Well, here we are… we are living the worst days of our lives, physically wounded and filled with such an overflowing sadness we have a very hard time trying to hide our tears from Côme. He doesn’t understand why he is feeling so sad himself. We try to explain the best we can…
If we had not fallen, we would have stayed one more week in the Philippines, explored the island and its falls, swam with whale sharks, hiked on top of rounded hills… Then we would have flown to Sydney for a sunny Christmas at the beach (Julia’s dream: “We have to go to the beach on Christmas and take a picture, right!?”). Then a two weeks road trip in New Zealand and then a few days in Tahiti before getting to the Americas… It would have been nice to read all about it and take a look at the pictures right?! …
“Maybe we should go home, take time to heal, spend Christmas with our family and then resume our trip…” says Julia when Côme is finally asleep. “If we do that, you know we won’t go back… The trip would be over…”. – “But can we continue on like that?” – “No… No we can’t… You both need care and a lot of rest. We can’t be on the move and we sure can’t stay in a hotel in Australia or New Zealand…”. We both know it would be too expensive to change our plans in Oceania, both plane tickets and accommodations are too pricey. “So what do we do?” – “Let’s sleep… We’ll talk about it tomorrow…”
“Côme, do you want to stop the world trip?” – “No! I want to continue!”
First, we have to find a doctor to attend the wounds, we can’t just do it on our own. Fortunately, there is a clinic 2 minutes away from the apartment. Doo walks there and ask the doctor to come with him. The wounds look frightening but the doctor says it’s ok. Julia needs to get her leg x-rayed though, so she goes to town with a nurse while Doo stays with Côme who can’t really move… There are no broken bones.
In the evening, Côme’s wound looks attrocious and Julia is in extreme pain. We need to get out of here and find proper medical care. We are very doubtful of the treatment we receive and we fear for Côme and Julia’s health. What can we do? Going back to France would mean a 40h flight (plus the time it takes to go back to Manila). Neither Côme and Julia can endure such journey. We can’t aford to wait a full week before going to Australia. We feel the extreme urgency to take proper care of the wounds. So there seems to be only one solution: we need to go back to South Korea. It is only a 4h flight from Manila, we know we can rest at António’s and we feel confident we can get good medical care there.
António is leaving for Portugal in three days but he tells us we can stay at his place for as long as we need even though he’s not home. So we find a flight from Manila for the next day but there’s another problem now. How do we get there? How do we get out of this island? The doctor tells us that our best option is to take the bus back to the south and then a ferry to another island where there’s a nearby airport. It’s closer and faster than any other way. It’s settled! We buy tickets from there to Manila on an early flight so we don’t miss our plane to Seoul. Everything should be fine now…
But everything is not… When trying to go to the bathroom, we realize Julia cannot even stand on her own anymore because of the pain. Côme is sleeping and the thought of being stranded here is frightening… “Sweety, if you can’t even stand, how are we going to take on that journey to the airport? I already have to carry Côme and the two bags…”. Doo was lucky in the accident, he “only” got some bruises, minor scratches and a cracked rib. “What about the plane?! Will you be able to take the plane?!” – “I just need to get there, I’ll manage the plane!”. Julia is determined to leave this island as fast as possible.
Since we can’t take the bus and we can’t take the car, there’s only one solution: we need an ambulance. Doo returns to the clinic and ask if an ambulance can bring us to the airport at 6 o’clock in the morning next day. They answer it is not possible but Doo insists and explains the situation : “We’ve got to leave… We have a plane to catch and my wife cannot walk… There’s got to be a way… We can’t stay here, we NEED to leave…”. After spending a few minutes on the phone, the nurse tells Doo an ambulance will be coming at 6 o’clock tomorrow…. “Thank you!!!”
The very next day, we wake up at 5 am and start a very long journey to Seoul. Julia is able to stand today (mind over matter) but gets into the ambulance on a stretcher. On the way to the ferry, Côme gets sick and we have to stop for him to vomit. Then we take a rather short ferry ride. “Do you think we’ll be able to see the whale sharks?” – “I don’t think so sweety…”. And then, we’re quickly at the airport. From there on, we will always be given a couple of wheelchairs and the airline crews will always help us, from getting through the customs, to going on the plane and transferring in Manila. With everyone being extremely helpful, the journey is actually a lot easier than we thought it would be. Actually, if it were not for the people’s kindness, care and generosity, we really don’t know how we could have managed. We are truely thankful to the people of the Philippines and really sad we had to leave them in such conditions…
It’s 11:30 pm when we are finally greeted by António at the airport. He brought warm coats for us. We don’t have any winter clothes and it’s freezing outside. We are relieved and happy to see him but our journey is not over yet…
Côme’s bandages need to be changed so we go to the hospital. Once we are taken in, the doctor tells us we need to pay 1000€ up front for the care since we don’t have any insurance cover. “What?!?!? You’ve got to be kidding me?! We just need the bandages to be changed!” Doo is incredulous. How much is medical care going to cost us here? Have we made a mistake coming to Seoul? Seeing our helplessness, the doctor agrees to change the bandages for free but they are glued to the wounds and the pain is unbearable. Côme who is once again screaming as if tortured. The doctor then takes Doo aside and tells him that we need to go to a specialist, Côme and Julia’s condition is extremely serious. The nightmare continues… It’s 2:30 am when we finally get home…
The next day António is leaving in the evening to Portugal but despite an extremely busy day, he takes time to accompany us to his doctor, a skin specialist. Hyemi, António’s Korean teacher we had met in november, is there as well to help us with the translation. The doctor first takes care of Julia, gives her a few shots and dresses her wound. Then it’s Côme’s turn and the doctor notices that there is dirt and gravels inside of the wound. Côme is given an anesthetic shot and then the doctor takes some time to clean the wound. Doo is extremely worried, if there are gravels inside of Côme’s open wound, there sure are inside of Julia’s stitched one. He warns the doctor and tells him that there must be dirt and gravels inside of Julia’s wound too. So after treating Côme, Julia goes back there and the doctor opens the stitches. Inside, there are a dozens of large size gravels… The doctor can’t believe the treatment given by the filipino doctor. We are just relieved we’ve avoided the worst.
After treating her, the doctor tells us that we have to come everyday. That there is a serious risk of further infection. To top it all, the medical bill is very expensive and our credit card does not work. What are we going to do???