Top Hospital Moments

I’ll admit that parts of my 11-day adventure at Asan Hospital (Korea’s biggest clinic) were unpleasant but the majority of it, thanks to my friends, was actually totally fine…parts of it were even downright enjoyable.

Here are the moments that I remember making me smile the most:

• The original diagnosis -- I was so happy to know what was wrong that I just had to dance a little on my IV pole.

• The first official conversation with the doctor…
• Doctor: “You’re going to have to stay here for5-7 days.”
• Me: “Well…….fuck.”
• Doctor: “Fuuuuuck.”

• Every time the doctors drew me a diagram of what was going on inside of me, they drew the liver, the stomach, the gallbladder and the pancreas, etc. They always followed this up by crossing off the gallbladder and reminding me that I didn’t have one anymore. Yes, I know.

• My friend, Nicole, walking under my IV one night:
• “Oh…your food got me in the head.”

• When switching rooms...
• Nurse: “Did you check the fridge?”
• Me: “Umm….I haven’t been allowed to eat since I got here.”

• While the nurse tried to put in my millionth IV…
• Nurse: “Make a fist.”
• (I stare at her blankly.) 
• Nurse: “…Oh, you can’t.” 
• ^^(I already had another IV in my hand on that same arm.)

• While the nurse translated my last endoscope waver...
• Nurse: “The surgery could cause bleeding and therefore a significant loss of blood…but that’s already happened. It could ­­­­puncture or damage your gallbladder…but you don’t have a gallbladder anymore. The anesthesia could make you sick but that already happened twice…”

• While Skyping with Erin...
• Doctor: "Is that your sister?"
• Me: "Yes...don't we look alike?"
• Doctor: "No. She is much more beautiful than you."

• A few different doctors & nurses called me Brian or O’Brien because, in Korea, the last name goes first...and they were confused.

• Making friends. I still keep in touch with my favorite nurse and we have plans to hang out sometime in the near future. I also became good friends with my surgical team since I ended up spending so much time in the good old OR with them. We spent quite a bit of time chatting and laughing while we waited for the head guy to get there. We even had a few English lessons.

• The best part (self-explanatory): Hospital Fun

• LEAVING!
• Again, I can’t thank the people who helped me enough. I have amazing friends here in Korea and I’m so lucky to have them. They helped me get to and from the hospital, visited me, stayed with me overnight, brought me things I needed, helped me with language barriers, cooked and shopped for me afterwards and, most importantly, made me laugh. I couldn’t be more grateful to all of the amazing people in my life!! Thank you all!!