Day Zero: The check-in

I guess I should give a little bit of background leading up to day zero (aka August 4th).

A few days earlier I had received a rather cryptic text message from a private number:

"You'd better come with your friend. ask me anything you're wondering by phone"

Mind you, you're reading this blog in the sole context of tonsillectomy. I hadn't even though about my pending tonsillectomy, so I was confused. Then I saw that this text msg was part 3 of 3.

The other two read:

"Jenifer I'm Ji-yeong who has working at Carollo hospital. I'm so sorry that I can not help you on 4 august because I will have a vacation 3 to 5. You'd better come with your friend..."

This definitely scared me a bit. As far as I could tell, she was the only proficient English-speaker in the whole hospital!

Also, most of my friends were away in Canada, India, China, and France. I really only had one SUPER close friend not on vacation: Antoine.

I shyly asked him if he would play nursemaid for me while I was in the hospital. Luckily he agreed whole-heartedly (he's SUCH a good guy!)

So that's how it came to pass that Antoine and I arrived at the hospital at four o'clock on August 4th.

I think I had to come at four because the ENT doctors finish work at 6pm, and they wanted to go over a few last minute things with me.

One of the ladies had pretty good English, and if she needed to, she used her cell phone dictionary to supplement her skills.

She had one sheet of paper covered in Korean that she had to give to me. She looked at me, looked at the paper, nerviously giggled, and said, 'but it is in Korean!' in a sort of stunned voice. Then her eyes cleared, and she passed it to me, saying, "souvenir".

Then it wss time to check into my room.

Since my insurance is not paying for this, I opted to have a shared room, with seven other people, at ten dollars a night. Singles were 85/night. I just couldn't justify paying an extra 510$ for board on TOP of the 600$ for the operation.

That is, until I saw the single room.

A nurse guided Antoine and I into a smallish room with four beds on each side. There was one fridge, one tv, and one a/c controller, for all eight of us.

And guess what?

Four of 'us' were children.

I'd say two infants, a two year old, and a four year old.

They were ALL crying.

I sympathized of course, it sucks being in the hospital as a kid. But there is NOTHING on this EARTH I hate more then the sound of crying, screaming children.

The nurse took me to my bed (and it was between two other beds) then plopped my hospital jams on the stained bedsheets, drew the curtain around Antoine and I, and gestured that I should change.

Instead, I burst into tears.

There was NO WAY I could stay in that hellhole for an entire week!

I HAD to get out of there!

Stressed out, I led Antoine outside to the veranda. I was SERIOUSLY considering backing out at this point. The money, the shreiking babies! the doctors who didn't think I REALLY needed the operation! It was all catching up to me so fast. I had been wanting a tonsilectomy for three years, but maybe I was wrong to want one all along. I'd never had ANY surgery before, never had been knocked out, never had so much as an iv (that I could remember).

Thank God for Antoine.

He calmed me down and allowed me to look at things clearly, without imposing his opinions on me.

Of course I wanted the surgery. Two weeks pain to never have tonsillitis/strep throat again? Worth it.

Paying 85$/night to be able to have my own tv, my own fridge, my own bathroom, control of the air/con and lights, and no screaming babies? Worth it.

Crisis averted; Antoine and I checked me into my lovely single room.

All of this was accomplished by 6:43pm.

I don't know if I mentioned how ridiculous I thought it was that I had to sleep at the hospital the night BEFORE my surgery. So I was relieved that they told me I could go out for dinner as long as I was back by 9pm.

Antoine and I went out for my last, 'eat whatever I want' meal for two-three weeks.

We returned to the hospital by 9pm.

I was instructed that I would start a total fast beginning at midnight (not even water allowed). And I was finally told the time for my surgery (11am or 12pm).

Antoine stayed with me until 11pm, and then went home, promising to return for 10am the next day.

And then I was a stupid cow.

For the first time I googled people's accounts of THEIR tonsillectomies (rather then just looking at medical advice).

I definitely gained some useful knowledge (like ice the OUTSIDE of your neck, useful things to eat, what not to eat, etc, etc) but I also scared myself silly.

For the second time that day, I was convinced I should abort the tonsilectomy mission.

Luckily, my mother signed on to facebook chat as I was facing my second break-down of the day.

She told me that she and my step-father definitely think that I should go ahead with this. I value their opinion very highly, so I felt like I was making the right decision.

Since she had made me feel better about that, I started telling her about the differences in comfort and price between the shared and single rooms. I wondered if I was being too much of a princess about the whole thing. Before I told her of my conclusion, she wrote to me that I DEFINITELY should take the single room!

Now, I'm 24 and completely financially independant, but my mother said the sweetest thing next.

"Jennifer I'LL pay for the room!! I can transfer the money into your account RIGHT now!!"

Of course I didn't take her up on her offer, I HAVE the money, but it made me feel good to know that she strongly thought it was worth spending the money on.

I finally fell into an uneasy, parched sleep around 2:30am.