Day 4, Saturday, turned out to be quite a bit more interesting than I initially expected. There wasn’t supposed to be much happening today, just a short meeting with Dr. Hara to go over my new MRI images.
When I woke up for breakfast though I found a message waiting for me on my phone from Ma Li telling me she was going to drop by in the afternoon. I hadn’t expected her back until Monday so that was a pleasant surprise!
Continue reading Hospital – Do You Understand the Risks Young Man?
We’re talking about Day 2 now, even though this is Day 3, just to make sure we’re all on the same page…
Every evening, provided there’s actually anything scheduled, you’re given a sheet detailing the following day’s activities. The sheet I received before heading to bed Wednesday night promised me a blood test in the morning and rehabilitation at 11 AM – other than that I would be left to my own devices.
Continue reading Hospital – Drew Locks Horns with the Head Rehab Nurse
When I stepped out of the elevator onto the 2nd floor of East Ward, Residence Wing, my fate truly began to sink in. Ma Li and I slowly walked down the long hall past 4 person room after 4 person room – all of which were filled with decrepit senior citizens. Aging’s a bitch, ain’t it?
Continue reading Hospital – Dinner with the Dancing Champion of Western Japan
Ma Li and arrived at Oita Univ. Hospital at 10:15 – just a tad late for our 10am check-in. I immediately began a battery of medical tests. The first stop was an EKG disguised as a medieval torture device. I had to lay down on a table while large clamps with suspicious wires running from them were attached to my ankles and wrists. Next, four large metal electrodes were suction-cupped to my chest in an array across the general location of my heart. I then braced myself for the electronic execution – but it never came. Instead the kind lady smiled and removed the life-sucking apparati and sent me off to my next stop.
Satoshi and I went out Saturday night, we went to a basketball game. The Japanese Basketball League has only been in operation for a few years, but the Oita Heat Devils have so far managed to finish both seasons ranked in the Top 5. Did I mention there were only 6 teams?
Several weeks from now I will become a patient at Oita University Hospital. In April of 2005, during a game of IM basketball at the end of my senior year at W&L, I tore the ACL in my right knee. You may or may not know that as a freshman in high school I tore the ACL in my left knee. For that injury I had a patellar tendon graft, went through roughly 9 months of hellish rehabilitation, and emerged on the other side well enough to continue playing competitive soccer for another five years.
Spending three hours hunched over a chairback getting my tattoo done was the most painful thing I’ve ever done *voluntarily*, but my ACL reconstruction and the following rehabilitation? I wouldn’t wish that upon my worst enemy.
Having to go through all that AGAIN?
…I try not to think about it…
But I must, because 3 weeks from now on December 6th I’ll begin about a one month stay at the hospital. They do things a little differently here in Japan. My actual date of surgery is December 12th, yet I have to report a week early “for tests.” Ma Li gave ’em hell over the phone as to what exactly “tests” meant, but they stood firm and just insisted that I show up on December 6th for these mystery “tests.”
Time to clean some house around here. I’ve got snippets of this and tidbits of that that I need to get rid of, so without further ado, I present: Drew in the Press!
We’re gonna run through these chronologically, with pictures linked at the end of each section. The pictures today are all scans, so if they’re slightly crooked it’s because I scanned them poorly, not because I have no sense of balance…
Friday, Day 6 began bright and early as we caught a morning train back to Beppu to give us time to take a breather before we boarded the overnight ferry for Osaka that evening. I took advantage of the low number of passengers to grab another hour or so of sleep as we quietly zoomed through the beautiful Kyushu countryside.
The weather remained unchanged with it’s slight drizzle and low-hanging clouds, but I’ve always felt that sort of stuff lends an extra bit of beauty to a lush countryside panorama.
Continue reading Heaths Come to Japan – Day 6 – Shamisen Surprise, Overnight Ferry
Tuesday the 12th was a sort of “off day” after the action packed introduction to Beppu that was Monday. I didn’t have any concrete plans for my parents, although some sort of scheme with Choki-san was penciled into the afternoon timeslot. In short, my parents got to enjoy the charming luxuries of their ryokan while I slept in.
I wasn’t kidding when I said I had set them up in one kickass little place – check out this spanking awesome breakfast promptly laid out at 7:30am for my mother in the adjoining room.
Continue reading Heaths Come to Japan – Day 3 – Marine Life and Monkey Sex
Their unplanned night in Tokyo having drawn to a close, my parents boarded their morning flight out to Nowhere, Japan – aka – Oita. Originally they had been due to arrive in Oita around 8pm Sunday night and with this in mind I had crafted a whirlwind itinerary that kicked off from the following Monday morning. With my parents instead arriving in Oita a day late they had the pleasure of beginning their activity-packed adventure right from the get-go.
My girlfriend and I arrived at the airport about 10 minutes early and began the wait for the two giant Americanos to emerge from the arrival gate… mom made a suitably grand entrance.
We had some coffee and introduced the parents to my darling girlfriend, then caught the bus back towards Beppu.
Continue reading Heaths Come to Japan – Day 2 – Oita at Last, the Blitzkrieg Begins
