I’ve recently spent a week in the hospital in Korea. I had been to the doctor in Korea, but never in the hospital. It was definitely an experience I will never forget. Being miles away from home in a foreign country on your own can be challenging let alone to be in the hospital with one person who speaks English. Fortunately that was the doctor in my case. He spoke English very well actually and understood how serious my condition was.

I had been to a different hospital before and they had sent me home with some medicine knowing I had severe pneumonia, but I didn’t get better. If anything I felt way worse. So I was glad this doctor knew how serious this was and knew the right things to do.

  * All my medicine =/

The first day I came in they did urine test, took x-rays, ct scan, and a culture test for the mucus I had been coughing up. I was diagnosed with severe bacterial pneumonia and admitted for treatment. I’ve never been admitted in the hospital and I don’t sit still for long in most cases. So being bound down by IV’s and tubes was very very frustrating.

Over the next few days my friends boss Alice who had brought me for treatment in the first place came to check on me. She brought me home cooked food, and asked if I needed anything. This woman had never met me a day before in her life, but wanted to help me. She asked what I wanted to eat, came daily to visit me, communicated with the doctor for me, and checked me out to drive me home. Now that is a compassionate, caring, selfless person who I owe nothing  but thankfulness to. I will never forget the way she treated me and the time she took out of her life to take care of me. I’m very lucky to have met someone so generous.

While being in the hospital I can’t begin to tell you the thoughts running through my head. Then I saw a quote as I was scrolling through Pinterest bored out of my mind. A big sucker for quotes if you haven’t noticed. Anyways this quote said “Some people would love to have your bad days.” It hit me pretty hard. I thought about it and in most cases I do try to stay positive, but I was feeling very agitated. I had to miss more work, we don’t have sick days to take, my pay was being cut each day I miss. There’s nothing to do when you get that sick. It takes rest and medicine. So yeah I was in the hospital annoyed because I couldn’t move or go anywhere. Then I thought “You know I don’t have it that bad.” There is no way I could go to the hospital in America with no insurance and pay a grand to stay in the hospital and get treatment for a week. People have it worse off than me so the quote was a slap or wake up call that I didn’t have it that bad after all. I am more important than the job and it’s important to be healthy. I am fortunate enough to be able to work and have no serious issues besides this little set back.

So I took the days ahead in stride and used what Korean I do know to become friends with my roommates. The hospitals in Korea are very different from those in America. They are set up like wards with eight beds to a room. There’s a toilet and sink in the room, but you must bring your own toilet paper and soap if you want to wash your hands. The shower is down the hall but you must bring your own towels, shampoo, soap, ect. This made me feel like the hospitals in America were more like hotels! I had never seen a hospital like this before. You think of a hospital and would generally think of the smell of rubbing alcohol, rubber gloves, heart rate monitors, and definitely soap. Being a health teacher those are the thoughts that go through my mind anyways. Well they didn’t ever wear gloves to give me shots or change my IV tubes. They didn’t have the complex machines that keep track of your heart rate and pulse. They came in every couple of hours to check my blood pressure with a little hand-held machine, and checked my temperature. It was basic and while not wearing gloves bothered me I didn’t have the energy to really be moved around to a different place. I took the care they gave me and was so grateful they were kind and gentle.

Now I’ve heard that body language and actions can speak louder than words, but I had never noticed it directly. Yeah maybe the occasional nice smile or head nod to someone, but nothing too serious. I can now say that body language can make all the difference in the world. I was in a room with eight other patients. I would nod or smile to them, but really didn’t feel like communicating with them and wanted to sleep. Once I started feeling better and staying awake longer I tried to talked to them a little. One day one of the girls in my room had visitors. They invited me over to her bed to hang out. Hang out as much as you could in a hospital bed with both people having IV’s haha. They proceeded to ask me if I was a student, where I was from, and why I chose Korea. We had a conversation for about an hour.

Everyone had snacks in the room and each of them came over to share pieces of their apples, strawberries, and home remedy tea leaves. The gesture of sharing is a big deal in Korea whether it be a piece of an apple or an ice cream cone. Everyone shares and I like that idea. So when I got snacks brought to me from friends I would give them some. They were very appreciative of anything I tried to help with or share with them. There was one lady who was a little older in the room who became my friend. She spoke no English and would try to talk to me. I just stared at her and said I don’t know. She then would act out what she was trying to tell me and I started putting together the pieces. Just her body language showed me she cared and wanted to help me. She would bring me cups of warm water when I was coughing really bad in the mornings, and act out coughing and drinking motions. She got me an extra blanket from the nurse because the room was cold. She saw me crying one morning out of frustration and came over and gave me a hug. She said something in Korean and held my hand. Later on that day I had it translated. She was telling me she was very sorry I was sad and her heart hurt to see me crying. It was nice how caring she was even though we didn’t speak the same language. I enjoyed the time spent with her in the hospital.

The day I was leaving I was packed up all my left over snacks and said share with the room. She asked me why and I motioned I had very many by stretching out my arms. She smile and took them I have no doubt that she will share with everyone. I proceeded to go down the hall to shower and came back with wet hair. She touched my hair and said “No no” and left. I just plopped down on my bed and laid there. Here she comes back with a hair dryer she went to find and plugged it in and started to blow dry my hair! I sat there for a second and was like ummmm okay. It was kind of funny. Then I got out my phone and started typing in Google translate . I told her thank you for all the help she gave me. Then I handed her the phone and switched it from Korean to English. She wrote back to tell me I should eat a lot to get better. Then we sat there saying things back and forth for the next hour. Her name Lee Ja Young and she has two sons. She showed pictures of her sons and her best selfies that she had taken. We exchanged numbers and I will try to keep in contact with her.

Even though I didn’t get proper treatment at the first hospital, and was skeptical of this one in the beginning it has taught me a couple of things. Don’t let one bad experience ruin it for your other experiences. Not only talking about hospitals, but life in general. There are others options and things to try. The other thing is bad days. Like the quote stated. “Someone would love to have your bad day.” Your going to have bad days, but things could always be worse. Your not the first person to go through what ever it may be your going through. Take the bad days as they come. They will pass and you’ll have other good days to look forward to or reflect upon. After all if we didn’t have the bad days we wouldn’t be able to appreciate the good ones.

So that is a prime example of how your body language and actions can make all the difference in the world to a complete stranger. I am so blessed to have such good friends in Korea. Not a day went by that I didn’t have at least one visitor.That says a lot about the people in your life. They brought me meals, towels, toiletries, books, snacks, family members that were in Korea visiting, pens, paper, and even took off my long over due toe nail polish! Even on days when nothing was brought themselves were enough. Being in the hospital can be lonely, boring, and sad at times. If there’s one thing ,  I can’t say I went without by any means. Thanks to each and every one of you that came to see me, text to check on me, wrote to me on Facebook to keep in touch, and helped me get through this rough time. I will always remember your thoughtfulness! Actions ……remember your actions. Thanks again for reading and following my blog!