The hospital puts me on an IV bag twice a day but today the nurses -- yes, nurses as in plurial -- had trouble finding a vein that'd take the IV needle. The first nurse got frustrated so she asked another nurse to try... and then another. Four tries later and my veins finally took to the IV. I've only been in the hospital a couple of days but you could play connect-the-dots on my arms from all the failed needle attempts. The nurses tried to blame it on the fact that my arm muscles were so tensed-up, very flattering but I'm not too sure on how believeable that is.
Did my twice-a-day psyhio and am convinced someone must have accidently knocked the frequency knob because the voltage going through the machine to my right leg was a bit too intense. Every time it sent an electric current my toes literally curled and my ankle twitched.
Had the big anticipated meeting with the taxi driver's insurance man and had to leave to the room cause I seriously was going to punch him after he tried to throw me a very insulting payout. He had totally jumped to conclusions with guessing my salary and thought his measly quote would cover one week of missed work for me -- wrong, SOOOO wrong. In addition to getting payouts from one of my boxing sponsors, I also do personal training, manage a website for someone, and tutor at various companies -- seven different people pay me. And on that note, discussion of me staying a full week, possibly two, and the insurance company flipping the bill was totally thrown out the window. "You're too expensive for them" Mouse Doctor told me, so on that note the insurance man punched in a larger number on his calculator and I agreed to accept it. The terms of agreeance involved me going home tonight, a continuation of the medication for three more days, and the insurance company flipping the bill for all my hospital expenses and scooter repair, and them dropping a sweet lump sum of cash in my account on Wednesday.
The nurses all congradulated me on my insurance settlement and joked about that taxi driver probably never wanting to deal with another foreigner. That's okay. He definitely picked the wrong foreigner to hit cause I definitely don't come with a cheap pricetag, nor do I go down easy either, so the feeling is mutual.
Am happy to be out of the hospital but I should note that I did enjoy my stay as much as it did frustrate me not to be able to train. The nurses were all around my age so it felt really comfortable, and I quite enjoyed their company.
As for my two roommates in my actual hospital room, I also enjoyed their company. The younger woman had gone home for the weekend, leaving me to spend my last day at the hospital with the grandmother. He husband came as usual to visit her but she broke down in tears today when she told him I was leaving. "I don't want to be here alone!" she told him. And with that I decided to stay another hour. Another hour stay turned into another two hours when she asked me if I drink coffee. Next thing I knew it she was calling up her grand daughter and asking her to bring us coffee.
My stay at the hospital wasn't quite as boring as I thought it'd be. Actually, it wasn't boring at all. I had busied myself with typing up handouts and activities for my tutoring and I had a lot of visitors -- both friends, in-laws and nurses. My favorite visitor, which was totally unexpected, was the Sangyung Hulk. He had dropped by the other night -- late, late night -- with tons of milk and bread for me and one much needed leg massage. We chatted for a bit and it was interesting to see a much more humbler side of him that I've never seen before. Turns out he's married (has been for 3 years) and has a two year old son. Sounds brutal of me to say and I hate the fact that I honestly believe this but I think he's married because of his son -- shotgun wedding. He asked a million and one questions about Snickers but ignored or wiggled around questions I asked about his wife. I feel sorry for him; he's clearly not happy and it made me feel terrible to see him like this. Okay, so he and I were never close friends but lately we've been talking a lot. Regardless, I know how so different and how so happy my life is now that I've found true love, so I'd like my friends to experience it too.But enough about that... I could go on and on, and you know I could too.
Tonight I signed out of the hospital, packed up my computer and overnight bag, and after a cup of coffee with the hospital grandmother I left. Some of the nurses took the elevator down with me to the first floor and stood waving as I walked down the street. Ggum Guum is oh but only a stone-throw away from the hospital so when I reached Ggum Guum I turned and waved goodbye to the nurses.
It felt good to be back at Ggum Guum but it felt kind of sad to have left the hospital. I've never been a fan of hospitals. I've even be noted to say I hate them but the hospital I stayed at this week was awesome and I will miss it. I will miss my midnight shift nurse coming to say goodbye to me in the morning when her shift finishes, joking with the psychio male nurses, helping the hospital grandmother with random things like taking her meal dishes into the hall and teaching her how to use the TV remote, and I'll miss random visitors showing up out of the blue to see me.
I've always believed that there's a little good in bad and a little bad in good but this accident showed me more good than bad.
The Good
1. I've adopted Snickers' close friends as my own close friends too and, because of all they've done for me just even this past week, I will forever be so grateful for them.
2. The amount of Korean -- ranging from vocab like "needle" and "victim's complaint" to medical questions and silly sentences like "If they're too noisey, beat them" -- I've picked up this past week has been incredible.
3. Learned that I in fact don't need a license afterall. Gotti is only 50CC, meaning driving him license-free is perfectly allowed.
4. Have finally begain to view Snickers' family as my family -- something that, up until the accident, I really had an issue with.
5. Am proud to note the awesomeness that is right down the street from me -- the hospital and staff -- and am sure I'll drop by ever so often to say hi.
6. Won over the arguement with the insurance man, proving to be one expensive chick.. and most stubborn ones too I'm sure.The Bad
1. I am now sporting some multicolored legs, particularly my right leg, and I'm missing way too much skin from my right knee cap.
2. Taxi drivers are my new pet peeve in Korean. I swear, they're like a gang... a gang of seagulls that is. You should have seen how many taxi drivers either stopped at the accident to watch and how many actually got out of their cars to poke their nose in my business.
3. Going from being super active to being a sit-around-and-veg girl meant I put on some wieght. Not a big deal really. I give it one day of training and it'll be off.
4. I now have to figure out how to break the news to Snickers. "Hey Amy, what did you do this month?" he'll ask me. "Hmm... I went to work, worked out, got hit by a taxi, read a book... things like that." He's going to feel terrible, I just know it. He's very protective of me, so it's going to crush him to know that he couldn't be here to help me. Mouse Doctor made note of this to the insurance man today, telling him that he's lucky my husband isn't here to overhear the nonscense of the accident and initial payout.
QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Did they honestly think I'd settle for that or give up that easily?
QUOTE OF THE DAY...
My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.
-- Benjamin Disraeli
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