 beautiful buddhist temple about 1000 yards up the trail. |
 octopus soup for dinner! i'm having cold noodles with ko chu jang? chilli sauce. |
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beautiful buddhist temple about 1000 yards up the trail. |
octopus soup for dinner! i'm having cold noodles with ko chu jang? chilli sauce. |
the hike to tobonsan made me realize just how big a place california is, where it's pretty easy to get away from people. but in these small countries like south korea and singapore, there just aren't that many out-of-door areas, so they are packed full. you can never get away from all the people, except in your mind, if you can train it. that weekend, korean t.v. had helicoptor shots of all the hikers on top of mt sorak, the biggest and most popular mountain in korea. apparently hikers covered the summit like ants on a butterfinger bar.
this was my, well, next-to-last adventure in asia. the next day, monday, still suffering the aftereffects of the flu (which really slowed me down while climbing mt tobang), i twisted my ankle pretty badly while coming down the staircase from the breakfast buffet to the lobby. then on tuesday, my travel day back to singapore, my endometriosis struck suddenly--again--and i ended up in the hospital in singapore with an emergency hysterectomy.
if singapore air knew how badly i felt there in the seoul airport they probably wouldn't have let me get on board. but i knew i didn't want to go to hospital in south korea, where i could not speak to the doctors/nurses directly in english, where their medical equipment is probably from the 60's(*), and i didn't know how much they knew about endometriosis, which is still a huge mystery even in the U.S. thank god i had my vicodin painkiller with me!!! somehow, someway, i survived the 6 hour flight to singapore. i made them move me to first class so i could remain reclined during landing, because sitting up was no longer an option. i told them i wanted an ambulance to take me right to the hospital. the singapore air flight crew was very, very nice to me.
when i got there, my boss kamil must have been surprised to find that the stomachache i referred to on the phone from the seoul airport had turned into a medical emergency. i was taken to raffles medical center at the singapore airport basement, where i was presented with a $250 ambulance ride bill, and a $2000 up-front deposit for the hospital. lying on the stretcher i fumbled in my purse for my wallet. thank god they took american express. kamil's wife iman rode in the ambulance with me to raffles surgicenter. kamil and iman stayed with me at the hospital until 2am when they finally decided to let me rest overnight and evaluate me in the morning.
i was very pleased with Dr Koh, the gynecological doctor they assigned me, and after some detailed discussions with him, felt confident to have surgery in singapore. i am now in recovery and will be returning to san diego. although i'm very sorry to leave singapore after only four months of adventure, i feel it's wise to end my Extended Business Trip now and just continue my work on this project from san diego.
i knew that my endo was creeping up on me again from the gradually worsening aches and pains. but with endo, usually it ends up being a matter of pain management. i thought that was what i was heading for--prescription painkillers to deal with that. i didn't expect it to flare up the way it did 3 years, which also resulted in emergency surgery. i guess i just figured that if i needed surgery during my ebt, i'd just fly back to the u.s. i didn't count on an emergency situation where a 24-hour plane flight back to san diego would be out of the question. but i'm glad it didn't stop me from coming to singapore to have all this fun. i hope you enjoyed reading about it too.
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(*) For example, most of Daewoo's manufacturing equipment is fairly old ,but still serviceable. Someone mentioned to me that they thought South Korea had taken on a lot of equipment, industry-wide, during the U.S. occupation in the 60's and Korea has simply been maintaining it since then. Certainly Daewoo has invested very little in upgrades. I was worried the hospital would be full of ancient medical equipment. For example, endometriosis is frequently treated with the "operative laparoscopy" technique. didn't want to find out whether this could be done in korea or not!