What's behind door #3?

I had hurt my hand and as the days went by, the pain was getting worse and I finally decided that I 'might' need to see a doctor. Well, I think that when you have 'sharp shooting pain' when you turn a piece of paper over.. that THAT is a hint that you need medical care. Hey, I'm nothing if not 'observant!' :D

I vaguely remembered seeing a sign for a 'bone/joint' type of doctor in my neighborhood so.. that was my plan of action.. find a doctor.

One advantage of living here in Korea, is that doctor offices are open on Saturdays usually from 9:30-4:00pm. On Saturday morning, I left my apartment at 9:15 and walked out to the main street and looked up for signs that would lead me to a medical doctor who could treat my injured hand.

I walked out onto the street right across the street from my apartment and I saw:

A 'rehab' medical place. So, I thought.. "Hummm, that might work. After all, I might need a brace for my hand to stablize it." *Click on the photo to make it larger.

I was pretty happy to find something right across the street from where I lived.

I walked up to the 4th floor, no elevator and no handrail on the last 2 two sets of very steep stairs. My next thought was.. "NOW, what kind of 'rehab' do they do?" "Clearly not physical injuries... after all.. how on earth could someone with a foot, knee, leg, or ankle injury manage to get to this medical office?" I decided that there were many types of 'rehab'.. after all those on drugs need to have 'rehab' to help them get over their dependency, right? So, I decided that maybe there was a better place and I walked back down the stairs.

I walked out onto the main 6 lane street and started looking 'up' at the signs advertising the businesses on the upper floors. I found this sign:

And.. I thought.. well, the beginning of a bone/joint doctor would be ORTHO.. and the way that it's spelled could be a simple mistake. I was most hesitant because, I have never, ever, ever, seen that 19 letter long type of doctor listed before. I looked at the sign again.. and since my hand was really hurting- I decided to go inside and find the doctor's office.

I walked inside and ALL OF THE NAMES listing the offices, shops, doctors/etc. in the building were all listed on the 'directory' in Korean. I had no way of knowing where this doctor would even be found in the building.

I stood there and studied the sign and then I walked back outside to see if I could 'match up' any of the Korean Hangul letters on the sign with the directory sign on the inside. I went inside and outside looking at the signs a few times and since I can't read Korean and was having a hard time trying to find the 'one office' out of the many business names written in Korean. I finally gave up and continued walking and said a quick prayer that I needed some help finding the right place to find someone to help me.

I decided to keep walking in the same direction and as soon as I looked up I saw this sign:


It was now 10:10 and I went inside. There was an elevator and stairs. It's looking better already. Stairs with handrails that weren't so steep that you felt like you were hiking up a mountain. Even better.

I went into the doctor's office and pointed to my thumb- and grimaced with pain to erase all doubt as to why I was there. She pointed to the 'sign in sheet'.. and I wrote my name in English among all the others written in Korean. She pointed to the couch for me to sit down. *Another good sign..

In about 15 minutes I was sent to the doctor's office. As soon as I waked in I realized that I hit the mother lode.. because.. HE SPOKE FLUENT ENGLISH and told me that he often goes to the states for training updates. He X-rayed my hand and told me that I had indeed injured the tendon, gave me a brace to isolate my thumb and I was given an appointment a week later.

The best news of all? He has his own Physical T department and a couple of PT staff working there speak English too! I started 3 weekly PT sessions a week the following week.

The moral to this story? Keep looking up, don't give up, good things come to those that wait. AND, even on 'Let's Make a Deal' door #3 usually had the big prize!

And now you know.. what was behind door #3