Touches of Empathy Claire Cambron The morning I am to leave for my placement city, I wake up unusually stiff and sore. I step out of bed and a familiar jolt of pain radiates from my glute to my foot. Not this again. Dread rushes over me as I remember my last episode. It took a full month for the pain to subside then. Maybe this time the recovery period will be shorter, now that I recognize it for what it is: sciatica. I pop two ibuprofens and do my best to hide my limp throughout the closing ceremony, lunch and departure to Cheongju. *** It’s three weeks into my homestay and I am inexplicably happy. My host family is generous and kind, and I’m really hitting it off with my host brother. My co-teachers are incredibly thoughtful, and my students are an endearing combination of adorable, funny and frustrating. But at night, I cry. It hurts to shift my weight, and every sneeze or cough is agonizing. I wake up every two hours and desperately try to stretch out my back to stop the aching. As much as I try to hide the pain, convinced that it should dissipate any day now,
people begin to comment. My co-teachers notice my limp and the grimace that crosses my face every time I kneel down to help a student at his or her desk. My host family notices how difficult it is for me to position myself on the floor for dinner. They are worried, and so am I. My pain has not lessened; it’s only worsened. It’s time I see a doctor. *** Over the next several weeks, I visit and re-visit two orthopedists, a general practitioner and an internist. They each perform different physical examinations and order new x-rays and blood draws. One doctor thinks it’s a herniated disk. The other thinks I just have tight hip flexors. One prescribes rest. The other prescribes exercise. With each new result, we eliminate yet another possibility from our list, but to me it seems like the answer is getting further and further out of reach. It’s emotionally and physically draining, but small moments keep me going. *** My co-teacher Mrs. Won, whom I call Ally, insists on picking me up from my physical
