Today is the five-year anniversary of the Asian Reemergence (you'll understand after reading this)
This post is an excerpt from my blog about Korea in early 2009, I wasn't exactly Living the Dream.
I expanded on that blog when asked by some good friends (Eman & Jablow) about how bad it actually was. The below text was an email to them, but because of the interest and experience involved, I've decided to publish it as a stand-alone short story.. please enjoy, and don't despair, I'm OK now.
I don't think the pics tell the entire story, so here it is...
December 9, 2008: I went to a friends land in Mendocino County after I got laid off, when I got there my bro mentioned that I could assist in the clearing of an old logging road. With my recent life changes this seemed like the perfect outlet for any frustrations I might feel, so we busted out the Chainsaw, clippers, machetes, and cleared some 40 year old brush. We spent two days doing it and made a damn fine road if I do say so myself. Each Day I scrubbed like crazy after being in "it" for a few hours, but "it" ended up in patches all over my body & within two days my eyes looked like I had been sprayed with mace - puffy to the point where they were constantly watering, and bloodshot because I hadn't slept for almost 50 hours.
I know I get "it" bad, but I was oblivious the first few days & my normal medication (prednisone) was back in San Diego, while I was on a farm an hour from anywhere.
After day four my eyes got better but my arm got worse, like the individual tendrils of oak had been wrapped around it... I'm pretty sure they were. I had just gotten laid off was taking all of my frustrations out by just ripping at the various vegetation that had taken the road back, not really paying attention to exactly where these leafless vines came in contact with exposed skin.
December 17... POISON OAK IS EVIL! You see, I used to get poison ivy pretty bad as a kid, and had gotten some cases of poison oak since living in Cali, so I wasn't too worried. But it kept getting worse, on the 5th day I had to drive a friend to the San Francisco airport and my right forearm was oozing puss, yeah, I know, nasty. I was disgusted as was he, I could barely sleep since it actually hurt as well as itched. I'd never had it this bad, there were blisters on blisters the size of a quarter all over my arm, I had to keep it wrapped just to move in public but that just compounded the problem since the oak (or ivy) likes fresh air in order to dry, and heal. That night we met up with some friends in the city (DJ Mikey Lixxx & his girl) and I proceeded to drink as many Long Island Iced Teas as I could just so I could get a good nights sleep.
Woke up the next morning and it had gotten even worse, my entire arm was a blister, so I went to St Francis' Emergency Room in downtown San Fran, where they were even amazed/repulsed/confused - so I told them I needed a steroid shot, as well as pills, which is how we used to treat it when I was a kid. They obliged, thank god, and told me to see a skin graft specialist since my arm would probably never look the same again, I laughed and said that although this is bad, I have no doubts that it will dry up and heal with minimal scarring. (It has, by the way) I then hit up the pharmacy for some Valium, 600 mg Ibuprofen & Prednisone (that magical steroid that's really bad for us but seems to be the only thing that ever works) -- I was on my way to recovery, after a night in Mill Valley at another old friends house I picked up Dorothy at the airport and went back to NorCal for some R & R.
By the 22nd we were driving home & it was drying up, YIPPEE! I felt way better and other than the fact that I was shedding skin things seemed to be looking up.
Around Christmas I had run out of the pills they had given me, yet I still had a few patches on various parts of my body. Luckily years ago I had made a run to Mexico to pick those magic pills up for a situation just like this, so I took more. I knew I was coming to Korea and the last thing I wanted to do was deal with this there, so I made an appointment with my doctor for January 5th. I told him my story & he told me to put some aloe on it... I did, for 3 days and it was still sticking around. WTF, so I called him and he gave me yet another' script for prednisone. It's January 8th, I leave for Seoul on the 14th. I took it and honest to god it was gone. I had a few random dry patches on my arm but it was really gone, and I was happy since this was the last thing I wanted to deal with abroad.
So now it's January 17, I'm in Korea going to a Jimjilbang, which is a Korean bathhouse/sauna. This was killer, many different temperatures of hot pools, cold pools, western style (stand up) showers, eastern style (sitting) - a sweat lodge, different styles of Sauna, some just plain hot, some thick with Eucalyptus. The floors in Korea are heated so people would just lie wherever, I guess if your into it one can just pass out here for the night in a quiet corner. The actual Jimjilbang is co-ed and seems to be where families or couples go for a night to eat, and get massages or whatever. There's also a gym and all the spa amenities that any girl who reads this is used to, I wasn't so familiar. Now it gets strange again, Jono wanted to get a scrub: for like 8 bucks some dude in the bathhouse will scrub you with a rough loofah to strip your dead skin off, supposedly this is very healthy and effective. So we did it. It was like a massage, except rougher, faster, and a little painful. We were obviously smoother when it was all over, I think I lost a significant amount of lower leg hair, but in the end (we were there for like six hours) we were incredibly relaxed & rested.
Two days later (it's January 19) I'd traveled to southern Korea for a look at the more "rural" side of this Asian country, and I'm realizing the "scrub" had after-effects... It brought the poison oak back! Yeah, really, my right arm is blistered again and my lower legs are covered, I noticed it on Sunday and hoped it was just a fluke, hoped I had enough of that damn steroid in my system to clear it out. Nope, it's now right back where I was on day three or four (Dec 14th) - where the hell do I go in Korea to get this treated? How do I explain it? I called Dorothy to send me the remaining pills I have at home and it's Sunday there, Monday's MLK Day and there's no mail, so the soonest she can get them out is Tuesday which means I see them maybe Thursday?!?!? WTF, I need an ancient "Korean" secret or something. After some research we figured out the shipping would take even longer because prescriptions need to clear customs... fuck, I had no idea where I would be since by that point I was traveling to Hong Kong, Macau AND back to Kowloon.
To sum up, on January 21 I found a pill when I got back to Seoul that seemed to help, it stabilized it so it never made it back to that magnitude. Then I found a Pharmacy in Hong Kong on January 28, the pharmacists can prescribe medication, I got an even stronger steroid and watched it go away rapidly. It didn't fully clear up till Feb 5, I remember because I was looking for the "oak" as I was scratching mosquito bites when I was going back to Bangkok at the end of my time in Thailand.
I hope you enjoyed that, I didn't and now don't go anywhere without that powerful steroid, just in case.
This post is an excerpt from my blog about Korea in early 2009, I wasn't exactly Living the Dream.
I expanded on that blog when asked by some good friends (Eman & Jablow) about how bad it actually was. The below text was an email to them, but because of the interest and experience involved, I've decided to publish it as a stand-alone short story.. please enjoy, and don't despair, I'm OK now.
I don't think the pics tell the entire story, so here it is...
December 9, 2008: I went to a friends land in Mendocino County after I got laid off, when I got there my bro mentioned that I could assist in the clearing of an old logging road. With my recent life changes this seemed like the perfect outlet for any frustrations I might feel, so we busted out the Chainsaw, clippers, machetes, and cleared some 40 year old brush. We spent two days doing it and made a damn fine road if I do say so myself. Each Day I scrubbed like crazy after being in "it" for a few hours, but "it" ended up in patches all over my body & within two days my eyes looked like I had been sprayed with mace - puffy to the point where they were constantly watering, and bloodshot because I hadn't slept for almost 50 hours.
I know I get "it" bad, but I was oblivious the first few days & my normal medication (prednisone) was back in San Diego, while I was on a farm an hour from anywhere.
After day four my eyes got better but my arm got worse, like the individual tendrils of oak had been wrapped around it... I'm pretty sure they were. I had just gotten laid off was taking all of my frustrations out by just ripping at the various vegetation that had taken the road back, not really paying attention to exactly where these leafless vines came in contact with exposed skin.
December 17... POISON OAK IS EVIL! You see, I used to get poison ivy pretty bad as a kid, and had gotten some cases of poison oak since living in Cali, so I wasn't too worried. But it kept getting worse, on the 5th day I had to drive a friend to the San Francisco airport and my right forearm was oozing puss, yeah, I know, nasty. I was disgusted as was he, I could barely sleep since it actually hurt as well as itched. I'd never had it this bad, there were blisters on blisters the size of a quarter all over my arm, I had to keep it wrapped just to move in public but that just compounded the problem since the oak (or ivy) likes fresh air in order to dry, and heal. That night we met up with some friends in the city (DJ Mikey Lixxx & his girl) and I proceeded to drink as many Long Island Iced Teas as I could just so I could get a good nights sleep.
Woke up the next morning and it had gotten even worse, my entire arm was a blister, so I went to St Francis' Emergency Room in downtown San Fran, where they were even amazed/repulsed/confused - so I told them I needed a steroid shot, as well as pills, which is how we used to treat it when I was a kid. They obliged, thank god, and told me to see a skin graft specialist since my arm would probably never look the same again, I laughed and said that although this is bad, I have no doubts that it will dry up and heal with minimal scarring. (It has, by the way) I then hit up the pharmacy for some Valium, 600 mg Ibuprofen & Prednisone (that magical steroid that's really bad for us but seems to be the only thing that ever works) -- I was on my way to recovery, after a night in Mill Valley at another old friends house I picked up Dorothy at the airport and went back to NorCal for some R & R.
By the 22nd we were driving home & it was drying up, YIPPEE! I felt way better and other than the fact that I was shedding skin things seemed to be looking up.
Around Christmas I had run out of the pills they had given me, yet I still had a few patches on various parts of my body. Luckily years ago I had made a run to Mexico to pick those magic pills up for a situation just like this, so I took more. I knew I was coming to Korea and the last thing I wanted to do was deal with this there, so I made an appointment with my doctor for January 5th. I told him my story & he told me to put some aloe on it... I did, for 3 days and it was still sticking around. WTF, so I called him and he gave me yet another' script for prednisone. It's January 8th, I leave for Seoul on the 14th. I took it and honest to god it was gone. I had a few random dry patches on my arm but it was really gone, and I was happy since this was the last thing I wanted to deal with abroad.
So now it's January 17, I'm in Korea going to a Jimjilbang, which is a Korean bathhouse/sauna. This was killer, many different temperatures of hot pools, cold pools, western style (stand up) showers, eastern style (sitting) - a sweat lodge, different styles of Sauna, some just plain hot, some thick with Eucalyptus. The floors in Korea are heated so people would just lie wherever, I guess if your into it one can just pass out here for the night in a quiet corner. The actual Jimjilbang is co-ed and seems to be where families or couples go for a night to eat, and get massages or whatever. There's also a gym and all the spa amenities that any girl who reads this is used to, I wasn't so familiar. Now it gets strange again, Jono wanted to get a scrub: for like 8 bucks some dude in the bathhouse will scrub you with a rough loofah to strip your dead skin off, supposedly this is very healthy and effective. So we did it. It was like a massage, except rougher, faster, and a little painful. We were obviously smoother when it was all over, I think I lost a significant amount of lower leg hair, but in the end (we were there for like six hours) we were incredibly relaxed & rested.
Two days later (it's January 19) I'd traveled to southern Korea for a look at the more "rural" side of this Asian country, and I'm realizing the "scrub" had after-effects... It brought the poison oak back! Yeah, really, my right arm is blistered again and my lower legs are covered, I noticed it on Sunday and hoped it was just a fluke, hoped I had enough of that damn steroid in my system to clear it out. Nope, it's now right back where I was on day three or four (Dec 14th) - where the hell do I go in Korea to get this treated? How do I explain it? I called Dorothy to send me the remaining pills I have at home and it's Sunday there, Monday's MLK Day and there's no mail, so the soonest she can get them out is Tuesday which means I see them maybe Thursday?!?!? WTF, I need an ancient "Korean" secret or something. After some research we figured out the shipping would take even longer because prescriptions need to clear customs... fuck, I had no idea where I would be since by that point I was traveling to Hong Kong, Macau AND back to Kowloon.
To sum up, on January 21 I found a pill when I got back to Seoul that seemed to help, it stabilized it so it never made it back to that magnitude. Then I found a Pharmacy in Hong Kong on January 28, the pharmacists can prescribe medication, I got an even stronger steroid and watched it go away rapidly. It didn't fully clear up till Feb 5, I remember because I was looking for the "oak" as I was scratching mosquito bites when I was going back to Bangkok at the end of my time in Thailand.
I hope you enjoyed that, I didn't and now don't go anywhere without that powerful steroid, just in case.
