Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Hospitals blow

I had to go to the local hospital to get a physical done so I could get my ID card. I also had to have an HIV test, which apparently is something very rare to ask for in Korea because most hospitals we called didn't offer it. I'm not sure if it's something every person entering Korea to live must get, or just Americans. Apparently Americans are dirty sluts or junkies.
We finally find a hospital nearby that will give my skanky self a physical. We head into the lobby and there are patients in hospital gowns roaming around holding saline bags on top of their heads. Eveyone is just carrying around their saline bags on their heads. Patients are everywhere; the lobby, outside, the hallways, in and out of random rooms. Do they actually have rooms for the patients? I have to have a blood test and the phlebotomist (I assume??) is in the basement of the hospital by himself. There are vials of everybody else's blood all over the place. There is a cardboard box on his desk in front of me that has big splotches of blood all over it and it's full of used syringes.
He pokes the inside of my arms with his fingers looking for good veins. I hate having my blood drawn. I have really tiny, deep veins that roll. It's a huge pain in the ass and quite painful.
He pulls a needle out of his top drawer and all I kept thinking was, "Please, oh please God, let that be a clean needle!" There was a plastic cap on the needle so I hope I'm right to assume the needle was clean before the cap was put on.
Luckily he finds a vein the first time and he quickly extracts a syringe full of my blood. He puts it in a vial labeled with my name and tosses the dirty needle into the cardboard box. Little speckles of my blood stain the box.
Please, please don't ever let me get sick or hurt in this country.

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