Korean hospitals and the road to recovery!

I know it's a bit late (and it's been a while since my last post), but Happy New Year!  I am making 2014 a year of new adventures, as I will hopefully be back in full adventure-form in a few months.

I have been quite negligent on my blog recently as I've had a lot to sort out in my head.  The final few games of the Broncos regular season and getting my ankle sorted were my two main preoccupations.  Now that my Broncos have clinched the top seed in the playoffs and I've finally had surgery on my ankle, I can focus on getting more blogs out there while I'm off from work recovering this month.

I don't really have anything to compare it to since the last time I had surgery in America I was in kindergarten.  But I would say my experience in the Korean hospital was as pleasant as it could be, considering.  I feel, as well as my doctor, my surgery went well and in three to six months (pushing for three!), I'll be off on painless, never-ending adventures once again!  Roll on spring!

One of the main differences about staying in a hospital in Korea is that a family member stays with you at all times to take care of the basic care-giving that nurses in the US otherwise take care of.  Your family member is there to help you with jaunts to the restroom, changing clothes if assistance is needed, bring you your meals - from what I understand, the hospital catering leaves it outside your room.  You know, just the basic care-giving.  Per each bed in the hospital, there is a cot next to it for your family member to sleep on.  I think, because I was the family-less foreigner, the nurses were doing more for me than what they would normally do.  Lucky for them, after the first two days from my surgery, I was more capable of some things. 

Poor wee poppet!

I feel that the main problem with having a family member guest per each patient is that the rooms become quite crowded...and noisy.  I was unfortunate enough to have as my first two roommates, some serious snorers.  I kid you not, the lady's husband shook the windows when he snored.  And she wasn't much quieter.  So, not much sleep at night!  And I couldn't get sleep during the day since their entire family decided to come and visit all day, every day.  There was between six to ten people by her bed every single day.  That wasn't annoying or anything.  It would be nice if there was a limit on how many people can visit a person at once, and with shorter visiting hours so patients can get rest.  (My second roommates were quite alright! They didn't snore and they gave me some juice...so I gave them some chocolate!)

The food was, well, hospital food.  My first meal was a Korean meal.  I'm not too fond of Korean food, so I'm sure you can imagine how I felt about Korean hospital food.  Lucky enough, the nurse asked me if I would like Western meals, so that was at least more edible for me.

Korean hospital food o_O

Overall, my experience was well enough.  There were no communication problems.  The nurses and doctors spoke enough English. 

5 screws and the bone of a Korean man later...
Now, I'm part Korean!

All that truly matters now is that I'm on the road to a successful recovery.  My boss helped me get home once I was discharged from the hospital.  He couldn't believe how expensive my bill was...I couldn't believe how cheap it was.  I'm sure it would have been three or four times as much had I had the surgery in the US. 

On the road to recovery with a Bronco-blue cast and
United In Orange toes!  Go Broncos!!

Here's to an adventurous 2014...when the spring arrives ;)

Happy Trails!

A grand song about a non-surgical recovery!