Ahahaha. I know, this blog thing isn't quite going as planned - those who've read my last post and doesn't always see what I put up on Facebook may be slightly confused to why I'm talking about Korea when this post should really have been about my life of being an intern at Filton Community Church (so far 7 weeks completed - and it's been really great! Inspiring and challenging!), especially about all that happens in the Foodbank side of things.
Well, the truth is, I have planned the whole post on Foodbank and have been meaning to write it for the last few weeks but it's just been really difficult to sit down, write it and click "publish" because it's an issue which has been in the media a fair amount recently and I wanted to get it right. On top of that, there had been some sudden decisions made which led to me flying out to South Korea on Monday 11th November, arriving on Tuesday after an 11 hour of smooth flight (Thank God!), which meant that trying to write about an issue I may already be "out-of-date" on didn't quite make sense.
So I thought considering this blog should be telling you about what I'm up to during my year out, I thought I'd take this quick opportunity to tell you why I'm here and what's currently happening.
For those of you who aren't familiar/may have forgotten, I'm on an intermission for "health reasons" - being stress and nasal polyps. Nasal polyps were diagnosed during my trip to Korea this summer just gone (quite unexpectedly, actually) and the plan was to go back to the UK and get them treated after my resit exams. However, the lovely NHS was being complicated (despite the efforts of my loveliest GP) and if I was to get an access to the ENT specialist, I would have to wait till end of January 2014 - which considering the waiting times I hear about these days, and the fact that nasal polyps aren't something that counts as an "emergency" in the medical field, appeared to make sense and normal. But, because of my circumstance, my parents and I preferred it if it could be solved a bit quicker (than waiting more than 3 months) so it gives me some space to recover and get back to doing the internship and normal life/work. We therefore decided it would be better to fly out to Korea and get it solved there. I did have a diagnosis in Korea when I was about 12, saying the inside of my nose is a bit oddly shaped (and will need to be operated on when I have 'fully grown') and empyema in the nose, so it kinda made sense if this could be further explored at the same time of getting the nasal polyps removed. It does seem a little ironic that, as a student studying to be a doctor, I'm 'escaping' the waiting times many patients have to undergo, and I am thankful that I have the option to 'fly out'. But overall this decision to take the opportunity to fly out seemed to make sense considering the circumstance and I shall not forget the issues of waiting times! I did have call from the NHS saying that they could move me to another health centre but the earliest I could see them was mid-December, and because by then we had already booked the flight, it didn't really help (plus, mid-December still felt like a little too far away).
Korean healthcare works a little differently - it's not like the NHS, where GPs refer you to specialists. Here, you go directly to the specialist, which I guess is why the process is much quicker. I had my pre-op assessment type thing last Friday morning, where I had a CT scan followed by various other tests to check whether I'm fine for general anaesthesia (I'm not exactly sure of the details - I just did what I was told to do!) The CT scan was pretty cool, I admit. Never had one before, and though I've seen the CT images before, seeing my own head made it come alive. ;) The image re-confirmed the existence of nasal polyps, as well as the fact that my case of empyema is apparently quite bad (I'm not even sure if I'm using the right medical word here - just translating the Korean diagnosis as best as I can!) and that I do indeed need an operation. One of the structures in my nose appeared to be rather bent too; I'm not sure whether something's going to be done to it though... think I need to check an anatomy book or something and see what it's meant to be shaped like, haha.
So yeah. I'm being admitted (is that the right word?) to the hospital sometime tomorrow (Wednesday) before 3pm to get ready for the operation on Thursday morning (Wednesday night UK time, probably). :) It should last about 1.5-2 hours, the doctor says. I'm feeling cool about the whole thing, haha. I've never been on the operating table (as far as I'm concerned :P) but have been in some watching them, so I guess it'll be rather cool to experience the whole process myself. ;) Maybe the whole situation will hit me when I get admitted or even when I have the general anaesthetic, haha! But yeah, overall it's all cool and I think things are progressing just fine!
Time in Korea so far has been good! It's been really nice spending time with the extended family. Jetlag hasn't affected me too much... Staying at my little cousin's house at the moment, which is really fun, and I went and saw my loveliest grandparents' down at the countryside last Saturday - they were doing some farming work, collecting harvest. I wasn't much help seeing as I had no idea what I was doing, but I did take some pretty pictures to show you, like this one:
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| A sweet persimmon, ready to be harvested. |
Hope all's well on the other side of the world! :) and hopefully, I shall be back on track sooooon (can't promise when now) with the blog as well as my not-so-little post on Foodbank. :)
