So, I can't like, move

On Thursday I woke up with a bit of stiffness in my neck. I thought it was just the result of sleeping on our stone mattress, which has been the case a few times in the last few months. As the day wore on the stiffness and pain got progressively worse, until I could barely turn my head. The pain had moved into my upper back and I realized this was a recurring injury; the result of an accident I had more than three years ago.

I suffered through the evening, deciding not to go see a doctor because such an event is a major ordeal for obvious reasons. Last night I slept for less than two hours, unable to move and forced to lay flat on my back with my hands on my chest, quickly waking up from sharp pain when I was lucky enough to doze off. Seeing as I couldn't move, I definitely couldn't deal with Cate, which meant Carmen had to take the day off of work. I phoned the international clinic at Kiemyang University Hospital, which we knew is somewhere in the Seomun Market area, and described my condition. The receptionist made an appointment for me with a physical therapy specialist for three hours later. They don't mess around with general practitioners here, especially when the problem is obvious. Easy enough.

So we all jumped in a taxi and went to Seomun. The heat was bad but the humidity was deadly. Not something you want when you're walking through the largest and most crowded outdoor market in Daegu. As the taxi approached, the traffic was mad, so we jumped out and decided to find the hospital on foot. What d'ya know, it was right around the corner. The receptionist immediately brought me down to the doctor's office. He examined my goods and prescribed me four different pills, a massage gel, a set of heat patches for my softball-sized kinks and told me to get a few massages before I visit him again in two weeks.

So far the medication is slightly decreasing the pain and stiffness but the extreme discomfort is still there, along with a throbbing headache. Hopefully by Monday I'll be fully functional, or at least at a point where I can pick up Cate. If things improve, you'll be the first to know.