The Sickness

For the first time in seven days, dear friends and family, I have enough energy to sit at my computer and tell you what has happened to me over the last week. It's been pretty ugly and excruciatingly painful. Here it goes.

Last Tuesday night after work, Vicky and I ate at a kimbap place that I frequent quite a bit. The food is decent and the ladies there are really nice. Wednesday morning, however, I had an intense pain in my stomach. Vicky said she also wasn't feeling well.

I suffered through Wednesday and went to see my college students Wednesday night. It was hurting a lot, but I hoped it was just temporary.

On Thursday I got up and the pain was unbearable. But I've acquired a certain guilt about the thought of missing work, so I went in anyway. After all, I only had four classes to get through.

But as soon as my day started, I was miserable. I had the chills, I was dizzy and I even got sick in the Jungchul bathroom. And my stomach pain had become full-fledged abdominal nightmare.

So the school officials graciously let me take Friday off, and Vicky took me to the hospital Friday morning. Well, I guess it's safer to call it a clinic. They have tons of clinics for every part of the body here. The good news is you don't end up waiting long. The bad news, as I found out, is they're not always thorough or accurate.

The doctor tapped on my stomach, put a thermometer-type device against my forehead and told me I had a fever and stomach problems. That was what he told Vicky in Korean. It's not just my poor interpretation. He didn't give a real diagnosis of any sort.

Well, I hoped he knew what he was doing. I got some medicine and went home, hoping the day off plus the weekend would get me over this.

But on Saturday, I started realizing his medical analysis was dirt. I was feeling the most intense pain I have ever felt in my entire life. It felt like my stomach and intestines were being twisted around and around, tighter and tighter. It was like they were in the verge of being ripped, but kept just short of that in order to torture me.

Well, Vicky actually went to a real hospital on Saturday because of her sickness. She was feeling just as bad as me, with slightly different symptoms.

On Sunday, my pain was even worse, which I thought wasn't possible. Nothing was open, so I had to wait until Monday to go to a digestive clinic. Sunny and Mr. No took me there Monday. And the doctor was a lot more in depth. He took blood and urine samples, gave me medicine and sent me on my way.

He called later and said I had Enteritis. That is a swelling of the small intestines. You can get it from eating tainted food, which is never out of the question here, considering the level of preparation. And it made sense for where my pain was.

That night, my pain reached its peak and I would rather have been dead than suffered any more. Mr. No came and visited me and said that the doctor told him I would be in a lot of pain because of how severe my sickness had been.

On Tuesday, Sunny took me once again to the clinic. There was some good news this time. On Monday, my white blood count was elevated due to those bad boys fighting the infection. On Tuesday, the count had come back down, meaning the infection was subsiding.

The doctor did an ultrasound just to be safe. He wanted to check my appendix. Fortunately, all was fine.

I woke up today with some pain, but I took some Ibuprofen and went back to sleep. When I woke up again, the pain was mostly gone. As of now I only have a little discomfort left. The people at the school have been great. They've been very supportive and let me take the proper amount of days off for recovery. I can't say enough good things about them.

My doctor at the second clinic was great too. He actually cared about me. He didn't even charge for the ultrasound.

Unfortunately, Vicky is still in the hospital. Doctors first said she has Hepatitis A, but I'm not sure they know what is making her sick. She hopes to be back at work Monday, while I'll head back in tomorrow.

It's been a miserable week in which I've only eaten a few packets of creme soup, some crackers and tons of pills.

I don't wish this sickness on anyone ... EVER. It was absolutely agonizing and terrible. I couldn't even lay still without the terrible pain.

The good news is I'm slowly improving. Hopefully by the weekend I'll be close to 100 percent health. But as long as there isn't a chronic, constant pain, I'll be satisfied.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and support throughout this terrible week. It means a lot to me to have your support. I couldn't have gotten through this without you.