Day Six: Outta the Slammer!

That's right! I'm finally typing these words from the comfort of my own apartment.

It didn't look good at the beginning of the day.

My doctor came into my room around 9am.

He looked in my throat and pronounced I could leave 'tomorrow'.

I had REALLY been looking forward to escape. I went to bed the previous evening thinking, 'this is my last night here'. I had already packed.

So I dramatically flung myself across the hospital bed at his news.

"What?" he asks all innocently.

"I want to go home today!" I wrote down on my pad of paper.

"I want......tomorrow!" he giggled his way through the tricksy English. However, he seemed very firm in his opinion. He told me he would see me later in his department of the hospital for a more through examination.

Of course, it took him fifteen minutes for me to understand this...never forget, Ji-yeong is the ONLY one who can speak English here. Sometimes I might dialogue as if nurses and doctors are fluent, but they're not. I'm only bringing this up to give a clear sense of my situation. It can be frustrating in the best of circumstances to be ignorant of the local language. Being a tonsillectomy patient is another thing altogether! But the nurses and doctors are SO sweet about it. They always try SO hard to speak to me, and make me understand things. Even the cleaning lady, and the lady who brings me my disgusting, replusive dinners all try. It makes me think of how different the circumstances would be if I were a non-English-speaking Korean person in the Canadian hospital system. Would people be as patient? As polite? As willing to try and spend extra energy? I'd like to think so...but...

Anyway, tangent over...blame the drugs for excessive ramblings!

My lovely Ji-yeong came to my room around 10:00 (with two ciabatta sandwiches and four doughnuts for Antoine).

Ji-yeong had just got off a full 24 hour shift (9am-9am) of sitting in her chair, peering into microscopes. But she knew today was my check-out, so she just had to make sure I was ok. She is SERIOUSLY one of the most beautiful people I have ever met!

At 10:30, Ji-yeong and I went to the second floor to visit my doctor (this was my first time off the fifth floor since my surgery!). He looked in my throat again, brought out these WICKED long and sharp tweezer-like things and pronounced 'electro-cauterization' as he solemnly pointed the tweezers into my open mouth.

HOLD UP!!!

Of course I reacted like a two-year old. I violently twisted my head to one side and clamped my mouth shut.

"excuse me?"

"You have a little bit of bleeding!" (the poor man was so frustrated with me, I don't blame him) "this will stop it!" he says as he waves around his torture device.

"no thank you" (can you imagine?? No anasthesia? Just straight up 'electro-cauterizing' my scraped-raw throat? NO NO NO NO NO!!!)

"If you do it you can go home today!!"

"no no no"

"ok *rolls eyes* you can still go home today"

So here I am!!

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