Iodine Jesus!

There's a graphic picture of me getting cut open below! Watch out!

I got my operation on Tuesday, two days ago. They stuck an IV in my arm, wheeled me into the operating room, had me curl up in the fetal position while they injected anesthesia into my spine, and splayed me out on the operating table, legs straight and arms out wide like a horizontal Jesus. I didn't get nails in my hands and feet of course, I instead got half of my pubes shaved and my entire crotch coated with iodine.

A nurse popped some earbuds in and played an intersting combination of Simon and Garfunkel, the Black Eyed Peas, and some other incongrous Western stuff. Through some strange trick of the anesthesia, which made me feel like my lower half of my body was asleep, right before the pins and needles set in, it felt like they were cutting up near my belly button, which would've been the totally wrong area. That thought sort of frightened me a bit, but after the surgery when I was lying in bed, the anesthesia also made my right leg feel like it was bent upward when it was very clearly lying flat, so I knew it was just causing some strange, inaccurate, sensations.

Here's a picture of what the surgery looked like, though I couldn't see it at the time thanks to a sheet they put up in front of my face.

I mostly sat around in bed for two days. I couldn't eat or even lift my head the first day, but could walk around the second day. Adam showed up not long after my surgery on the first day, it was good to finally see him again. I also got visits from Miju, Moe, Paul, Kristin, and Dustin; what a great bunch of friends. And it's hard not to appreciate guys like Dustin when he says touching things like "I'm not even bangaweoyo to see you. It's too soon." To be fair, I knew what he meant, it's not like I had really been gone long enough for anyone to miss me.

It's Thursday now and I'm out on the streets, moving to a guesthouse for a couple days before taking over Kristin's pad when she goes on vacation. It's tough walking, I kind of shuffle like Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, but I should be in better shape soon.

Under the Knife

I found out I had an inguinal hernia before I left Korea for some time at home. It was small, didn't bother me much, and from what several doctors told me, wasn't really a big deal. However, surgery is the only way to deal with hernias and I thought it was probably a good idea to get it fixed before I went off to the middle of nowhere in Mongolia or China, to avoid rare but serious complicatons. Too bad I didn't have enough time to do it before I left Korea. It would've cost about $300 when I had insurance.

Getting it at home was out of the question. I have no American insurance, and an average figure I found on the internet put the cost at about $7,000. I called a local hospital just to be sure, and they assured me that it would be between $9,000 and $13,000.

So my first order of business in Korea is getting cut open and sewn back up. Even without insurance here, it will cost me less than $1,000, and I get a swanky private room with my own bathroom and flatscreen TV for two nights. In fact the room is so nice that I may stay another night or two since the room itself is costing me little more than a hostel.