All year the worst I've really had is a cold, and in the US when I have a cold I don't usually do anything for it. I'll drink tea and take my vitamins, but that's about it. Can't cure a cold after all (well, technically I've heard that you can, but the chances of dying from the cure are too high too bother). However, every time my boyfriend gets a cold he goes to the hospital and gets medicine for it. This is usually 9-12 small packets with 5 pills in each and he's supposed to take all the pills in the packet three times a day. To me, this sounds absolutely insane, but in Korea it's common. When I had a cold my teachers kept asking me if I went to the hospital and when I replied no, they insisted that I should go. It was a really interesting experience.
Now for my roommate, her story is interesting as well.
She had an awful cough and was thinking she probably had bronchitis or a respiratory infection. So we went to Yonsei Severance hospital and went to the international clinic where most people speak English.
They were very fast. We went right in the morning so we didn’t have to wait long at all. Unfortunately, our insurance provider was listed on both Yonsei and the insurance’s website as having direct payment with each other, but we were told that we had to get a form from our insurance provider two days prior saying that they would cover the medical expenses in order for Yonsei to accept our insurance. ㅠㅠ Pretty sure that’s not what direct payment means. So my roommate is just sent the bill to the insurance company and had them pay her back for what they would have covered.
My roommate said that the doctor checked her blood pressure, asked her symptoms, and then listened to her breaking through a stethoscope to make sure that she didn’t have pneumonia, but never actually looked down her throat or anything. I don’t know much about medicinal practices but it annoyed my roommate that the doctor only diagnosed her based on what my roommate verbally told the doctor. She compared it to a drug-distributing webMD.
They gave her four types of pills. An antihistamine, an allergy medication (which my roommate knows doesn't have any affect on her), codeine, and ibuprofen. We laughed about that for awhile because in the US you only get codeine if you’re in serious pain, like broke your back pain. My roommate was supposed to take two or three codeine pills a day, but after only one she was knocked out for about 14 hours, so I don't think it's even physically possible for her to take the recommended dosage. It’s a highly controlled opiate. In addition, Korea outlaws Nyquil for it’s codeine content but you can just go to the hospital and tell them you have a sore throat and they’ll give you a week’s worth of codeine!?!? Oh Korea. Sometimes I do not understand.
Looking at drugs even that you can get at the pharmacy like ibuprofen, the dosage is much higher than it is in the US! And the Halls cough drops are in the candy section everywhere. In my opinion, it seems like the pharmacists and doctors over-medicate here. But like I said, I've been blessed with good health and don’t have a lot of experience with hospitals or medications so maybe I’m just under-medicated.
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