Rocketman had a few days where the pain from the kidney stone ranged from mild to pretty bad but with the urologist at Ajou University Hospital telling us that there was nothing he could do, we took it day by day. He had an appointment with the urologist on May 2nd but on the evening of May 1st, the pain took a turn to the unbearable. I tried to get Rocketman to go to the hospital but he chose to wait it out until his appointment the next morning.
He spent the night in horrible pain topped off with dry heaves from the Korean medication that did nothing for the pain but made him very sick. I was pretty upset with him by morning for his reluctance to go back to the hospital. We made our way to the International Clinic where they would take us to his urology appointment. By this time he could barely walk and could not sit. He wanted to wait for his 9:00 am appointment but at that moment, I made the decision to get him into the Emergency Room and get this fixed once and for all (meaning surgery).
Sunny, who was from the International Clinic and she had helped us with everything that had occurred up to that point, immediately called for wheelchair so we could get Rocketman into the Emergency Room which was in another building. Once there, it took over an hour just to get him some pain medication and that was with me bugging nurses and interns. Sunny told us that the urologist would come and see us as soon as he could.
He came hours and hours later and finally agreed to do surgery. Then it was a few hour wait for a room. He finally got into the room about 5:00 pm that night and the surgery would be the next morning.
While we were waiting for his room to become available, we saw a group of people with pens and pads also talking on their cellphones. We also saw security personnel and I thought some VIP was coming in.
It turned out that these were reporters for all the major Korean television stations and they were there because there had been an explosion at a Samsung Plant and that three people were injured and being brought to Ajou University Hospital. Rocketman and I were just shocked that they would let the press into an Emergency Room. They were really in the way of all the staff and it was disgusting. The injured turned out to not have life threatening injuries.
In Korea, before an intravenous antibiotic is given they do a skin test. It's very similar to a TB test where they inject a little antibiotic under the skin (hurts like crazy according to Rocketman) and then they come back in about 15 minutes to see if there is a reaction. If not, the IV is started.
They had a very hard time finding hospital clothes that fit Rocketman. It didn't fit great but it worked. This is Rocketman finally in his room and getting settled in. Surgery was finally going to happen. He was exhausted but happy to think that the agony would soon be over ... or so we thought.
No comments:
Post a Comment