the pediatrician

the day finally came when i had to take one of the kids to the doctor and on this occasion it was Addison. she has had a very runny nose lately and isn't sleeping well so i decided to make sure there was no underlying infection. luckily i have friends who have children here because rick's company had suggested i take the kids to the foreigners clinic down the street. the foreigner's clinic is not that foreign to me because when rick and i first came, we got sick and i went there for medical attention.
the clinic is nestled in between stores, bars, restaurants and the like on the main road out of town which some people call 14. it literally reads "the foreigner's clinic" so you really cant miss it. i was instructed to get there at 10 am when they open or i would wait all day. the clinic is connected to a small hospital of some sort that is on the top floor of (of course) a high rise building. i know this is because people come in and out of the elevator that is located inside the clinic hooked to iv poles and just stroll around. they go walking down the street, talking on cell phones, shopping, etc... we have even been told not to be surprised when you go into a bar and there are people with the iv poles in there. rick always says "its something i cant get used to, the sight of the people with the poles" . it makes it look like some sort of disaster has occurred and medical care is just all over the place. I'm not sure the thought process that goes along with it, is it "i have time on lunch, i think i could use an IV today, alittle pick me up.."
anyway, i was told that they spoke American at the clinic and the care was good. when i went, i had Ethan and Addison with me and basically wouldn't let Ethan touch anything and kept the shade on Addison's stroller covered. it didn't look like a clinic, they did not speak English and it was packed with people who were sick standing way too close to each other. i started thinking about how different people have different ideas of what makes medical care good. is it good because it is fast. is it good because it is cheap? my idea of good medical care is way more complex than that but i decided to stick it out anyway, i was pretty sick and we were already there.
when we were called into a little examination type room by a young Korean girl who had a hard time pronouncing my name, it looked like something from the 50's and it was clear that OSHA regulations were not followed here. no gloves, no hand washing and I'm pretty sure all of the instruments were used back to back on patients. the doctor sat behind a desk and you are more or less presented to him. this is Lynn Walker, then some talk in Korean with a motion to sit down on an office type chair. the doctor was not a happy looking man, spoke very little English asked me a few questions then had the assistant take my temperature. that was my good medical care. he said something like " no antibiotics or antivirals. pills and a shot". to which i replied "no shot" and he said "OK" and they directed me out. i paid at the desk with a credit card (we had gotten there the day before so i had no money or how to convert yet) and walked out with a Korean prescription for who knows what and was pointed past the iv pole patients on the street to a bldg 2 doors down (next to "the love house" bar) which i understood to possibly be a small pharmacy. Fortunately , the pharmacist was a happy Korean man who spoke and wrote some English. he explained that for 5 dollars i had received some Tylenol, an antihistamine and a vitamin to be taken for 3 days conveniently packaged in little bags by day (which i cant read). i took them, stayed sick and basically had to wait for the illness to run its course. so ,needless to say, very pleased that i didn't have to take Addison to the grumpy Korean doctor in the dirty clinic.

the pediatrician's office, on the other hand, was a happy place, well equip with kids toys, very organized and like walking into a huge birthday party because of the amount of children there and the noise. it was so loud i felt overstimulated. Addison was absolutely delighted. she loves loud kids (wonder why) and thought this was great even though her nose was running and she looked flushed. the nursing assistant spoke alittle English and was good at getting the answers she needed by having me point to things. you don't really realize how a language barrier can effect your care until you actually come across it. like your birth date. i wrote out 4-6-09 for Addison and they did not understand it. they put their month/day/year in a different order so they didn't know what i meant. she just pulled out a calendar and I pointed. much more efficient. Made me think of all the times at work i have done therapy on non English speaking patients. she also let me know when i would be called since pronouncing Addison in Korean may or may not be decipherable to me so that was helpful. i liked the pediatrician. he had a smile on his face the whole time and had small delicate hands like a woman. he used hand santitizer and cleaned his equipment. he was very gentle with Addison and she liked him too even when he took out this medieval looking torture instrument to examine her ears with. he said she had a common cold, ears were clear, little cough but prescribed some medicine to help her sleep so she would get better. i felt relieved but had figured it was probably the case. the main reason i took her was to get some experience with the doctor on a non urgent basis so if i needed him in the future i would be prepared. i left happy and the nurse gave me a card so Addison's chart would be easy for them to find. all and all, a good experience. makes me worry less about the future.

when we left i took the presciption to the pharmacy with the English speaking pharmacist but he said he didn't have what i needed and instructed me to a pharmacy that would. i was disappointed because i feel comfortable with him but being a little pharmacy, i can see how he might not carry everything. so i went to the big pharmacy and discovered that no one there speaks any English at all. i waited awhile for the script and when i got it, the pharmacist struggled to explain to me but couldn't. he kept showing me this little spoon and saying 5 ccs, no 2.5 ccs 3 times. he had given me 2 bottles of different colored liquids and 6 packets of some white powder. same, same but different right? i left feeling dazed and felt i had wasted my time because i didn't know what it was. rick was convinced that we could translate the script using the iPhone. ever since he came home, Addison has been sleeping with us because she's sick. she likes to poke her daddy and pull on his nose while he sleeps. needless to say, rick is looking for her to get better for many reasons.

Problems with translation: Korean letters are symbols and are very complicated because they don't just read left to right, they also stack on top of each other ,which we found out while trying to translate. There's rick and i ,laying on our stomachs on the bed trying to translate what we are suppose to give our daughter. this is what we came up. "edisue" means Addison. we are suppose to give edisue something in the morning, afternoon and night. not much else is written. what could it be? the liquid, the powder, which liquid, who knows? i had to the break the news to rick that edisue was not taking the cocaine looking powder medicine mixed with the red and yellow liquid without alot more explaination.

so after dropping Ethan off at school, i visited my friend the English speaking pharmacist. he is my most important go to man right now, the man who can help keep the kids healthy. i brought him the goods in a plastic baggie and said "i don't know what this is or how to use it, its for the baby, can you help me?" he explained to me that they were suppose to write the prescription name and dosage on the bag for me and he didn't know what they gave me. the pharmacy number was on the bag so he called them and had them look it up on the computer. he had a hard time telling me what the white powder was but said the yellow is an antihistamine to dry up the runny nose, the red is cough medicine (although she has no cough) after alot of struggling, the basic idea of what the powder is is that it is for the small intestine to promote a healthy digestive tract due to possible bacteria stemming from the cold in her nose. its like activia in powder form i guess. go figure huh? anyway, the powder and cough medicine were put aside and i am researching whether or not the antihistamine would be a good idea or not. before i left, i thanked the pharmacist profusely which made him smile and laugh (all Korean men smile and laugh at me, i am very funny here) and he said, this is hard for you, taking care of your kids in Korea? i just thought, you have no idea.