight question mark on the word ‘weight’.  Grrr.  

During the day - sometimes someone comes and draws blood, and every day for the past week a lady has come to change the bandages on my back.  This part is not so bad, and it breaks up the boredom.

Evening - someone usually comes to visit me, whether it be friends or coworkers, for a couple of hours, often bringing me food.  I simultaneously look forward to this and dread it because I look and feel so gross now after so many days without a proper shower.   But now that I’ve been here over a week, I do welcome the visits because I really miss human interaction.  So I still don’t really welcome my coteachers, even though some of them do technically speak English, because much like at school, the language barrier is still enough that enjoyable conversations aren’t really possible.  Mostly it’s just them asking me if I feel better (I have said yes to this question since Day 2 in the hospital), who has come to visit me, and what I have eaten.  

The hospital has been much more bearable since last Wednesday, which is when I started sneaking home to use the internet and cook myself some food twice a day.  I usually go in the afternoon for a couple of hours and then come back for a while, then head back home for a couple of hours after dinner.  It’s simple to sneak out of here, and I’d say my apartment is maybe a quarter mile, round trip, from here.  The hospital is located in a busy area with tons of restaurants and shops and the back area opens out onto a street, so I just walk out that way.  Nobody has missed me so far.