The day was definitely improving.
* * *
About two years ago, before I came to Korea, my mom and I headed to Denver to visit family. When we were there, I ordered naengmyeon, cold noodles in hot pepper sauce. We had it delivered. My mom, my aunt, my grandmother and I ate dinner, then went for a walk.
It was dusk when we arrived home, the air was cool near the mountains, and we sat outside to enjoy the weather. Suddenly I started feeling weird. I was itchy. My throat felt like it was constricting. My face skin felt stretched.
I got scared, and so did everybody else. Even grandma, the woman who beat a huge snake senseless while in her sixties (I was a witness), was worried. It was mostly the whole air flow thing that was really an issue.
My aunt and grandmother don't know how to drive, and for some reason my mother couldn't drive (I think she was on medicine?). Anyhow, I was the only driver in the house, and I was the one who was sick. There was no allergy medicine in the house, but my aunt remembered that she had Benadryl cream.
Half a Benadryl tube and one lathered upper body later, I was feeling much better and everybody was relaxed. I had eaten naengmyeon before and was perfectly fine; we decided there was something wrong with the egg.
* * *
I forgot about that little incident until about a half-hour after lunch. I suddenly started coughing violently and wheezing. True, I'm getting over 'the cold that wouldn't die,' but this coughing was completely different. My throat felt constricted, and my palms itched. I went to the nurse's office, and she gave me some medicine. I think she gave me a pill for a throatache, and I don't question her capabilities in any way; the fault rests entirely on my inability to describe my symptoms. I returned to my desk. After about five more minutes, I glance in the mirror and saw my red, hived face. I grabbed an English teacher and we saw the nurse. She gave me an antihistamine.
When my friend came down from her class, she took me to the hospital. I have a food allergy. Apparently, each reaction gets progressively worse, and they are potentially fatal. It's difficult to determine to what exactly I'm allergic: they'd have to hospitalize me and feed me today's lunch menu ingredient-by-ingredient, and once we find out they'll pump me full of drugs, as I'll be ballooning out and wheezing.
I got my first IV drip. That was exciting. My friend managed to snap a few pictures before the nurse kicked her out.
I feel so much cooler now, just knowing that for over an hour, I was among the number that includes the select few who take stupid risks and are consequently hospitalized.We are: the IVees.
(There are three syllables in the last word. You'll sound stupid of you mispronounce it. People will point and laugh.)
It took over an hour for the drip to finish. I slept for awhile, but then they moved a man into the bed next to me and he snored. He sounded like those WWII bombers when they dive and pull up. The lady on the left of me snored, too, but she wasn't that bad. And the lady in the bed cattycorner to me had the most annoying phone jingle, and she never managed to turn off the sound on her buttons.
While I was awake and doing nothing but answering text messages, I had time to contemplate life's deep questions. I was just told that my allergy could be fatal, yes, but my focus wasn't on mortality or life's meaning, I was actually more focused on the fluid entering my body. Once it enters my bloodstream, where does it go? It can't stay in there; my veins would burst. I'm assuming that it osmosizes through my vein's cell walls, but where does it go after that? Does it float lazily through my body, as on a river? Or does it speed to my stomach and digestive tract? Is that what made me have to use the washroom so badly, or was it the single cup of coffee I had this morning? Or is it a combination? Friends who are biologists or health-caregivers, (or people who for whatever strange reason 'just know') let me know!
I also had time to notice the little hole in the big toe of my right sock, which would have gone unnoticed had I not been in that particular situation. Which brings me to the age-old question: darn, or purchase? I will test the clothal area around the hole to determine which is the more feasible option.
As we were leaving, my friend and I talked about what could have caused my reaction. I eat all of the food on a regular basis, except for the buckwheat mook. I wonder if the Denver naengmyeon had buckwheat in it, and if so, why did I never experience a reaction during those many many times I've eaten naengmyeon in Korea? Did they not contain buckwheat? And then again, just last month I had buckwheat ddeok & dumpling soup, and I didn't have any adverse reactions. Is it a combination of buckwheat and red pepper paste? I don't really know what to do except avoid buckwheat, and hope that that is, in fact, the cause of my food allergy.
There's really nothing more to say. I have to keep an eye on my health, and if I experience a recurrance, I have to head straight to the emergency room. I guess I can tout about the service and the fee: for over an hour in the hospital, I spent a whopping 5,000won.
The weather's still really great, and I walked home from work. On the way I picked up some ice cream and Pringles. After checking the ingredients list and coming clean, I enjoyed. After all that coughing, the ice cream was especially soothing.
So I got out of school early, took a nap for a half-hour, and ate ice cream; assuming that I don't have another one of these occurrences, I'd say that I'm the winner!
PS: One more thing
5 April, 2009
I believe I've discovered Korea's best Mexican restaurant: Poncho's, in Itaewon. I'd say it's better than On the Border, but I've never been a big fan of OTB, even in the U.S. Also, Poncho's hires authentic employees (Filipino is close enough, right? I mean, it WAS a colony, so it's got the old-World Spanish flavour!). Strangely, it was with, and at the suggestion of, my aunt and cousin, who had never before stepped inside Itaewon. lol
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