a scary weekend..

this past weekend was planned to be sweet gathering at jessie and justin's place, enjoying the cultural festival in their city. However instead of going and hanging out with friends, I stayed at home and worried about my health..

you see, about four months ago my neck became stiff and sore - and it's been the same ever since then. i figured it was stress, or a bad mattress or pillow, or a cold draft in my apartment, or some other non-serious thing. but after two months of the annoying neck issue i went to see a doctor. he said (in "konglish", 'korean+english') that my muscles were just sore and tired. he prescribed three different pills to be taken three times a day; one pill for the pain, one for the swelling, and one more for the side affects of the first two. i decided that i would be worse off if i took them, so i let time carry on.

then a few weeks ago, after complaining to my boss, he got his father (a traditional oriental doctor) to give me acupuncture. it was weird having someone put little needles in your face and arms and legs, but it did relax my muscles. yet, my neck was still sore.

finally i decided to go back to search around and find a doctor who speaks english and who would take my complaints seriously. this past weekend i headed to an international clinic at 'dong eui medical center' and had a doctor there check me out. after being unable to find the problem he suggested an x-ray. my medical insurance deductible is at about $100, so it didn't quite cover the $50 x-ray (though i was surprised at how cheap it was!)

about 20 minutes later i was up in the doctor's office looking at an x-ray of my neck (it's pretty humbling to see an x-ray of your body- proof of our mortal bodies). it looked normal at first glance, but then he pointed out this 'jellybean shaped' mass in between my cervical and thoracic vertebrae. "i worry about that", he says. i didn't know what to say.

he calmly told me that "it was probably just arthritis or degeneration of the joint, but that there was maybe a 20% chance that it was a tumor". shit. he booked an mri for me on monday, which would be two days from then (who knows how long i would wait in canada).

so i left the hospital, only about an hour and a half after i had arrived. i came looking for a solution to my neck stiffness and left with a one in five chance that i had a tumor on my spine. it was mid saturday and i didn't know what to do. i felt more alone than i've ever been, and i was (of course) over analyzing that 20%.

time ticked by.. and monday came around.
monday was mri day. i took a sick day at work and went to the hospital with becky. i really feel for those people who have to get mri's on a regular basis.. because it sucks. anyone with even the slightest claustrophobic tendencies would have to be sedated.

for those of you who don't know what an mri.. uh.. machine looks like, here's a picture. the worst part about it is that, before they put me in there they explained in very broken english about when, and when i couldn't swallow. while taking an mri of my neck, i couldn't be swallowing spit and blurring the picture.

anyways, with that finished, then began the waiting game. i was told that i would have the results on wednesday (yesterday), at 9am. tuesday night was one of the worst sleeps of my life, anxiously awaiting the phone call at 9:00. the doctor hadn't called by 9:02 so i called her.
... talking on the phone with someone who speaks broken english is a tricky thing to do, especially when the subject is of dire importance. the message that i took from the phone call was that 'there was no problem', but had to go to the hospital to talk about it.

the doctor told me that the mass-like picture on the x-ray was actually bone that was made denser by the arthritis. apparently i have arthritis in that part of my neck, and it might have been caused by some trauma that i had recently, or up to ten years ago.

anyways, the important thing that i took from the experience is that the mri came back clean - no abnormal 'tumor-like' stuff in my spine. WOO! i was so relieved.

even though i was told that it was a relatively small percentage, i spent from saturday until yesterday thinking about how it was all going to go down - in the most negative light. i thought about deciding where to have the surgery, here in korea or back home in canada -if i would have to wait a long time there, or if i would even be covered under health insurance... it was a horrible experience, but extremely relieving in the end. all this went down in a span of just a few days. life is short.

this experience gave me great respect for life... and time... and how important each moment is.

crazy..

free hugs

if you haven't heard of the "free hugs campaign", it's time you have. check out freehugscampaign.org and see why there are almost 900 videos on youtube promoting this campaign. here's quote from the website.

Free hugs is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, A man whos sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives.

In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal.

As this symbol of human hope spread accross the city, police and officials ordered the Free Hugs campaign BANNED. What we then witness is the true spirit of humanity come together in what can only be described as awe inspiring.

the potential to be heard..

i've recently been handed an opportunity to write in a magazine that will be circulated korean wide, and read mostly by foreigners. it's called The Korean Sun, and next month will be its first real debut in korea. i really don't know much about writing magazine articles, but i do feel like this kind of chance doesn't come along everyday, so i'm going to jump on it. i just finished and sent off an article to the editor, along with several ideas for other possible stories. here is my first article entitled "trash or treasure - you make the call".

Does the old cliché ‘One man’s trash is another man’s treasure’ mean anything to you? Well, to a bunch of foreigners in Busan, this phrase carries a lot of weight – literally.

As I wander the streets near my apartment I’m constantly amazed by the amount of furniture that I see on the side of the road. I don’t mean the old comfortable looking chairs in front of the side street coffee shops. I’m referring to the upside down couches with bags of garbage strewn beside them; the antique coffee tables that are placed next to the bins. It’s too bad the locals aren’t interested in the historical furnishings of past generations; my neighbourhood could be a haven for antique collectors. The most common items I come across include couches that are creased from use, desks that are faded from age, or shelves that are simply out of date.

Of course finding these pieces did not surprise me much as you can find such discarded furnishings in nearly any culture that is rich enough to afford new stuff. It’s amazing to me how cheap you can find brand new furniture these days. But what happens to the old stuff? These items are just left out until someone thrifty comes along and finds use for them, right? Wrong. I had the unfortunate chance to witness a whole living room set that was smashed to pieces, just so it would fit into the back of the truck to be brought to the dump. It seems to be an unjust end for these beautiful pieces of furniture. That is, unless someone comes along and saves them…

After seeing all those chairs and closets turned into firewood, I decided that I would try and rescue other items left stranded, awaiting a similar fate. It didn’t take long for my little studio apartment to fill up with couches, chairs, tables, you name it. Yet, as fast as these items come in, they can be shipped out thanks to websites like Pusanweb and Koreabridge Classifieds. It’s funny how many responses you’ll get if you post an ad titled “Free Couch”; apparently there are lots of foreigners in Busan who are sick of sitting on the floor.

After turning my place into a little furniture warehouse and talking to others about it, I’ve realized that I’m not the only one who does this. There are some who deal in used furniture so much that it makes their teaching position look like a job on the side. I’m glad too, because in this age of consumption it feels good to reuse these previously loved pieces. So now, as I wander the streets and come across a hand carved cabinet, or an uber comfortable couch, I know that sooner or later, someone else will be enjoying this in their house. Trash is transformed into treasure, as life in Korea just becomes more comfortable.

the distribution of knowledge

i was browsing the stingy scholar blog and came across this video that really highlights the incredible change over the past few years in how we distribute information. what does the distribution of knowledge look like today? it's no longer exclusive to the higher learning institutions, but has been handed down (or stolen) by us.. the people. the wealth of knowledge (and garbage) online is infinite, and access to all of this requires only a connection (guidance could also be useful too).
it seems that because so much knowledge is so readily available (for those who can get online), i feel overwhelmed with it all. you could read books or order books, or have them read to you; you could watch others videos or upload your own videos to share; you can call up someone in another country for free on skype or take a virtual tour of that country; you can watch a lecture online, or even teach English to a class online; there seems to be so many options that you really only have to know where to look. i wonder if the traditional ideas of credible sources will change/have changed? can a blog be cited as a reliable source of knowledge? or wikipedia or other open source projects?..
enjoy the video.