The last month at school has been pretty hectic. Two teachers were victims of pneumonia (one of them twice), one had to have her appendix removed, and three were victims of the much-talked about and dreaded swine flu. One teacher had to have his hand operated, one fell off a motorbike, and one…well, I won’t mention what this last person when through. Eeww! The school’s staff is split up on two floors: morning teachers on the 5th floor, and p.m. teachers on the 2nd floor. Fifteen of us work on the 5th floor, elbow-to-elbow in a small, rectangular room. I say small because, if I whisper, the person in the desk at the other end of the room can still make out what I’m saying. One of my colleagues, Jennifer, has recently affectionately started calling it The Petri Dish. Jennifer was one of the victims of pneumonia, so bear with her, please. I’m surprised she still has a sense of humour. To top it all off, all the teachers have at least experienced one, (and, for most, quite a few) of the following symptoms:
-deep, painful chest cough
-headache
-runny nose
-fatigue
-vomiting (sorry, it had to be said)
-fever
In an effort to keep us all rosy-cheeked, the school has kindly offered to pay for the seasonal flu vaccine AND has imposed mandatory wearing of face-masks. As much as these made me chuckle when I first landed on Korean soil, I must say that I did feel safer behind my tiny cloth barrier.
Still, sick teachers mean that the healthy ones have to compensate with a lot of subbing, which tends to take a toll and perpetuates the circle of sickness. I prided myself on keeping the diseases at bay. Until this weekend, I didn’t even have a cough… I’m built like a horse, and usually quite proud of it.
But it hit me on Sunday. And, again, in typical Mélanie fashion, it hit me all out of whack. I didn’t have the flu, but I didn’t have a cold, either. I’m still pondering that one, too. My symptoms (intense throwing-up, perpetual headache, raw throat) and lack of others (fever, runny nose, muscle ache, throat & nose mucus) threw the doctor off. He said they were problematic. Of course, I already knew that.
So he debated, out loud, over what he was going to prescribe me in order to provide me with some relief.
Before we go any further, I probably should mention that I’m the type of cool person that can have a fairly good time just by ingesting a gravol. They make me laugh hysterically, sometimes to the point of tears. Not always good when you’re suffering from nausea, but I digress. That, in any case, is another story.
To make a long tale short, the good doctor (whose name, to my great discomfort, was Dr. Kwak) prescribed, amongst a variety of other things…codeine. It’s true. I stared silently at him for a while, but left with my prescription, and the beginning of a money-making scheme, in hand. The reception nurse wanted me to wait, because you apparently cannot have a codeine prescription filled at the pharmacy. Only hospitals do it. I went home with two weeks’ worth of roundish, little white tablets.
When I stepped into my apartment, I conducted my own little research. Here is what I found out:
According to Wikipedia, codeine is an alkaloid found in opium and other poppy saps like Papaver bracteatum, the Iranian poppy. Codeine is classed as an illegal drug in Greece, and individuals possessing it could conceivably be arrested, even if they were legitimately prescribed it in another country.
Drugs.com states that codeine can cause side effects that may impair your thinking or reactions. They warn that you should be careful if you drive or do anything that requires you to be awake and alert. They say you should not stop using codeine suddenly, or you could have unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. They advise you to talk to your doctor about how to avoid withdrawal symptoms when stopping the medication.
So, if you do decide to come knocking at my door, please be advised that I TAKE CASH ONLY.
In an effort to keep us all rosy-cheeked, the school has kindly offered to pay for the seasonal flu vaccine AND has imposed mandatory wearing of face-masks. As much as these made me chuckle when I first landed on Korean soil, I must say that I did feel safer behind my tiny cloth barrier.
Still, sick teachers mean that the healthy ones have to compensate with a lot of subbing, which tends to take a toll and perpetuates the circle of sickness. I prided myself on keeping the diseases at bay. Until this weekend, I didn’t even have a cough… I’m built like a horse, and usually quite proud of it.
But it hit me on Sunday. And, again, in typical Mélanie fashion, it hit me all out of whack. I didn’t have the flu, but I didn’t have a cold, either. I’m still pondering that one, too. My symptoms (intense throwing-up, perpetual headache, raw throat) and lack of others (fever, runny nose, muscle ache, throat & nose mucus) threw the doctor off. He said they were problematic. Of course, I already knew that.
So he debated, out loud, over what he was going to prescribe me in order to provide me with some relief.
Before we go any further, I probably should mention that I’m the type of cool person that can have a fairly good time just by ingesting a gravol. They make me laugh hysterically, sometimes to the point of tears. Not always good when you’re suffering from nausea, but I digress. That, in any case, is another story.
To make a long tale short, the good doctor (whose name, to my great discomfort, was Dr. Kwak) prescribed, amongst a variety of other things…codeine. It’s true. I stared silently at him for a while, but left with my prescription, and the beginning of a money-making scheme, in hand. The reception nurse wanted me to wait, because you apparently cannot have a codeine prescription filled at the pharmacy. Only hospitals do it. I went home with two weeks’ worth of roundish, little white tablets.
When I stepped into my apartment, I conducted my own little research. Here is what I found out:
According to Wikipedia, codeine is an alkaloid found in opium and other poppy saps like Papaver bracteatum, the Iranian poppy. Codeine is classed as an illegal drug in Greece, and individuals possessing it could conceivably be arrested, even if they were legitimately prescribed it in another country.
Drugs.com states that codeine can cause side effects that may impair your thinking or reactions. They warn that you should be careful if you drive or do anything that requires you to be awake and alert. They say you should not stop using codeine suddenly, or you could have unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. They advise you to talk to your doctor about how to avoid withdrawal symptoms when stopping the medication.
So, if you do decide to come knocking at my door, please be advised that I TAKE CASH ONLY.
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