Korean eye doctors kick ass.
I can find no other way to accurately explain how I currently feel about Korean doctors in general and Korean eye doctors in particular. But before I get into my love for doctors in Korea, let me explain what brings me to this conclusion.
This past Friday I had a 회식(hoeshik) or company dinner gathering. These are gatherings that happen intermittently in Korean companies and usually involve dinner, lots of drinks, karaoke, and lots of drinks. The cool thing at my company is that they rarely happen (at some companies they happen very often and are completely mandatory), but when they do, they are very fun. Also, since I haven’t been drinking at all lately, it was a good chance to get out and grab a few cold ones with my team who, due to their work load, have been unable to converse with me in any detail lately about anything unrelated to work.
So after work Friday we went to a little meat restaurant called Mani. Our entire team is comprised of 10 people of varying ages, backgrounds and temperaments but we all came together for one purpose that night, to have fun. Since my immediate team member, lets call her Tee for intensive purposes, hasn’t been able to do anything but work lately, she was hell bent on drinking soju and lots of it. Of course being the only guy there at the time because my bosses hadn’t arrived yet, I had to match the girls in shots of soju and before I knew it, 4 bottles were gone in 25 minutes. Then the bosses arrived and the mandatory group drinking began. 헉.
So after a polishing off a few more bottles I started to realize that since I haven’t been drinking at all lately and following a pretty healthy lifestyle, my tolerance had fallen substantially and I was starting to get pretty damn tipsy. After we finished there, we went to karaoke where the bosses had to (of course) order a huge bottle of whiskey. 헉2
Now during this whole debacle, I had been trying to escape to Itaewon to Joel’s goodbye party because I wanted to see him off before he left that Sunday. As much as I tried, the bosses were like “Ah sure, go ahead, right after this shot” which was usually followed by “Oh, and this shot here too”. By the time I finally got to leave, I was so drunk that I could barely walk straight. I looked at my clock and it was a quarter till 11pm. I figured that since I had eaten, I would be able to go home real quick and catch a quick nap before I would go and meet Joel and everyone by like 12:30 or so. It sounded so good in my mind at the moment. Drunken-Plan-Action-Man, Away!
I arrived at my door around 11:10 or so and dug around in my pockets for my house key. Then a revelation struck me as my memories faded back to the karaoke room.
*clouds*
*my friend Jay asking to borrow my bottle opener*
*bottle opener attached to house key ring*
*my hand giving Jay my bottle opener/house key*
*clouds*
When I finally realized where my damn keys were, I sat down on the stairs right in front of my door to figure out what to do. Then I took a nap. A long one. With my damn contacts in my eyes still…
So I awoke with a start at about 3:30am, eyes burning like Richard Pryor running down the street. It took me awhile to gather my thoughts but I realized I was sober again and laying on the stairs in front of my door. I hurried down to meet Joel before he went in and managed to stay out for a bit longer before crashing out at a friend’s house. The next day, my eyes looked like someone colored them with red magic marker and they burned horribly. So I pretty much stayed in Saturday and Sunday nursing my poor eyes.
Finally on Monday I could stand it no longer and made the mad dash to the eye doctor down the street from work. I waited for 5 minutes and the doctor sat me down, looked at me and said “Ah, sleeping in your contacts, eh?” as he proceeded to put drops in my eyes. 30 seconds later, my eyes were white and didn’t hurt at all. I was back in the office in 25 minutes. The cost for all of this? For two doctor visits, three examinations, and prescription, 8000 won or about 8 dollars. EIGHT DOLLARS. Plus the entire time I spent there was a grand total of about 9 minutes. As I walked back to the office, I started thinking, how much would this have cost me in both time and money, back in the States? I shudder to think about it.
I sit here and type this with white, pain-free eyes and profess my love for Korean eye doctors. You guys kick some serious ass.
Oh, and this reminds me of my 5 dollar wisdom tooth removal I had about a year ago. So you Korean dentists out there, you kick ass too.
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5 comments:
It cost me $20.00 when I had chemical burns in both my eyes. My presciptions were free and I had 3 different ones tht I had to use 3 times a day. But I had to go everyday for the first 10 days, weekends not included. I had banages on my eyes for those days. Then after the 10 days I had to go every other day for the next week. The following week I had to go 2 times a week for the next 3 weeks. After the 3 weeks I had to go back a month later for my final visit. I almost needed to have a cornia transplant for both my eyes. Luckily the 2 of the eye drops that I had to use were steroids worked. I was off of work for just over 2 months.Insurance is a good thing especially if you have good insurance. But you probably don't need insurance there so I guess it cost me more then $20.00.
HAHA. I remember that! That was a long time ago. I remember you rolling around in your bed like a zombie for all those weeks with your head bandaged. I think I kept asking mom or grandma "Is she going to die? 'cause she sure sounds like it."
Thinking about it now though, I can somewhat imagine the pain that must of been. The little cornea infection I had was driving me nuts with the constant piercing pain so I can imagine chemical burns would have made me dig out my eyeballs with a spatula. Props for not going that route.
Oh, and actually, I had insurance. That probably cut the cost somewhat but I don't think it would have cost much more.
Couldn't open my eyes so digging them out with a spatula wasn't an option. Ripping them out through my nose would of been less painful.
glad your oculars are intact and working...just curious of the whereabout of your house keys/bottle opener??....obviously you got them back...i guess what goes around comes around...i remember the infamous lighter thief(of course unintentional on your part)....i can see clearly now bi-clops!
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