This veritable "super-cold" first laid into me last Friday, slowing me down with an insufferable amount of fatigue. My lethargy only became more pronounced as the weekend passed and come Monday I found myself hacking and coughing. I spent a significant part of my workday with my head on my desk sleeping, another first for me. I wish I could say I took a certain amount of satisfaction from sleeping on the clock, but the course of my Monday only saw an increase in the severity of my symptoms. These of course were exacerbated by the fact that I had agreed to stay late to teach two extra classes with Seoseok High School, which turned out to be a catastrophe in its own right (details on that fiasco later).
By the time I slinked back to my apartment I was suffering chills and quickly diagnosed myself with a fever. Doing as I often did back home in the face of such ailments I fired up the heat, put on a sweatshirt with my pjs, and put to my bed with a roll of paper towels and a lot of water. In my experience, a long night of sleep and sweat is often enough to kick the common cold out of residence. Alas, Korean colds seem to be of sterner stuff. I awoke with aches, chills, and not the slightest relief from my sore throat and cough. Weak and dejected, I texted my co-teacher with the unfortunate news that I would be unable to work. The remainder of my Tuesday was lost in a haze of naps, reading, and bad television streamed over my laptop.
Wednesday arose with only slight improvement, whilst debating whether or not I could work from the comfort of my blankets I received a call from my co-teacher, establishing whether or not I was still amongst the living. It was that moment I decided I had waited long enough to try to weather this thing au naturale, and told him I would hit up a local doctor.
After a little research (which consisted of texting my coordinator about where to find a doctor) I found myself in the local pediatric clinic in Hongcheon. Though the doctor did speak a little English I was disappointed to know I'd been waylaid by what he diagnosed as "common cold." Having spent lots of time on the internet over the past few days I had run my symptoms through a series of websites. In doing so I'd established that I was likely suffering from one of the following illnesses in descending order:
Bronchitis,
Flu,
Viral Pharyngitis
Mold Sickness,
and
Malaria
Interestingly enough, all these diseases share the same basic symptoms: cough, sore throat, headache, body ache, fever, chills, and fatigue. Guess how many of them I've had in the past week? Yeah, not pretty. It's moment's like these that I wonder if there haven't been an explosion of people suffering hypochondria in the wake of such websites as Web MD....
In any case, the doc wrote me a
prescription which I had filled by the pharmacy next door. I'd enjoyed
the effects of over the counter medicines before, but never
prescriptions. Koreans don't fuck around when it comes to prescribing
drugs. I must have been given 30 pills! And I'd only been given 3 DAYS
worth of medicine! Check it out!
 |
| Needless to say I am wary of which pills do what.... |
Though I am often suspicious of modern medicines, I must confess that I did feel better almost immediately. I managed to return to work on Thursday and fumble my way through my lessons on Thursday and Friday.
Alas, my medication regime is over but I am not yet well. I awoke today with a profound sense of lethargy and was unable to work up the nerve to rise from my bed for the better part of an hour. In fact, all I've wanted to do today is lay in bed and sleep. Not that I'm sleepy, I just have no energy. This is likely the after-effects of having a late Friday night, but I am wondering if my cold is about to make a encore performance on my immune system. I sincerely hope not, but I've never successfully willed myself into good health as of yet. I'll have to keep close watch of my health over the next few weeks to figure out if I really am fighting a cold or something more serious. I've at least cleaned all the mold from my apartment (having successfully ripped out a quarter of my apartment's wallpaper). Hopefully, that will be the last of it... but optimism is ill suited in matters of mold.
In other news, Happy St. Patrick's Day! Wear green, drink beer, and be in good spirits!
Cheers!
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