Ahoy there!
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| That aint cran |
I've found a sliver of WIFI here at the hospital, which is nice. It is kind of off and on again but it's good to have some semblance of contact with the outside world.
Anyway – for those that don’t know I have had ACL knee reconstruction in a Japanese hospital – Edogawa Byoin to be precise. The operation went really well and from what I can understand from the doctors, nurses and orderlies my progress has been extremely rapid. Four days out and I’m flexing at 90 degrees.
Here's a small outline of what happened – beware – contents can be graphic
Sunday
I went in Sunday night with a cloud in my heart, as I would be missing the Rugby World Cup Final. I had been told that there is no WIFI here and wouldn’t be allowed if it was. Despite this I tried many way to source a way to watch it - I had even tried to coerce the nurses etc into letting me escape from 5pm to find an internet cafe/sports pub. But I needed to be back by 4pm so that plan was out of the b@stard question. So about 4.30 I thought I'd read a book on my laptop and discovered I had a tiny sliver of WIFI. Which is a miracle - it must be from a local business or something. But anyway I managed to get a tiny connection with a sports website and watched the rugby and the trophy presentation live. No food from 9pm Sunday night.
Monday (surgery day)
Woke early - sleep was not too bad and Hannah visited with snacks and loving prior to the surgery. In the OR I had my little gown thing stripped from me down to my undies while the spinal epidural was administered and I was out not long after the general anesthetic. Awoke three hours later with Hannah and nurses making a fuss and I was trying hard to speak Japanese. It all is very hazy around this point as I was in and out of consciousness and unable to sit up let alone move at all to check my position. From what I could tell I had a tube in my back to my spine, a big one from my knee, one to my vein (IV drip) and one in my wang (how pleasant). I also had two things rhythmically blowing up around my feet to help my circulation. Bollocks knows where my undies were. So yeah a fairly hazy - yet pain free day slowly becoming cognizant with Han watching Scrubs and Bear Grylls. Still no food at this point.
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| Not my strongest point of my stay |
Monday night
Monday night wasn't so good. The bloke next to me snored like a fat drunken harpy with nine noses. That as well as the pain in my upper legs (not the operation area) were driving me spare. I was also having hot cold flushes and the annoying things on my feet were tantamount to water torture by the end of the night. A brief session of coughing yielded a lovely green vomitathon - and bless the nurses for trying so hard. Not the most fun I’ve had but I’d still rate it higher than a kick to the bollocks.
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| Abe-San doing a peace sign for the camera - who would've thought |
Tuesday
Tuesday wasn't too bad. Food! Yes! A nurses gave me a rough sponge bath, changed my pajamas and in the late morning my IV and wang tubes were removed – by the nose of Eddie Hitler do you know how far up those things go! It was terrifying – mainly because I couldn’t communicate or receive any reassurance from the nurses! Still had the tube with red blood flowing from my knee to a bottle and confirmed that there was indeed a tube in my spine administering painkiller - which is nice if not a little horrific given that my doctor told me that the primary risk from this operation is spinal infection and should it all go pear shaped there is a high risk of paralysis. Yaaay! Hannah visited again as well as my Kiwi chum Steele and a Texan from work called Brian (one time he used the term “Darlin”). I was still pretty drugged up so couldn't write, forget about reading - even watching tv was a bit shizen. Despite this they took me down stairs to try some rehab and amazingly got a 10-degree flex from my knee - I thought it was premature but evidently not. Going to the toilet was so difficult - It's like trying to clean your ear with a piece of watermelon - everything about it is ridiculous and you get juice and pips everywhere. The toilets are too small for a wheel chair (extremely Japanese). I also have to cart my spinal and knee ooze cannisters around my neck like some grim Gothic vampiric totem.
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View from my window if I max out my bed -
even better in the morning (see below) |
Tuesday night
Worst night sleep I've ever had. Sincerely. The snorer now has 1000 noses at twice the volume and my knees were aching deeply. I asked for some earplugs but they can only be purchased from the hospital cafe during the day. *sigh* Mental note - miraculously appear in that cafe and gaff em of every pair. I tried a syringe of itami-dome (painkiller) but to no avail and I eventually settled for a (self administered) suppository (zayaku) at about 5am and the sweet peace was amazing.
Wednesday
Extremely tired again due to the horror show snore/pain-fest, but the removal of my last two tubes was something to look forward too. Pity I had to watch him slowly pull about 15cm of 3 ml tubing out of my knee. But it was good to be free of those two final parasitic annoyances (even if they were there to help me;). I'm right next to the window and so I usually open it up and can look out over a cemetery and temple in the background - autumn is beautiful in Japan as is the cool air. Had rehab again today - got it to about 80 degrees which is so swift. They've also got me the largest pair of crutches I've every seen, evidently the mighty Goliath was sent here for treatment after David’s head-shot. Good healing progress though and to be honest apart from associated muscle pain in the evening, I've had no pain directly from the operation area. I bought some (me me-sen) (earplugs - yesssss) on the way back from the rehab room. Spent a nice night watching some TV shows (Scrubs and Lie to me) as I still didn't have the fortitude to read, let alone write. Unfortunately all the movies I have brought with me are heavy heavy involved type dramas (e.g. Winters Bone), and I simple couldn’t possibly watch any of them. As soon as it was lights out I "locked in" another suppository, a minzai (sleeping tablet) and pushed those earplugs so far into my ear you'd think I had confused them with the suppository. Oh the pretty colours as I fell asleep.
Wednesday night
Slept like a rock. A rock inside another rock... on the bottom of the ocean… with Dom DeLuise sitting on it. So good.
Thursday
Hannah visited and we listened to the recycling truck collecting cans for 40 minutes. She also brought some more snacks which is nice, the food here isn't too bad but it helps to have some treats on hand (three bags of sour lollies). They put me on a machine that automatically flexes my knee 80 degrees. Some more rehab at 3pm and again was good. My physio Abiru's English is about as good as my Japanese so that makes it tricky but we get by and I'm flexing to 90 degrees now which is terrifying when you've held a ACL injury for over a year and you're two days after surgery.
But yeah as of 3 and a half days of surgery I feel great :D
A big thanks to wonderful wifey Hannah for looking after me.
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| You! |
