doctor spaceman

As I've mentioned, this year I'm teaching more older kids than previously. One of the benefits of this is that I've been much healthier this year than in years past. I think the general rule is that the younger the kids are that you teach, the more often you get sick.

In fact, it's taken me until now to get ill. I woke up today feeling pretty terrible. My boss noticed I was a bit under the weather. She arranged for me an appointment at a clinic after work. I went and got some medicine. I'll be fine in a couple days.

Before I saw the doctor, a coworker offered me some help of her own. She felt my forehead, noticed it was hot, and asked if I'd like to try a traditional Oriental cold remedy. I said sure why not. She came back with a small, warm bottle of...something. She said it would taste awful, but make me feel better. She told me to drink it quickly, because if I didn't drink it while it was warm, it wouldn't work. I drank it. It was awful. I didn't feel any better.

I'm pretty sure the doctor I saw is the Korean version of Dr. Leo Spaceman. His English was nearly perfect, but he just said some weird stuff. First, he looked at my throat and mentioned that I didn't have any tonsils. I never had my tonsils removed, and told him so, but he was adamant that I had none. He then said that because I had no tonsils, he couldn't give me antibiotics. I have no idea why, or what the relation between tonsils and antibiotics is. I've never had a doctor tell me he couldn't prescribe me an antibiotic because I don't have tonsils. I've been prescribed antibiotics dozens of times, and I have tonsils.

After he inspects me for a bit, he tells me about the medicine he's going to prescribe me. I swear this is what he said: "This is like a super-drug. It's too strong for Koreans but I heard it's okay for Americans. And it will prevent you from getting AIDS. I know a doctor who takes one everyday, like it's a vitamin."

I mean, what the hell does that mean? He totally just dropped it in there, as a side note, that this medicine will prevent AIDS. I wanted to tell him that there are some people in Sub-Saharan Africa who might be interested in this pill, but I also really wanted to just go home, so I left it alone.

Now my dilemma is whether or not to actually ingest medicine that is prescribed to me by a doctor who insists I've had my tonsils removed and believes there's a pill that prevents AIDS.