medical check #2

My two co-workers and I met Eunice (assistant to the VP) outside the clinic at 8:30am. We had exactly one hour to get our medical checks done because we start teaching at 9:30.

Raise your hand if you think we were done in an hour.

It ended up taking us close to two hours to get everything done. We filled out some paperwork and then waited to get called. After about 15 minutes, we were called. At this place, we only had to change out of our tops. We kept our pants on, but had to take everything off up top and were given a wrap-around shirt to cover ourselves. Then we had to wait in line. First came our chest x-rays, then more waiting. Next, a man took us to the side of the reception area and gave us 3 plastic cups (no lids). "Urine sample." he says, half embarrassed and half seriously. And then he motioned for us to leave the clinic and go down the hall where the bathrooms are. I don't know why, but the inside hallways of every building in Korea are a dark, depressing grey colour. The three of us start laughing as we collectively take our piss cups, leave the clinic and head down the dark hallway like prisoners taking a drug test. And it was perfect, 3 of us and 3 bathroom stalls. Only one of which had toilet paper. I totally forgot that the dispenser was outside of the stalls and you're supposed to take a bunch BEFORE you go in. Silly me for forgetting I was in Asia. It was odd that one stall had toilet paper inside... definitely must have been a mistake.

So, anyway, there we were three in row, holding our pee cups to our peeing parts, separated only by a thin stall wall, simultaneously peeing and laughing at this really awkward situation we were in. Allison was in the middle stall, which had the TP in it and she kindly passed us some. I drank a crapload of water beforehand, so I was out of there first. It was really embarrassing holding a lidless, see-through cup of very fresh, warm piss in your hands and walking down a public hallway into a clinic where everyone stares at you when you enter. I was directed to put my cup on a tray that was filled with other lidless, see-through pee-filled cups.

I then got weighed and measured, had my blood pressure taken, my vision tested and my blood taken... all in the same 10 x 10 room. The lady who took my blood, of course, had the same problem that everyone always has. She couldn't find any veins. She finally just decided to go for it. She poked me and nothing came out, so she went deeper... still nothing, so she pushed the needle even further into me. I thought I was going to puke. Don't ask me why I was watching, I just couldn't not watch. Oh god, I'm getting queasy just thinking about it. Anyway, the whole needle was pretty much half way through my arm when blood started to gush into the tube. Thank god! But, of course, this wasn't enough. She had to pump and pump and pump the other end of the tube to get the suction going, so the whole process took a super long time! Ahh!! When she finally got enough blood out of me, she bandaged me up, let out a big, huge sigh of relief (as did I) and released me. Yikes.

Now, what happened next has never happened to me before. When I got up from the chair, I felt really, really dizzy, my legs started to turn to jello, and my vision got really blurry... like the room was closing in on me. I also felt my face get pale. I was feeling myself starting to faint, but before that happened, I found a seat and sat down. I just kept thinking, "don't faint, don't faint, don't faint". I was very close to collapsing, but I didn't end up fainting afterall. Holy crap was I close. I just started breathing very deeply and very slowly. Soon enough, I regained my sight and I felt better after a while. It was pretty scary. I stayed seated until the last of us was done. Poor, Melissa, she cried again. She said she just can't help it. She's terrified of needles.

After that whole ordeal, we each got "interviewed" by a doctor who pretty much looked over all our information and asked us if we have any preexisting conditions or if we had taken any drugs. Once that was over, we were done. We went to Dunkin' Donuts because we were starving and then headed to work.

I learned something from this second debacle. I'm never donating blood. I honestly think I'll be more of a hassle than I would be a help.