If I jump, I rattle....

Many bloggers, including my self have written about trips to see their local Korean doctor's to assist in minor ailments, such as back pain, twisted knee's, Man-flu disguised as H1N1 (how do you know it wasn't?) etc. The first reaction of the doctor is to stick needles in draw blood (but I only came in with a bad knee!) spend several thousand Won on tests you never knew you needed, then tell you about high cholestorol, no Hepatitus B immunity yadda-yadda-yadda... The second reaction is to fill you full of pills.

Take my own case in point - I went to said doctor at the beginning of January with a badly twisted knee, the story of which is a long one, but suffice to say it involved our Canadian friend from across the way. I was helping to lift some furniture, and I found my self on the heavy end of a rather large wardrobe defying gravity whilst his end was carefully on the ground. He shouted at me to drop it as he couldn't hold on any longer, but with 6ft of solid wood between him and me, I kinda lost the message and wondered why it was bearing down on me like a giants boot onto a pesky 'roach. It didnt hurt at the time, but next day I was hobbling for the Olympic Gold medal.

Doctor feels up my leg, and suggests a needle plus meds for the pain - "no thanks" said I am hyperdermic-phobic, and would prefer just the tablets. I get a prescription for 5 days of anti-inflammatories, and pain killers. I take 'script to chemist and get presented with 15 individual little sachets each with 4 different tablets inside. Looking at the tablets gave no clues as to the type of medicine, nor tha manufacturer. I suspect due to the "low" cost of the meds, that they were of Korean origin, as Western meds are "very" expensive from the chemists.

6 days later, the knee was no better. I left it for another week just to see if it would improve. No. Back to Doc's for second try. Another 5 days meds, same types. day 6 no better, back to Doc's and another feel-up session. try another session for 10 days he say's, but with different meds. Much better now, either that or the pain meds are working better than before. We'll see how it feels in 8 days time.

Anyway, my point is, I am endlessly amazed at how the health professionals just chuck a general course of meds at you - it's the scatter gun approach to health care in Korea, hopeing that one bullet will hit it's target. Those, my hypertension and Cholestorol tablets each day, are making me sound like I'm rattling! Listen carefully for me coming round the corner....