Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Where I've been, Where I want to go
I will get to most of these places at some point in my life. . . have to make sure of that!
Monday, March 28, 2011
Stressed at a Not-So-Stressful Job
This has got to be one of the easiest jobs anyone who is a native speaker of English could have. . . I work Monday through Friday, 8:00 to 4:00 and enjoy the rare times that I am utilized fully at work. I teach at Yochien (Pre-school/ Kindergarten), Elementary School, and Middle School with an adult education class sprinkled in each Monday. Well, each Monday there's not a public holiday going on. . . so many of them seem to fall on a Monday!)
Right now, school has finished for the school year and starts up again in April (April 7th here in Yasuda). Japan has trimesters, starting in April, ending in March, and their vacation time in between is relatively short. This country is full is work-o-holics, which is why I'm a bit confused there is such little to do in my job. . .
On Mondays, I have kindergarten, but only twice a month, so I usually sit at the Culture Center (where I go if I have no classes) and pretend to be immersed in various things all day. The kids there are great, ages 3-5 and very fun and cute. I'm glad the classes are only 20-30 minutes long, though! These kids have an endless energy supply and it's difficult keeping enthusiasm when I'm only teaching them about six words each time.
At times when I have no class, I surf the web a lot. I study Japanese all the damn time, but I don't think my brain can handle much more than what I've got already because nothing more is sinking in lately. Sometimes I blog. Sometimes I upload photos or videos to my various sites. This is pretty much 50-70% of my week. Since classes are over, though, it's about 90-100% of my week. BAGH!
On Tuesday, I teach 5th and 6th grade, one class each, every week. Wednesdays and Thursdays I teach Middle School and that day is usually planned the week before or so by the Japanese English teacher. For some reason, Jr. High schedule changes every day, so I could be teaching one class, I could be teaching four. Either way, those days are spent entirely at the Middle School. Fridays I alternate every other week teaching either first and second grade or third and fourth grade. It's a nice way to end the week, but only two classes. I finish elementary school days at the Culture Center.
It has been a nice opportunity to try to put more time into making things for classes. I enjoy drawing and creating activities to make things more interesting. However, I get kind of stuck and don't feel like trying too hard. These kids are easy to entertain. Junior High is a little different. I have to work with a Japanese English teacher, which is fine, but sometimes feels a bit strange. She's a young woman, unmarried, almost 30 and is often ridiculed about that by the students. She spends a lot of time on things and her classes are pretty boring for the most part. I feel like she is trying too hard to teach them lecture-style and not realizing that they would care a lot more about things if it were actually fun for them. I'm not saying I'm necessarily a better teacher, I just know when they don't care, when they're bored, or when they don't get something. Each class feels a tiny bit like a competition with this teacher, but maybe I just need to be more forward sometimes.
Anyway, easy stuff, right? I really have it easy, but for some reason the stress that comes in trying to adapt my EVERYTHING to Japanese standards and ways adds a bit of stress here! They work and work and pretend to work hard on things that are really quite easy. They are definitely aware of my being foreign, but I think that only gives them something to titter about if I do something "wrong" or the way a "gaijin" would do it. I don't know why nothing is important except work here. Do they know the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy?" They really are just so obsessed with themselves. . .
Right now, school has finished for the school year and starts up again in April (April 7th here in Yasuda). Japan has trimesters, starting in April, ending in March, and their vacation time in between is relatively short. This country is full is work-o-holics, which is why I'm a bit confused there is such little to do in my job. . .
On Mondays, I have kindergarten, but only twice a month, so I usually sit at the Culture Center (where I go if I have no classes) and pretend to be immersed in various things all day. The kids there are great, ages 3-5 and very fun and cute. I'm glad the classes are only 20-30 minutes long, though! These kids have an endless energy supply and it's difficult keeping enthusiasm when I'm only teaching them about six words each time.
At times when I have no class, I surf the web a lot. I study Japanese all the damn time, but I don't think my brain can handle much more than what I've got already because nothing more is sinking in lately. Sometimes I blog. Sometimes I upload photos or videos to my various sites. This is pretty much 50-70% of my week. Since classes are over, though, it's about 90-100% of my week. BAGH!
On Tuesday, I teach 5th and 6th grade, one class each, every week. Wednesdays and Thursdays I teach Middle School and that day is usually planned the week before or so by the Japanese English teacher. For some reason, Jr. High schedule changes every day, so I could be teaching one class, I could be teaching four. Either way, those days are spent entirely at the Middle School. Fridays I alternate every other week teaching either first and second grade or third and fourth grade. It's a nice way to end the week, but only two classes. I finish elementary school days at the Culture Center.
It has been a nice opportunity to try to put more time into making things for classes. I enjoy drawing and creating activities to make things more interesting. However, I get kind of stuck and don't feel like trying too hard. These kids are easy to entertain. Junior High is a little different. I have to work with a Japanese English teacher, which is fine, but sometimes feels a bit strange. She's a young woman, unmarried, almost 30 and is often ridiculed about that by the students. She spends a lot of time on things and her classes are pretty boring for the most part. I feel like she is trying too hard to teach them lecture-style and not realizing that they would care a lot more about things if it were actually fun for them. I'm not saying I'm necessarily a better teacher, I just know when they don't care, when they're bored, or when they don't get something. Each class feels a tiny bit like a competition with this teacher, but maybe I just need to be more forward sometimes.
Anyway, easy stuff, right? I really have it easy, but for some reason the stress that comes in trying to adapt my EVERYTHING to Japanese standards and ways adds a bit of stress here! They work and work and pretend to work hard on things that are really quite easy. They are definitely aware of my being foreign, but I think that only gives them something to titter about if I do something "wrong" or the way a "gaijin" would do it. I don't know why nothing is important except work here. Do they know the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy?" They really are just so obsessed with themselves. . .
Thursday, March 17, 2011
PT : Now for Real
In my last job, City Year, we did something called "PT." Physical Training. Whatever that meant. Once a week we would meet up at the Municipal Building in Greater Philadelphia and pretend to exercise for about an hour. In the rain, cold, bright-ass sun. What a crock! These days, though, PT is real for me. Physical Therapy.
I know I don't have the worst injury in the world or anything, but it is still affecting my life and my body on a daily basis. Apparently, if I don't fix things now, I will have permanent damage. This shit is painful, so I guess I really need to start putting my all into it. I just like I don't have drive for anything now. Not sure why. . . Maybe all these disasters going on in the world? Maybe the fact that I was so blissful for 3 months and it all left suddenly and shortly after my hospitalization? Maybe that's just what happens to many people in Japan. Whatever it is, I really have to focus more on getting my legs right again. . .
My Physical Therapist is great. His name is Takuya Shimomura. He knows the most English, so they make him work with me. He's really nice and tries very hard to hold decent conversations. It's funny because no one else there knows a word we are saying to each other, unless we go a little Japanese, which happens from time to time.
Takuya explained to me the other day why he is a physical therapist. Apparently, about four years ago, Takuya was a really big motorcycle enthusiast. I'm sure you already know what I'm going to say. One day, he was going about double the speed limit, when a light suddenly turned red. He was going so fast that there was no way he could stop in time, and he knew that. He ran straight into a truck.
He was luckily near a hospital and was taken there immediately. He was not breathing, and someone gave him CPR. That brought him back to breathing. His hips were dislocated, his leg was absolutely demolished, and he was cut and burned all over his body. I guess is was all right, though, because he was in a coma for one month before he ever even knew what had happened. He was OUT while his most excruciating pain was going on. (Good for him because there are no damn narcotics here to take that kind of pain away!)
He was a business man before his accident. As soon as he could walk again, he decided to become a physical therapist. I feel like that is quite admirable. I'm pretty glad to be working with him.
I know I don't have the worst injury in the world or anything, but it is still affecting my life and my body on a daily basis. Apparently, if I don't fix things now, I will have permanent damage. This shit is painful, so I guess I really need to start putting my all into it. I just like I don't have drive for anything now. Not sure why. . . Maybe all these disasters going on in the world? Maybe the fact that I was so blissful for 3 months and it all left suddenly and shortly after my hospitalization? Maybe that's just what happens to many people in Japan. Whatever it is, I really have to focus more on getting my legs right again. . .
My Physical Therapist is great. His name is Takuya Shimomura. He knows the most English, so they make him work with me. He's really nice and tries very hard to hold decent conversations. It's funny because no one else there knows a word we are saying to each other, unless we go a little Japanese, which happens from time to time.
Takuya explained to me the other day why he is a physical therapist. Apparently, about four years ago, Takuya was a really big motorcycle enthusiast. I'm sure you already know what I'm going to say. One day, he was going about double the speed limit, when a light suddenly turned red. He was going so fast that there was no way he could stop in time, and he knew that. He ran straight into a truck.
He was luckily near a hospital and was taken there immediately. He was not breathing, and someone gave him CPR. That brought him back to breathing. His hips were dislocated, his leg was absolutely demolished, and he was cut and burned all over his body. I guess is was all right, though, because he was in a coma for one month before he ever even knew what had happened. He was OUT while his most excruciating pain was going on. (Good for him because there are no damn narcotics here to take that kind of pain away!)
He was a business man before his accident. As soon as he could walk again, he decided to become a physical therapist. I feel like that is quite admirable. I'm pretty glad to be working with him.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Natural Disasters & Dealing
A few days ago, Japan was struck with earthquakes which had magnitudes of up to 8.9. The worst of it was in Sendai and Miyagi Prefectures, a little north of Tokyo. These places were wrecked. It was bad enough that the quake happened. Japan expects these to happen quite often. What really destroyed things were the numerous tsunamis that crushed cities in minutes. I have nearly cried every day since it happened while watching the destruction. It's really hard to understand what it's like. Just watching the TV, I felt like I was watching a movie like The Day After Tomorrow or 2012 or something.
The death tolls rose steadily as the night went on. When I got out of work, it was about 20, a few hours later, about 100, and when I finally went to sleep, it had gotten up to 300 people dead. Now, I think they've estimated somewhere in the 1,000s. There are also many people missing. I can't help but think anyone missing is dead. I watched entire houses and massive structures float in the mess and shred to small pieces of lumber. I watched fires rage like a damn volcano for hours and hours. I saw sludge and debris pick up cars and farms like they were specks of dirt. I imagine anyone stuck in the tsunami's path was like an ant in the flow of a river. There were little kei cars trying to out-drive the water as it came toward them. At their fastest, kei cars are about 80-100km per hour, so the water must have been moving about the same speed or higher. There were giant ships being tossed around like leaves and ending up in a whirlpool of ocean that looked like outer space. TERRIFYING!
Many of the survivors of both the New Zealand quakes and Japanese quakes and tsunamis had to bear the next night or two in about -1 degrees Celsius without water or electricity. That must have been the worst night of anyone's life.
I live on the island of Shikoku. We are the 4th largest island in Japan and pretty far southwest. The giant 10 meter tsunamis were up toward Hokkaido. All day, we were expected to have our own tsunamis. It began with 1 meter high ones, in the "yellow" or "pretty safe" area. About an hour later, we were in the "red" or "dangerous, be careful" zone, expecting tsunamis of about 2 meters to hit our beaches. By the evening, we were in the "white and red" or the most extreme tsunami category on the news with 3 meters or higher tsunamis coming our way. Please keep in mind that a tsunami of about 50 centimeters can wash a human or even a car away. Luckily, Yasuda-cho is pretty high up. I live at the tsunami evacuation point, so everyone just kept telling me to go home and stay home.
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| Yasuda's Shoreline the day the tsunamis hit. Supposedly 2 meters. |
I find it really hard to think about this whole thing. I can't help but tear up when I watch videos of the events. The news just keeps showing the tsunamis absolutely destroying towns that look a whole lot like Kochi. Also, when I think about how they were not ready for it, it just breaks my heart. I could have ended up there, myself, if JET had chosen to stick me there! I would have nothing left, maybe even be dead. Really hard to think about that. Needless to say, I got panicky phone calls from both my Nana and my mother. My Facebook page was loaded with people that were showing their concern, even people I didn't talk to. Death really frightens me and it took a lot to not think about death the past few days.
That all being said, it's strange to think that I "survived" Japan's most devastating earthquake in history. I've been trying to keep my mind preoccupied to stop feeling sad about it. Pineapple Express was a lot better than I thought it would be. . .
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Oh my. . . knee. . .
The JET community in Kochi is pretty tight. From time to time, we have a giant gathering of gaijin (foreigners) and go get drunk or something. This usually takes place in Kochi City, since it's so big and wonderful (ahem). Well, my Aussie friend, Ben, wanted to celebrate Australia Day, so we all got together in Muroto, where Ben lives, at a kind of YMCA, campy, hostel kind of place. We rented rooms for the night and a barbecue pit so we could cook out and stay the night and leave the next day after all of our shenanigans were coming to a hungover end. Let me tell you how wonderful this whole time was:
I spent the day before in Kochi City at one of these gatherings for my friend's birthday. She ended up getting very sick that night and I stayed with her in the toilet for about an hour or so. By that time, all the alcohol I had consumed had turned into a raging headache, and I was no longer drunk. Luckily, a friend of ours let us stay with him in his lovely apartment. That part was ok. The next morning, we got up to go to this audition for the musical the Kochi JETs put on every year. I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to audition or not yet, but last minute, I decided I would try. I've always loved musicals and performed in EVERYTHING in High School, so I kind of wanted to go for it. I did well, but was hungover the whole time and not really digging the people that were there auditioning. That over, Steven, Cat, and I headed back toward Muroto. We were already late at this point. Ben had asked everyone to meet up at Nahari around 2 so they could convoy up together. Hmmm. . . might have been a good idea. We picked Emily up on the way. It was already 1:30 by the time the audition ended and we had about a 2 hour drive ahead of us. People called from the hangout to ask us to bring booze and speakers, so we stopped by a grocery store and my house to get some things for partying. This made us even more late.
I had gotten directions from someone that seemed relatively easy, so I felt like things were going to be ok and we would make it in time to enjoy the food everyone else brought. After about ten or fifteen minutes of driving up a road that sounded right, we got a little worried and called Naomi, our local (awesome) mama. No one could quite figure out where we were. It did resemble a movie I had once seen. . . Texas Chainsaw Massacre? We were all a bit scared. That and my car is a piece of shit, windows were fogged the whole time, roads were winding like a mofo, and Japan likes to have these little unguarded drops that could kill you if you happened to steer your toy car into them. I hadn't felt so panicky in a long time. After turning around, we got ourselves back on the main road. We called many people and got many 'tadaima's (which is what Japanese phones say when no one answers) and many answers from people who were not able to drive because they had been drinking (the tolerance in Japan is ZERO, especially when our mama is around). Eventually, Orlando arrived and was just about to take a sip of beer when someone asked if he could find us. OUR HERO!!! We waited a long while, but he and mama came, gave us the finger, and showed us the way there. We were WAY off. . .
We finally got there and basically all the food was gone. They had saved us some sausages, but I don't really even like sausages. Good thing for us, Emily brought a nice quiche! It was devoured in seconds, I believe. So, all was much better, we got some booze into our bodies and felt a little more at ease about the whole thing. (I could not stop apologizing to those I had taken with me. SORRY EMILY AND CAT! >_< )
When it got too cold to be outside and the food was gone, we all went inside. Steven and I joined in a game of cricket! It was my first time ever playing and I was one of the best there! haha, usually trying to show up to boys. It was nice playing with the Kochi west-siders, since I never get to see them. They're all great fun and very funny. After cricket, people started wrestling. This looked like GREAT fun and I wanted to join in. No other girls wanted to play, but Cat suggested sock wrestling. Basically, each person wears a sock on one foot and tries to get the other person's sock off first. I was pretty good at this (lucky for long legs) until I played Orlando. This guy is great. He loves sports, works out, he's really nice, very fun. . . but when he's drunk, I think he forgets his strength. . . especially with girls. I watched him pummel my poor Steven, Ben, and Alex (who probably weighs one and a half times as much as Orlando) in wrestling. Anywho, Orlando and I wrestle a bit, much more moving than the girls did. He takes a hold of my sock, it comes halfway off, and FLICKS my leg. I immediately heard a SNAP and (in my mind) the scene was something like a hunter taking hold of a nearly dead rabbit by the foot. I could not walk. I could not keep my leg straight. I was in intense pain. What a fucking disaster.
The toilets in the facility were Japanese style squatter potties, so when I had to get up about 5AM and use one, it was one of the most excruciatingly painful pisses I had taken to that point in life. The next day, I was completely useless for cleaning up the place. Steven helped so so so much with absolutely everything. All I could do was sit and watch and talk to people. Luckily, I taught Steven to drive a manual over winter break and he got us on our way home.
We stopped at Tano Hospital on the way home, only to find the only doctor there was a head doctor. So, apparently, you only have head trauma on Sundays in Tano. This guy was a bit crazy, but I got some placebo pain pills and some crutches from there (which were ￥6,000 to rent!). I could not walk otherwise. We were asked to go back the next day. They took X-rays and a CT Scan, but could not see anything wrong. I cried during the CT scan because apparently a scream of pain and saying 'itaii!' ('that hurts!') in Japanese doesn't mean the same thing here? They yanked my leg several times to straighten it before realizing it FUCKING HURT and deciding to instead place styrofoam and blankets under the knee instead. We went back a few days later and got an MRI, which apparently still showed nothing. I had to get two shots of local anesthesia in order to get the MRI, since I could not straighten my leg. The shots hurt quite a bit, but it worked. I only felt slight pain during the MRI. I imagined I was listening to Justice or Daft Punk with the loud noises coming from the machine. It almost put me to sleep. After finding nothing, the doctor diagnosed that I had nothing wrong but was, in fact, simply afraid to move my leg. He grabbed my leg and pulled it to make it straight and I almost punched him in his stupid face. He told me to take two weeks off work and if the pain didn't go away, come back. Needless to say, the pain only got worse.
I spent a week at home with Steven, which was nice, but I felt useless. After one week, I decided I could go to school for classes only, which meant about a 1/2 day each day. When I taught Middle School that Wednesday, the teachers all said "Tano Byouinn!? DAME!" which means, 'Tano Hospital, don't go there!!!' A little late, but it was good to hear that my fears of their incompetence were not outrageous! That Thursday I went to Aki hospital, which is a little bigger, a little better, and has a lovely translator my age that knows English really well. It was nice to see her again. We had no MRIs or images to show the doctor there, but he already had an idea of what was wrong. He had me lay on a bed and moved my leg ever so slightly and I screamed out in pain. He immediately referred us to the knee specialist at Kochi University Hospital. "Maybe broken cartilage. Medial Side injury. Maybe complex." NOW we were making some progress.
Steven drove me the hour and a half or so to Kochi University Hospital in Nankoku. We got a bit lost on the way, otherwise it would have been a shorter trip. The knee specialist spoke impeccable English and explained what he thought was wrong. My cartilage had fractured and there were pieces inside my joint somewhere causing my pain. I also had a detached ligament, which was probably causing the most pain, but that would eventually reattach and become normal, with exercise. He said I would need surgery. We planned it for the 18th of February. I was to be hospitalized for about a week at the time. This was also right before Steven had to go back to Philly. It was very sad news, but good news, I suppose.
Before surgery, they had to take another, clearer MRI, which was intensely painful because the single shot of local anesthesia did not work and I could not straighten my leg. We had to stop half way through and I had to move. Yikes. Hospitalization was not fun. I don't like being treated like a child. It was bad enough that I was a useless pile for almost a month outside the place, but after surgery, I felt so miserable and sad and unable to do anything on my own. In Japan, there are no narcotics. There is no drug, nothing that really takes away pain. Immediately after surgery, I felt all the pain. That and there was a damn tube in my throat that I woke up choking on. As soon as they pulled that out, I said very softly, 'itaii'. I slept a whole hour, maybe, that night. I was given an IV drip 'pain medicine, a suppository 'pain pill' (since I was not allowed to eat after surgery until the next day), and shots of 'pain medicine', all of which were placebos - antihistamines, anit-nausea medicine, anti-depressants. Sorry, but fuck that. I don't care how minor my surgery was! One of the shots actually hit a nerve in my arm and, over 2 weeks later, my arm is still numb! Feeling is slowly returning. It is now a slight pins and needles feeling. IDIOT nurse boy. . .
Steven visited me daily. He came each morning pretty early, left each night pretty late. Our friend Marc let him stay with him in Geisei, about a 45 minute drive from the hospital. He must have eaten every food that was offered from the convenient store downstairs, each day, lunch and dinner. I never want to have to use a bedpan (ANY of the ridiculous types of bedpan) ever again. I never want to be woken at 6am and put to bed by 9pm ever again. I was lucky that I got to get up at all, though, because my roomie was a 80 or 90-year old woman who made strange noises and had both legs wrapped from foot to thigh. She was stuck there from before I came and after I left. Poor lady, I hope she makes it ok. The doctors were a little surprised that I couldn't walk very well yet, so they had me go to physical therapy while I was there. The goal was to be able to walk without crutches and go up and down stairs. I had told them all Steven and I were going to Osaka the Friday (day after) I was released. They were a bit nervous about that.
By the end, I could walk without crutches. I have to wear a brace on my knee for the next 3-6 months or something, but I can walk. It was terrible not being able to walk for an entire month. The muscles in my right leg were atrophied a bit. It looked like two completely different legs. One had gotten really beefy and wonderful while the other withered away to mush. It's getting better, though. Now, I've just got to get my ligament back to normal. I went back to Kochi Uni Hospital two days ago and the doctor was glad to see me off crutches, but unhappy that my leg could not go straight. Now, I have to go back to TANO HOSPITAL twice a week for the next three months or so for rehabilitation. Physical Therapy. At the same hospital that told me I had nothing wrong, but was just scared to bend my leg. I suppose PT is different than the quack doctors that misdiagnosed me. What kills me is that if I had gone to Aki to begin with, I would never have had an atrophied leg, would have had surgery way earlier, and probably would be walking better and healing faster now. I feel bad for these poor folks that have to go there.
Apologies for such a long entry, I just never get around to writing in this blog. I'll try to better about it.
I spent the day before in Kochi City at one of these gatherings for my friend's birthday. She ended up getting very sick that night and I stayed with her in the toilet for about an hour or so. By that time, all the alcohol I had consumed had turned into a raging headache, and I was no longer drunk. Luckily, a friend of ours let us stay with him in his lovely apartment. That part was ok. The next morning, we got up to go to this audition for the musical the Kochi JETs put on every year. I wasn't sure whether or not I was going to audition or not yet, but last minute, I decided I would try. I've always loved musicals and performed in EVERYTHING in High School, so I kind of wanted to go for it. I did well, but was hungover the whole time and not really digging the people that were there auditioning. That over, Steven, Cat, and I headed back toward Muroto. We were already late at this point. Ben had asked everyone to meet up at Nahari around 2 so they could convoy up together. Hmmm. . . might have been a good idea. We picked Emily up on the way. It was already 1:30 by the time the audition ended and we had about a 2 hour drive ahead of us. People called from the hangout to ask us to bring booze and speakers, so we stopped by a grocery store and my house to get some things for partying. This made us even more late.
I had gotten directions from someone that seemed relatively easy, so I felt like things were going to be ok and we would make it in time to enjoy the food everyone else brought. After about ten or fifteen minutes of driving up a road that sounded right, we got a little worried and called Naomi, our local (awesome) mama. No one could quite figure out where we were. It did resemble a movie I had once seen. . . Texas Chainsaw Massacre? We were all a bit scared. That and my car is a piece of shit, windows were fogged the whole time, roads were winding like a mofo, and Japan likes to have these little unguarded drops that could kill you if you happened to steer your toy car into them. I hadn't felt so panicky in a long time. After turning around, we got ourselves back on the main road. We called many people and got many 'tadaima's (which is what Japanese phones say when no one answers) and many answers from people who were not able to drive because they had been drinking (the tolerance in Japan is ZERO, especially when our mama is around). Eventually, Orlando arrived and was just about to take a sip of beer when someone asked if he could find us. OUR HERO!!! We waited a long while, but he and mama came, gave us the finger, and showed us the way there. We were WAY off. . .
We finally got there and basically all the food was gone. They had saved us some sausages, but I don't really even like sausages. Good thing for us, Emily brought a nice quiche! It was devoured in seconds, I believe. So, all was much better, we got some booze into our bodies and felt a little more at ease about the whole thing. (I could not stop apologizing to those I had taken with me. SORRY EMILY AND CAT! >_< )
When it got too cold to be outside and the food was gone, we all went inside. Steven and I joined in a game of cricket! It was my first time ever playing and I was one of the best there! haha, usually trying to show up to boys. It was nice playing with the Kochi west-siders, since I never get to see them. They're all great fun and very funny. After cricket, people started wrestling. This looked like GREAT fun and I wanted to join in. No other girls wanted to play, but Cat suggested sock wrestling. Basically, each person wears a sock on one foot and tries to get the other person's sock off first. I was pretty good at this (lucky for long legs) until I played Orlando. This guy is great. He loves sports, works out, he's really nice, very fun. . . but when he's drunk, I think he forgets his strength. . . especially with girls. I watched him pummel my poor Steven, Ben, and Alex (who probably weighs one and a half times as much as Orlando) in wrestling. Anywho, Orlando and I wrestle a bit, much more moving than the girls did. He takes a hold of my sock, it comes halfway off, and FLICKS my leg. I immediately heard a SNAP and (in my mind) the scene was something like a hunter taking hold of a nearly dead rabbit by the foot. I could not walk. I could not keep my leg straight. I was in intense pain. What a fucking disaster.
The toilets in the facility were Japanese style squatter potties, so when I had to get up about 5AM and use one, it was one of the most excruciatingly painful pisses I had taken to that point in life. The next day, I was completely useless for cleaning up the place. Steven helped so so so much with absolutely everything. All I could do was sit and watch and talk to people. Luckily, I taught Steven to drive a manual over winter break and he got us on our way home.
We stopped at Tano Hospital on the way home, only to find the only doctor there was a head doctor. So, apparently, you only have head trauma on Sundays in Tano. This guy was a bit crazy, but I got some placebo pain pills and some crutches from there (which were ￥6,000 to rent!). I could not walk otherwise. We were asked to go back the next day. They took X-rays and a CT Scan, but could not see anything wrong. I cried during the CT scan because apparently a scream of pain and saying 'itaii!' ('that hurts!') in Japanese doesn't mean the same thing here? They yanked my leg several times to straighten it before realizing it FUCKING HURT and deciding to instead place styrofoam and blankets under the knee instead. We went back a few days later and got an MRI, which apparently still showed nothing. I had to get two shots of local anesthesia in order to get the MRI, since I could not straighten my leg. The shots hurt quite a bit, but it worked. I only felt slight pain during the MRI. I imagined I was listening to Justice or Daft Punk with the loud noises coming from the machine. It almost put me to sleep. After finding nothing, the doctor diagnosed that I had nothing wrong but was, in fact, simply afraid to move my leg. He grabbed my leg and pulled it to make it straight and I almost punched him in his stupid face. He told me to take two weeks off work and if the pain didn't go away, come back. Needless to say, the pain only got worse.
I spent a week at home with Steven, which was nice, but I felt useless. After one week, I decided I could go to school for classes only, which meant about a 1/2 day each day. When I taught Middle School that Wednesday, the teachers all said "Tano Byouinn!? DAME!" which means, 'Tano Hospital, don't go there!!!' A little late, but it was good to hear that my fears of their incompetence were not outrageous! That Thursday I went to Aki hospital, which is a little bigger, a little better, and has a lovely translator my age that knows English really well. It was nice to see her again. We had no MRIs or images to show the doctor there, but he already had an idea of what was wrong. He had me lay on a bed and moved my leg ever so slightly and I screamed out in pain. He immediately referred us to the knee specialist at Kochi University Hospital. "Maybe broken cartilage. Medial Side injury. Maybe complex." NOW we were making some progress.
Steven drove me the hour and a half or so to Kochi University Hospital in Nankoku. We got a bit lost on the way, otherwise it would have been a shorter trip. The knee specialist spoke impeccable English and explained what he thought was wrong. My cartilage had fractured and there were pieces inside my joint somewhere causing my pain. I also had a detached ligament, which was probably causing the most pain, but that would eventually reattach and become normal, with exercise. He said I would need surgery. We planned it for the 18th of February. I was to be hospitalized for about a week at the time. This was also right before Steven had to go back to Philly. It was very sad news, but good news, I suppose.
Before surgery, they had to take another, clearer MRI, which was intensely painful because the single shot of local anesthesia did not work and I could not straighten my leg. We had to stop half way through and I had to move. Yikes. Hospitalization was not fun. I don't like being treated like a child. It was bad enough that I was a useless pile for almost a month outside the place, but after surgery, I felt so miserable and sad and unable to do anything on my own. In Japan, there are no narcotics. There is no drug, nothing that really takes away pain. Immediately after surgery, I felt all the pain. That and there was a damn tube in my throat that I woke up choking on. As soon as they pulled that out, I said very softly, 'itaii'. I slept a whole hour, maybe, that night. I was given an IV drip 'pain medicine, a suppository 'pain pill' (since I was not allowed to eat after surgery until the next day), and shots of 'pain medicine', all of which were placebos - antihistamines, anit-nausea medicine, anti-depressants. Sorry, but fuck that. I don't care how minor my surgery was! One of the shots actually hit a nerve in my arm and, over 2 weeks later, my arm is still numb! Feeling is slowly returning. It is now a slight pins and needles feeling. IDIOT nurse boy. . .
By the end, I could walk without crutches. I have to wear a brace on my knee for the next 3-6 months or something, but I can walk. It was terrible not being able to walk for an entire month. The muscles in my right leg were atrophied a bit. It looked like two completely different legs. One had gotten really beefy and wonderful while the other withered away to mush. It's getting better, though. Now, I've just got to get my ligament back to normal. I went back to Kochi Uni Hospital two days ago and the doctor was glad to see me off crutches, but unhappy that my leg could not go straight. Now, I have to go back to TANO HOSPITAL twice a week for the next three months or so for rehabilitation. Physical Therapy. At the same hospital that told me I had nothing wrong, but was just scared to bend my leg. I suppose PT is different than the quack doctors that misdiagnosed me. What kills me is that if I had gone to Aki to begin with, I would never have had an atrophied leg, would have had surgery way earlier, and probably would be walking better and healing faster now. I feel bad for these poor folks that have to go there.
Apologies for such a long entry, I just never get around to writing in this blog. I'll try to better about it.
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