Well, I’m sprung! 
What follows is the low-down on the whole experience to date. More, of course, will follow later as I must return to the hospital on Monday for a quick look-over and then on the 22nd of this month for the cast to go away.
Well, I was chasing down the delivery dude who just left via the back door on the 1st floor of my school. (My supervising co-teacher automatically said, “Nope, that package doesn’t belong to anyone here” without looking and it was my turn to go to the admin office for another issue so I followed after the dude.) In South Korea, those are the doors that front onto the playground. Well, schools are also some of the very, very few places in this country which have even a token approach to disabled access. Also, one must wear indoor slippers (as you will soon see, very aptly named) while in the school building.
So, I go a little too fast and slipped right where the little wheelchair ramp turns into a little step for those who don’t need wheelchairs. Of course, I didn’t just slide the whole foot over, but rather a bit more than half of the right foot (long ways) was in thin air while the rest of the foot was on the firm floor. That means the foot twisted under and my body weight caused the metatarsus to break clean in half like snapping a pencil in half.
The school maintenance man and the school secretary helped me to the Nurse’s office, conveniently on the first floor. She checked it out and said, “We need to go the hospital.” Then she drove me there.
The doctor was very cool–and a bit of a card. While we were waiting for the operating room to be available, I noticed I was sitting in front of three posters describing the doctors’ qualifications. The one working on me was a surgeon in the South Korean Navy during his military service. I mentioned that was interesting as I’m also Navy. He then said, “Oh, in that case, I will do a good job on your foot!”
They gave me a spinal block and then a general anasthetic. I woke up about two hours later with three pins in my foot and a half-cast. For the first week and a half, the dressing was changed every day and I also had a steady IV drip, something called Hartmann Solution. After that time passed, I only had to have the drip during the day–one bag full. Also, the dressing was changed every other day. About a week ago, no more IV drip. I was very happy about that as I was beginning to look like I’d been mainlining.
Last Friday, the doctor removed one pin. It hurt like blazes. Luckily, it didn’t hurt that long. The doctor promised to give me a local anasthetic for removing the other two pins but also said, “It really won’t do any good, though, as you’ll still feel it.” He came through on the promise and gave me a local this morning. When he removed one pin this morning it hurt a lot but not as bad as the last time. I didn’t even feel the last pin coming out today. The doctor also told me that I really didn’t need the anasthesia but he used it to calm me down. Good choice! I was starting to freak out thanks to the memory of Friday’s pain.
On a funny note, even the nurses here are shy. When the operating room nurse today was putting the EKG leads on, I started to open my pajama shirt and she blushed! What the do is stick the lead through the gap between the buttons. Also of interest is that one of the nurses there is male. I didn’t even know there were any male nurses in this country.
Now, I have a cast that comes up to just below my knee. It doesn’t have that cool rubber pod on the bottom. Instead, I have to wear a funnly little hospital boot over it. I’m not supposed to put any pressure on other than the heel so I’m still on crutches. Maybe next week, it’ll be better and I can walk like a biped again. When the doctor came to see me during rounds this morning, he told me that it was definite that the pins would come out and that I could go home. I asked him if it would be okay for me to go to Daegu on Saturday and Hong Kong next week. His reply was, “Why wouldn’t it be okay?” As it turns out, I can’t go to Daegu anyway but I’m still debating the Hong Kong trip.
The National Health Insurance paid about half of the surgery cost and I had to pay the rest and also pay for the food I consumed and some . Today’s bill came to a total of 2,834,080 South Korean Won, of which I had to pay 1,329,700 South Korean Won. Today’s exchange rate makes that US$1,309.60. Great. That’s how much I get for my retirement pay.
All the nurses there today told me they were surprised at how many people came to visit me. Almost everyone was from my ward. I’m currently the 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric of a Korean-speaking ward. Just about every night, someone from the ward came to see me in the hospital. Last night, we had our weekly Bishopric meeting in the hospital room!
Could have been worse. At least I didn’t snap the ankle!
I learned a few things about life in a Korean hospital. If you ever come to Korea, be prepared with the following:
[ul][li]Have someone bring you a box of fiber drinks (they’re kind of popular here & that’s the name of them); you will not get any fiber in the hospital food.[/li][li]Also have someone bring you a bunch of bottles of fruit juice. Again, you won’t get any from the hospital food. Luckily, it’s a big tradition here to take a box of them to the patient when visiting.[/li][li]Go ahead and put a chopstick/spoon travel set in your backpack. You have to buy one at the hospital otherwise! [/li][li]Also have someone bring you: towel, washrag, soap, shampoo, toilet paper, and wet-wipes (called “mul-tee-shu” here)![/ul][/li]
Honestly, though, everyone at the hospital was incredibly nice. I was the only foreigner there for my entire stay and sometimes my Korean and the nurses’ English weren’t up to snuff but we all managed very well anyway.
And thank Heaven for the National Health Insurance here! That would’ve made a huge dent in my savings. Not like the grand I had to pay didn’t either.
