Recovering!

Hey Everybody!

We got a report today that Tanya-san is doing very well. She has gotten some quilting materials to distract her, and has even been able to walk slowly without crutches, though it is only her fourth day of rehab. Also, they have been feeding her very healthy food which makes her feel better about her stay in the hospital. Still no word on when she will be home, but she has had several visitors from her friends at the pool and also from the school where she does her cross walk duty.

A wonderful friend, Mrs. Suga has been updating us on my mother's condition. She has emailed me some pictures and left me messages on facebook to let me know how my mom is doing. Mrs. Suga has also been helping her to walk and has been visiting almost everyday. What a nice lady!

Just Another Day

Hello everyone!

My dad e-mailed me today to let me know that the surgery went well. However my mom is not up and moving around on her own yet. She is little bit dissapointed that she can't walk. I think she wants to go back to her daily life up and busy! But this is a good time to take some time off and rest.

Hi! I'm Yanna, Leiya's roommate. Since you don't know me, I'll just tell you a little bit about my day, and maybe you will understand more about me.

I study architecture and design, so right now I'm working at a small furniture store. Today we did't have many costomers, so most of my day consisted of browsing the internet, contemplating what Leiya and I would write about for this blog, and reading Pride & Prejudice.

I have never read it before and, though I am enjoying it, I have to admit that my brain is getting a lot of exercise. I find myself getting lost in words like "thither" and "unalloyed inclination".

Right now, Leiya and I are at a friend's apartment getting ready to play phase 10 (a card game) and have dinner.

Hello! This is Leiya, we just finished dinner, and it was excellent! I have an amazing friend who can cook almost all kinds of food, and today we had Tempura, spicy chicken, fish sticks, rice, and beef curry. We are stuffed! :) I won phase 10, and Yanna came in 6th (last lol). All in all it was a good day with friends. Now it is time to head back to the apartment.

There are lots of great things about our apartment, but here are some of the problems that we have:
1. Bugs- disgusting centipedes, ants, and spiders.
2. Obnoxious neighbors- they fight too much, party a lot, and never say 'hello' in the parkinglot.
3. No air conditioning, or laundry, or peep hole- :(
4. No internet- which is why we didn't get to post anything last night (bad excuse).
5. Very noisy train- Passing by our apartment about 5 times a day and some in the middle of the night.
6. Bad roommates- Yanna is too motherly and laughs too much! Leiya says 'hanged' too often (instead of hung) and has too many large pieces of art in the apartment!

These things are what make our apartment homey.

We do not have any pictures today.. But pretty soon we will :)

She's Alive!!! sorry for the late post!

Hello everyone! I am Leiya. As you may know from the previous post my mother has thrown out her knee, so for the next few days my roommate Yanna and I will be taking charge of this blog!

My mother's knee surgery went well, and she will be home in the next few days. I will keep you all up dated on her progress. I'm sure she would love to be writing this herself. In the meantime, let me introduce my roommate.

Since most of you already know me from my mother's blog, I'll tell you about Yanna. She and I have been roommates for almost a year now. Since I am an art major, and Yanna is an interior design major, our apartment is lots of fun. Along with our extensive art collection, we have a few guitars. One of them was given to us by a friend who no longer plays. Another is old, orange, and junky, but serves as a temporary learning device. (According to Yanna lol) The last one is mine and it's a decent pretty average guitar. One of our goals this summer is to learn how to play a song together. So far, it's going pretty slowly but we're still having fun!

We will post again tomorrow. For now, please pray that my mom heals quickly so that she can get back to doing the things she loves!

Us being silly :)

Preparing

Heading into the countdown so I thought I'd get in a last post. I'm out of here before 8:00 tomorrow morning.

When I came to Japan I told my mother that if I ever ended up in the hospital to not assume I was in dire straits just because of the length of the stay. It used to be one would be in the hospital for weeks and weeks for even minor things. People practically lived in the hospital! I ended up spending two months in the hospital when I was pregnant with Takumi. Nowadays there is a shortage of beds so patients are encouraged to go home earlier. I sure hope I can be back within a week... Is that positive thinking?

In order to get ready for tomorrow's admission, I was given a list of things to bring along with me. Toothbrush. Shampoo and rinse. Chopsticks. Spoon. Tea cup. This is a lot less stuff than my mother-in-law needed when she was in the hospital a couple of years ago. Among other things, she was told to bring fanny wipes! Whew! I'm glad I don't need those! For a $5 a day rental fee the hospital will supply me with a bath towel, two hand towels and pajamas daily... I've never heard of this system in Japan before.

Most Japanese hospitals are not very glamorous. Posters attached to the walls with thumbtacks, Arrows and lines painted on the linoleum to guide people to the x-ray room or the laboratories for blood tests. Patients all sit on benches facing the same way waiting for numbers to be flashed up on a screen. The doctors move very little. They will sit at their desk with their computer and patients are called in to them, prodded and poked, computer screen explained and the patient moves back to the waiting room so that another patient can be brought in. And there isn't really the question of "Which doctor shall I see?" The patient sees the doctor whose cubicle is open depending on when the number is called. Until I was pushed into the cubicle I had no idea that the doctor seeing me was a woman and actually I have a feeling that she is not the one who will be doing the surgery... but I won't know that until I am on the operating table! Not a lot of time and effort spent building up a strong doctor/patient relationship!

For all the waiting and repetition of tests and delays etc. there are good things to be said about the Japanese medical system... I have to think about this a bit... Ah yes, it doesn't cost very much to see a doctor. Thursday I went to one hospital and had x-rays, an MRI, local anesthesia, knee manipulation, taping and rented crutches and the fee came to about $150. When we return the crutches they will return the $50 deposit that was included in all that. I don't know how much Tetsu had to pay at the major hospital the next day but when we went back on Saturday for another MRI (a much more space station like machine than at the first hospital!) Tetsu paid out about $70. That doesn't seem bad to me. I don't have the papers in front of me but I think Tetsu asked me if I wanted a single room for about $80 a night or a double room for $50 or a triple room for like $20. I'm pretty sure if I were in the States we would be talking about numbers with another zero in there!

Anyway... I guess I'm ready as I'll ever be. On top of the chopsticks and spoon that I'm supposed to bring I also will be packing in some pre-cut Alabama Beauty pieces that I've spent the morning preparing. Now THAT's positive thinking!

Two blocks down (but not ironed) since being laid up.... how many more to go?

(There is no reason for having Mi's pictures in this post. She is just cute and was sitting on me this morning.)

Bored

Okay. I'm bored (I never thought I'd ever say that!) so even though there isn't any news I'll just keep blogging. Poor you.

This is the view from where I sit. Left over breakfast on the left. The remote control for the lights. The remote control for the TV. Beyond that, my Kindle.　A bowl holding sewing implements. Reading glasses, a card from my friend, scissors. In front of that my cell phone and my camera.

My computer. Beyond that the Alabama Beauty block I did yesterday. An envelope of medicine. My coffee cup.

I am wrapped in a blanket (though it is not cold. It makes me feel like Heidi's Clara in her wheelchair with a blanket over her legs) and there is one cat under the blanket at my feet and another on top of the blanket at my feet. They growl at each other through the blanket.

Tetsu finally went to work this morning even though it is a Sunday. He is carrying the world on his shoulders. He takes care of me and worries that I might fall when he is not around.

"Do not let that cell phone out of reaching distance!"

He cleans house. He shouts at cats who are fighting or being a nuisance. He yells at Choco who is complaining about not being taken for her regular walk. This morning I reluctantly reminded him that today is "clean the neighborhood day" and he sighed loudly and joined other residents out cutting weeks and cleaning gutters. He does grocery shopping and tried cooking.

Occasionally Tetsu asks what I want. "What do you want for dinner?" "What do you want me to do before I leave?" What do you want me to shop for?" But my answer is always, "Anything is fine." because I don't want to make more work for him. I don't know what annoys him more, a vague answer or a request to go find something I'm not even sure where I've put. Sigh... Who knew that one person out of action could cause so many problems.

My friend, Kaoru-san, brought over lunch for me today and even under shirts and things that she has found useful when she was in the hospital. Yeah! And I've asked her to go buy me a couple things in ladies clothing... I'm sure Tetsu will be happy to be relieved from that duty. He is of the old generation and in his book, men do NOT buy women's clothing for them.

I am being cared for!

Crutches

I'm still here... A long day yesterday and not much progress. Tetsu was irritated right down to his boots. The short story is that I will be at home until Tuesday when I go in for surgery the same day. THAT'S when I'll be away from the computer. So until then...

The last post's picture was taken while I waited to have my knee manipulated and photographed etc. THAT'S why I was still smiling (less so afterwards). Also Tetsu couldn't believe that I wanted a picture for posterity right there in the hospital. How far do your blogging posts go?! So I was laughing while people around me wondered why my husband was taking a picture of me in such a fix.

The first hospital (that we went to on Thursday,) was great. Lovely nurses and staff, nice, friendly capable doctor. If only they did surgery there everything would have been great. But they don't. We should have known that. So the morning spent getting a diagnosis and MRI and x-rays and then taped up for a trip to the major hospital yesterday. The major hospital (not so major really) is in the next city over and they don't see patients after 10:00.

Tetsu got me to the hospital by 9:00. Lots of papers, LOTS of people, LOTS OF WAITING! This is what annoys Tetsu. We all sit there on benches or in my case, a wheel chair while hordes of people mill around and everyone looks grumpy. Occasionally a nurse will come out calling someone into the inner workings of the hospital and finally after an hour and a half I got to see a nice doctor. Who said that she had looked at the x-rays and MRI results and yes, I would definitely need surgery.

So. Go get more x-rays taken, do other tests, go home and come back the next day (today) after they make an appointment for another MRI. They like their own MRIs. And schedule surgery for Tuesday.

"Mrs. Watanabe. Do you want local anesthetic or general? Local is a spinal block. General means you have to be admitted to the hospital the day before."

By this time Tetsu was in his irritated, pursed lips mode and wasn't offering advice to me.

"It's your knee. You decide yourself."

So I decided local... because I figure women are strong (those of us who have experienced childbirth), Tetsu is already annoyed that he has to take so much time off from work to drive me around and fill in forms etc. He also has to spend Monday taking his own mother to ANOTHER major hospital and that's another day off from work and another full day of irritation at the hospital.

We could have saved a whole day if we had just come to this major hospital on the first day but live and learn.

Another thing to decide was whether to just be admitted yesterday and sit around all weekend waiting for Tuesday. But that just costs money and besides Tetsu thought I'd be happier at home with cats and handwork (he brought some downstairs for me) and the computer. So that's why I am home.

BUT, on the way home we stopped to eat lunch and me on my crutches and not very good at using them crashed over backwards frightening other customers, sending the restaurant staff into a panic, and getting Tetsu more upset than ever.

"You can't manage those dumb things. You never did have much arm strength. I should have insisted they just admit you."

The only damage from the crash was bruised pride and a sore rear-end. And now I'm scared stiff to move from whatever chair I am in. This is going to be a long weekend...

As I said, Tetsu brought down scissors, fabric and even the templates I wanted so I am back to hand sewing my Alabama Beauty blocks. There is a plus to everything! This quilt may get a bit more color to it!

Okay... I'm off to the hospital again. Tetsu has taken the third day in a row off from work... He is cheerfully whistling while he cleans house so I guess he is over his annoyance. When he is happy he is an angel!

Bad dice throw

I just told someone yesterday that I never liked playing The Game of Life. It always seemed that things would be going along great and with the toss of the dice suddenly life would take a bad turn. Well, I guess I proved that it is not just on the board game. In real life too!

Yesterday was normal. I taught at the kindergarten, taught ladies, taught elementary school kids, went to the pool, cooked dinner. Went to bed. And in the middle of the night I got up to go to the bathroom and my knee went out. WAY OUT! Crawl to the bathroom and back to bed but I knew that the knee was damaged. Yep. I can't stand up. I can't walk. I can't do much of anything.

Tetsu took the day off from work and took me to the doctors. Not that I'm surprised but I will probably be hospitalized tomorrow (I have to go to a major hospital tomorrow morning) and have surgery on the knee. Which means I will not be blogging for awhile! So this post is to let you know that I haven't disappeared... just am incapacitated.

This is a time when I wish I had all my sewing things downstairs. No going back upstairs for awhile. I can't even direct Tetsu to certain fabric and templates so that I can do some hand sewing. I'm not that organized. And nothing ready to be handquilted either... So... Here I sit.

Anyway... I'm busy trying to master the art of hopping with crutches. Maybe tomorrow I'll be rolling around in a wheelchair again.

I really don't like The Game of Life!