SEOUL STIMULATION/NERVE BLOCKS TREATMENT – FIRST REPORT
I am in Seoul doing the stimulation/nerve blocks treatment. I haven't announced it before because it has been a very difficult trip for me and, given my catastrophic tinnitus, it is important that I stay as calm as possible during this treatment. This trip is an absolute ordeal for me. I travelled a lot over the years, pre-tinnitus. Ironically, I had been to most Asian countries except South Korea. Normally, I would enjoy this cultural experience. However, with this catastrophic tinnitus I need to push through every hour, and in a foreign country without any previous exposure I am alone in pure survival mode. Despite this, as I always benefited from comments of people who went before me, like
@BrysonKingMe and
@bikerbandito, I would like to offer some information in turn, for people who are considering this treatment in the future. I have started the treatment, but I don't want to say much on how I'm feeling, because it's very early days and early impressions can be misleading. I think that for very severe cases like me we need to wait at least session 12-15 to offer comments. I had three sessions so far.
The flight was tough, very tough. I put Peltors on and tried to drug myself to sleep. I managed mostly, but the Peltors gave me jaw and head pain with their prolonged use (from London it is a 12h flight and I had to use them also on bus and tube previously).
Some info on logistics. As I had spiked after the first COVID-19 vaccination, I obtained an NHS exemption from vaccine and quarantine. Many phone calls to South Korean consulates, offices, web pages, etc told me that I had to quarantine one week, not having double vaccine. I resigned myself to that and to wasting one week and a bunch of money but as I landed, they let me through by looking at the NHS exemption. So, I found myself on Saturday night without a hotel as my Airbnb would start one week later. I booked a random hotel and texted the clinic, they immediately replied, even if it was the weekend, and told me it was ok to squeeze me in early the week after, so not to waste one week. I also bought a Korean SIM card with unlimited data and some minutes of calls, this is useful for a number of reasons. You can use also the SIM as a hotspot for your laptop, although Wifi is available almost everywhere. It is very helpful to have a dual SIM phone. Most mobiles now have an electronic sim and a slot for a physical sim, which I used for the Korean SIM.
Also, if you need to bring in benzodiazepines, and possibly other restricted medications, you need a permit of the narcotics office, as Bryson mentioned above,
narcotics@korea.kr. This is a long process, and you should apply by email at least 10-14 days in advance, have a prescription showing the amount of medication, and a letter from the doctor explaining the diagnosis. Also, you need to fill two forms. It was an absolute nightmare for me, very bureaucratic, I had to ask my GP to reword the letter twice, but eventually I got the permit. However, no one checked anything at the airport.
Once you land, you need to do a PCR test before 48 hours. Go to a public health center, there is one in every district. The test is free. I had gone to a private hospital near my hotel and they would have charged 100$, and then it would also be more complicated to get it into the immigration records.
Another point: so far, I found very few people speaking English in Seoul, very very few. So, download Google Lens and keep Google Translate open, they are absolute life-savers.
The metro is excellent in Seoul, it goes basically everywhere, and it is relatively cheap compared, for example, to London. You can buy a metro card at stations. The metro is also relatively silent compared to London's for example, but I still wear Peltors.
The two doctors, Dr. Heon Man Sirh and Dr. Soo-Ji Sirh, are really caring, kind and very welcoming. Soo-Ji is a neuro-surgeon and talks to patients at length, answers all questions, helps with all sorts of problems, and works hard to accommodate schedules. Soo-Ji has been very kind and helpful to me on many occasions. Dr. Heon Man Sirh, is an anesthesiologist and has published a book on the use of needles in medicine (together with a few journal publications, some co-authored by Soo-Ji).
At the first meeting, Soo-Ji took some data and reviewed my medical history. Then we started the treatment
I would like to explain a couple of points on the treatment that may not be obvious from previous information.
First, the needles are considered safe because they don't go too close to the nerves. I don't know if this is because they are shorter than typical pain-medicine injection needles in the west. They do imaging only the first session to see the patient specific anatomy, inserting the needles under imaging, but from session two onward they insert the needles without imaging. They are very experienced at this, and you can see it from the confidence they have in inserting them. They have probably done it hundreds if not thousands of times on many patients. The needles have special caps that can be opened to inject the Lidocaine, so that they don't need to insert needles again for the injection with a syringe. Optional, you can get injected in the same trigger points placenta derivatives, like growth factors and cytokines. This is not so dissimilar from what some stem cells clinics do, but these are not stem cells. This is still done through the needle caps, so again no need for an injection with a syringe or a new needle insertion. I said that these needles might be shorter than western injection pain medicine needles, but I'm not sure. However, this is absolutely not acupuncture, they are still injection needles, they go deeper, and the pathways are completely different from acupuncture.
The clinic is based in Gangnam. Everyone is extremely kind and professional, from the doctors to the nurses.
I would ask you please not to ask me any questions before I reach session 12 or 15. I will post an update myself.
Greetings from Seoul,
Chinmoku
--- END OF FIRST REPORT FROM SEOUL ---
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