All this week I have been feeling a bit off. It feels to me like the high sodium content of Korean food is aggravating my meniere's. This is the condition I have which leads to bouts of vertigo and vomiting among other things. It is not pleasant under normal circumstances, but is downright frightening when it happens in a foreign country, especially in a country like Korea where I cannot speak the language.
I've been taking every precaution I could think of, but since I have to eat and have no kitchen there weren't many options as far as the food went. Instead, I've had to take meclizine, an anti-vertigo drug, along with my normal doses of betahistine, which I use to control the meniere's. The meclizine makes me a little sleepy, but it keeps me from getting full-blown vertigo.
Well, tonight all of the trainers were supposed to go to some Mexican Restaurant downtown for our final dinner. I honestly wasn't looking forward to it. Maybe I am anti-social, but I haven't enjoyed much of the time I have spent with the other trainers. Most of them are young and kind of immature, and some of them are downright obnoxious. I prefer smaller groups anyway, and the thought of going out to eat and drink with a group of 8 Americans didn't appeal to me a whole lot.
So, last night while I was stressing about possibly getting dizzy in front of my class, I decided that tonight would be the best night for me to try to do something about the meniere's.
When I got to school today I asked Jenny if she could recommend an acupuncturist. She said she knew a good one. But then she turned the task over to the assistants, Jin and Jung (I've been calling him Jang, but actually it's Jung and he pronounces it Chung...)
After my class I went down to the office and Jin told me he would take me to an acupuncturist. He asked if I could wait until 4:30. It was a little after 3:30
So I sat down in the office and finished my journals and tried to ignore the pandemonium around me as the program wound down to its final days.
All of the trainers were supposed to create "learning statements" for our homeroom students. Basically these are certificates but they have a little paragraph about the progress of the learners. It was a chore, and I didn't really understand how to do it, but I got mine drafted on Monday and finished them up on Tuesday, checked them Wednesday and sent them in this morning (Thursday). The other trainers apparently didn't think about the fact that they needed to be given to the students tomorrow and were all rushing around like crazy trying to finish them because Jenny wanted them by the end of the day today.
It's just another reason why Jenny needs a program coordinator - to remind people of things like this that she just takes for granted people will understand. The only reason mine were done so early was because I wanted to get them out of the way.
So, I sat there reading my students' journals (which were really, really wonderful) while all of this activity swirled around me - trainers running around like crazy, and Jin and Jung chasing people down to sign the statements or to correct errors after they printed them out.
Finally at 4:30, we left.
The acupunturist was not far from campus, across the street from where I get my morning kim bap and a few doors down from Korea Traditional Rose Noodle - the noodle shop that does not serve rose noodles. Jin confirmed that Rose Noodle is in fact just the name of the restaurant. I was chuckling to myself as I remembered me and Sonja trying to communicate that we wanted "rose noodles" when no such thing exists!!!
The acupuncture office smelled of moxa and chinese herbs when we entered. We took off our shoes and put on slippers and dropped our umbrellas in a little bucket by the door (it was not raining but we have a typhoon passing through the region). There was a big wall of small drawers with chinese writing on them and some jars with little herbal things like bark, shells, and who knows what else.
The receptionist was a young woman dressed kind of like a nurse who had very white pasty make-up plastered all over her face. She looked a little ghostly. I think she got even paler when she saw me. She wasn't sure what to do. She told Jin they never did acupuncture on a foreigner before. I told him my body worked just like everyone else's. He said it was because Koreans use insurance and she wasn't sure how to charge me. I suggested cash.
After she ran away and returned, she had me write my name on a little card and we sat down and waited. She continued to laugh nervously and cover her mouth, and another woman, dressed in the same way (without the pasty white make-up) also ran back and forth and chuckled from time to time. I was feeling a bit too off to be bothered by their immature behavior. I mean, come on! I thought the Japanese were the only ones who pulled this stupid shit!
Finally we were ushered into a little office where the master sat. The acupuncturist was a youngish guy who seemed very kind and didn't laugh nervously when he saw me. Jin explained my problem and doc (I can't keep writing "the acupuncturist") asked him questions which Jin translated to me.
Finally the questions stopped and he started explaining how Chinese medicine works. Jin was very good at summarizing this lengthy explanation and I just wanted to say "treat me already" because his explaining was making me dizzy!
Jin translated the explanation that in Western medicine they treat the symptom but in Oriental medicine they treat the root causes, and even though it was my ear that was bothering me, the cause may lie elsewhere. I knew that and was grateful for the reminder, but I really just wanted a treatment.
After more long-winded explaining, I was led to a little bed where he had me put my hands on my chest and then he grabbed them and kind of massaged them and then grabbed my wrist to take my pulses. He then put a few needles in me and asked me to rate how bad the ringing was on a scale of 1-10, saying 10 was the level it was when I first came in. I gave it a seven. He stuck more needles in and asked me again. I gave it a 6. And amazingly, the ringing went down bit by bit until finally, it was a 4.
I was left there to rest and in about 15 minutes a little alarm bell rang and the nurse came to remove my needles. She was not laughing at this point.
Back we went to the master's office where he told Jin what he had done - stomach, spleen, kidney, etc., and once again explained the philosophy behind Chinese medicine (I don't think he called it Chinese). Jin was having a hard time explaining some concepts but he did pretty well. I understood most of what he was saying because I've had acupuncture before and studied Chinese medical theories a bit. He was assuming I didn't know anything, and didn't connect the dots with me seeking acupuncture in the first place. I know how it works and I know it does work with the meniere's where Western medicine fails.
He told me (through Jin) that I should come back to Korea to get treatment because Korean doctors (meaning acupuncturists) are the best and they might be able to cure the meniere's. Hmmm....
Finally, we were allowed to go pay. I was charged 22,000 won (about $20 US or less) - much less than I would pay without insurance in the US, and even with insurance, I pay $10 (I am assuming for Koreans it is free with insurance) and they only let me get it for muscular/skeletal issues (I guess the big pharma companies want to make sure we have to take their toxic medications and want to limit our options).
I went back to school and then went to the samgyetang restaurant on the main street for a bowl of steaming chicken soup stuffed with rice, ginseng and chestnuts. It is supposed to be very fortifying and I felt like I needed it as an extra precaution.
Now my ear feels full, like I just went swimming, but I feel pretty balanced and stable. From time to time it pops, which is a good thing, it means fluid is draining. I'm really glad I didn't go out with everyone because noise is very annoying, especially when I am nearing an attack, and those guys can be really noisy.
I just got a skype call from Sonja who just got back from the Holy Grill - she said the crowd of trainers was very noisy and got pretty drunk. When she left most of them were still drinking. She was sorry she went.
I'm really glad I had acupunture and didn't go. The universe works in mysterious ways.
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