"Asthma doesn't exist in Korea."

Since today seems to be Korean medicine day on this blog, I figure why not add one more post. It has become habit that myself and 7 of my friends begin a facebook thread to start off every week. While we may have dropped the ball about the weekly aspect, we do strictly adhere to maintaining this thread. At this point it is an invaluable part of our lives. We go there to make jokes, vent, share stories etc... Just 5 minutes ago my friend, Sam Kuntz, wrote a brilliant piece on his odyssey to acquire a new inhaler. Enjoy.

My asthma inhalers that I brought over are almost gone. So faced with either death, finding a Korean inhaler, or doing mail order that will take forever, I decided on option B. I told my co-teacher "I need another one of these, let's go to the doctor and get a prescription" and showed her the inhaler. She checked with the school nurse, who said first that I don't need an inhaler, that if I wear a mask, it will cure my asthma. Then after I said that was ridiculous she said "you don't need a prescription, go to medical supply store." We went to medical supply store where they sell shit like diabetes testers, adult diapers, electric blankets, syringes, etc. But no medicine. She showed the guy there the inhaler. He said they don't have it, we have to go downtown. I told my teacher, "It's medicine, I just need to go get a prescription." The guy then called somewhere else, where they told him that only once in the the last 10 years has anyone ever needed an inhaler. My co then told me that asthma doesn't exist in Korea. I said, "No, let's go to a doctor, that's not true."

We went to a doctor, showed him the inhaler, he said "Oh yes," gave me a prescription, and I got an inhaler in less than 5 minutes. My co-teacher then said "Oh, I guess you were right." - Sam Kuntz