just got back from the hospital

What an adventure. What a shit show. I fucking hate Korean health care. But I've been up all night at Samsung Hospital, so I'm in no condition to write a blog post. The boss ordered me to take a day off as a way of burning up some of my 23 comp hours after I had stayed at the office past midnight twice this week, so I'm in my apartment and am about to crawl into bed. The forced vacation seems to have happened at just the right moment.

99% of my nine-hour hospital stay, which involved a few hours in Isolation Room 2 and Critical Care Berth 2, had nothing to do with my infected toe. But because the infection had given me a fever, I had to go through the hospital's standard COVID-19 procedure, which meant isolation, a whole battery of useless tests, and lots of needles in my forearm, the back of my right hand, my left ankle, and the top of my left foot. Korean hospitals love to torture their patients, and at the end of this horror story, I had to cough up over W300,000 by reciting my card number over the phone, along with the card's expiration date. When I asked why I couldn't just visit the office at which to make payments, the woman on the other end lamely said that, given the isolation protocols in effect, that wasn't possible. I also didn't have to visit the hospital's pharmacy to pick up my antibiotic pills and ointment: it was all handed to me.

Anyway, once I get up later today, I'll write more extensively about this misadventure, which has basically taught me to go to my doctor's office (or the nearest skin clinic) and brave the possibility of contracting COVID-19 in the waiting room. It's faster, way cheaper, and not nearly as full of bureaucratic bullshit. Hospitals. Who needs 'em?

More later. Gotta sleep.