Last night I was out eating dinner with a few friends when my right thumb started to swell up. It was strange but I ignored it so I could enjoy a good dinner and conversation. Later when I got home my whole hand was swollen and I had hives all over my back, up my neck and even on my head. I also started having horrible chills so I figured I would just go straight to bed in the hopes that it would be gone in the morning. All night long I itched from the hives and shook terribly from the chills. I drifted off and awoke in a pool of sweat. I shed all my layers and got up to go to the bathroom. When I looked in the mirror I was frightened to see that my lips had swollen up twice the size and my neck was covered in red hives. I took my temperature and it was 102.5 so I decided maybe it was time that I got this figured out.
I woke up Heather, who conveniently lives downstairs from me, showed her my problems and we headed out in the freezing morning air to the hospital. Lucky for us there is a hospital only about three blocks away. I felt extremily weak though so we hopped a taxi. I think the taxi driver realized we weren't in a good condition so he searched the front of his cab and produced a tangerine for us. HAha, it was some nice comic relief. People here in Korea are big on giving tangerines and hard boiled eggs to strangers. I have not gotten used to that yet.
So we arrived at the hospital. Heather got out her phrase book and figured out where the emergency room was. Once there, they sat me on a hospital bed and just looked at me. I think I had probably 6 Koreans just staring at me like they'd never seen a foreigner before. I was already sweating from the high fever, but having all of them stare at me like that just made me sweat more. I'm sure they thought I was crazy with all my sweat, wild hair, huge lips, and hives all over. Finally after relaying to them what the problem was, I was given two shots in the butt and a few cold compresses to put on my body. After a while of laying there I was able to leave. They gave me some pills to take which I have no idea what they are, and then Heather and I headed back home.
So that was my first visit to the ER in Korea. Since then I have been in bed feeling as though I'm dying. My fever has gone down and some of the hives have gone away, but my lips are bigger than ever. I look like I've had a lip job gone wrong! My joints are all swollen and sore though and my whole body is achey. I have no idea why all of this happened. It can't be the flu, because I had the flu shot. It could maybe be a food allergy, but I didn't eat anything different from what I normally eat. So who knows what it is and when it will go away.
Oh Korea and the experiences that I've had here!
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