To Hell and Back - Our Vacation in South Korea

We were so excited to be visiting South Korea for a vacation. It had been just over a year since we left but we both missed it terribly. We flew out Thursday, April 18th and we were to return Saturday, May 4th. As the plane landed in Incheon, we looked at each other and smiled with joy that that we were in the land we love so much and with relief that the 22 hours of travel would be over in a few short hours.

The first two days I found myself surprising ill with jet lag which not only upset my stomach but also made my intestines irritated. It was not fun and we stayed around Suwon where we were going to spend the bulk of our vacation anyway.

On Sunday, we traveled to our old neighborhood and ate lunch at our favorite place for buddae jjigae, Nolboo. We used to visit this restaurant every Sunday and were well know by the staff especially by one waitress. If she wanted to talk to us, she would call her sister in Daegu who would translate for her.

We also missed the banchan (side dishes you get with your meals). Oh, they were so good - especially the kimchi.

I had never gotten a picture with our favorite girl so I made sure that Rocketman took one this time.

Then we took the 7770 bus to the Hongdae area of Seoul. I wanted to go to the Hope Market where artists sell their creations every Sunday from 1-5 near the university. I loved seeing all the street food. It was like saying "hello" to an old friend.

                   The art around Hongdae is pretty cool. You can find it in all sorts of places.

                                                                          Including stairs.

                                                         Love this shop sign.

This was the last day before all hell broke loose. At 2:00am Rocketman woke to unspeakable pain in his right quadrant. He didn't wake me until 5am when it was unbearable.  I woke shocked and stunned to his words, "we need to get to the Emergency Room immediately." I quickly dressed and was able to flag a taxi. We went to Ajou University Hospital because we had been there before and had wonderful treatment and the biggest thing was that a lot of the staff (doctors) spoke and understood English.

It seemed like forever before he was treated even though they put him in a bed almost right away. A CT scan and x-ray showed a kidney stone in his right ureter. This story is long with lots of turns and twists but we ended up checking Rocketman out of the hospital against doctor's orders on May 6th and flying home on May 8th. He saw a urologist here who is going to perform surgery on him to remove and repair the damage that was done by the doctor in South Korea.

It has been some of the darkest days we have ever known and we are both mentally and physically (Rocketman) drained from what happened. I will go into detail about that in future blog posts. We have now started a battle with our insurance companies about coverage. The total bill was $14,000.00 and it was out of network which meant I was to call during business hours to get an ok. This was not done because we had no phone and the only way we were in touch with the U.S. was through email and Facebook messaging. I've been told we could get reimbursed 55% - 80% or possibly not at all. We spent hours today copying the 43 pages of medical records and matching up our VISA charges to specific medical bills.  We are mailing the packet tomorrow and will see what the insurance company does with it.

So stay tuned.