Real Life: Study Abroad and Surgery
I would love to enthusiastically promise (once again) that I will try to update this strange half-real-life, half-fangirl-life journal more often, but I know that it would probably be a lie. (Though I will try.)
Still, I felt the need to update this journal, though I am not sure if anyone ever reads this thing at all. I am not really a lurker on other people's journals, so I don't know why anyone would lurk on mine, but hey, if you do, that's cool with me! :D
I suppose all of those "potential lurkers" out there are why I wish to update, rather than a need to just post things on the internet (I have never really gotten the hang of livejournal anyway). So, maybe, if you are reading this, will you give me a shout out to let me know? I'm just curious.
I am back from my study abroad in London, of course. It was just about the most wonderful, incredible thing that has ever happened to me, and I just hope that everyone has a chance in their lives to see more of the world than just the country they were born in. One of my cousins just left on Saturday with a group of students from her college for a study abroad-type, 5-week, summer program in Prague. O_O On a long weekend, she and some friends were going to visit Ireland, and I gave her a bunch of tips about Great Britain, but then they decided to go visit Italy instead. ...Amazing. And, of course, my best friend Dark Scrivener is going to study abroad in Japan for four months this fall and winter. Ha ha.
Well, as a quick review, while in Great Britain, I got to live in Central London; go on Spring Break in Edinburgh, Scotland; and visit Salisbury (twice), Oxford, Tintagel, Glastonbury, Stratford-Upon-Avon, and Windsor. I saw Stonehenge, Glastonbury Abbey, Tintagel Castle, Windsor Castle, Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Hyde Park, the Sherlock Holmes Museum, and Big Ben.
I saw a performance of Wicked in London, three shows by the RSC, and stood with the groundlings to watch a performance of Romeo and Juliet in the Globe Theatre. I went to Palm Sunday and Easter services at Westminster Abbey, shopped for kilts of the Royal Mile, and learned how to row a boat on the Avon river. Instead of feverishly studying for finals like everyone else on our last weekend in England, I traveled solo all across London via my favourite mode of transportation (the Underground), attended a St. George's Day concert at Trafalgar Square, and watched the London marathon outside of the Tower of London... and I still got As and high Bs in all of my classes. ^_^
At the end of our semester, our professors took us to Paris, France, for about four days. I had mixed feelings at first, since I really wanted to stay in my beloved London a few more days, but I was excited to see new sites without having to worry about getting a bunch of homework done. So I rode the Eurostar to Paris with a light heart.
Well... As much as I wanted to like Paris, Paris did not like me. I got to do many fun things: take a boat ride on the Seine, climb a billion stairs to the top of Montmartre, visit the Louvre, stroll down the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe, see the Moulin Rouge at night, and look for the Phantom in the Paris Opera House.
Sounds great, huh? Well, I heard so many stories about pickpockets, that when we actually got to Paris, I almost had a nervous breakdown and started crying. -_- Also, Paris was sooooooooo much dirtier than London (though others did not agree with me) that I kept getting sick and choking on the air. The first night there, a bunch of friends and I got pooped on by some dirty pigeons.
Then, after all of my precautions and fears, on the second night my beloved camera was stolen right out from under me! What's even worse, it was stolen at a nasty restaurant when there was no one in the building but my friends and I, so I know that one of the staff members stole it. That ruined my night completely, since I took over 4,000 pictures in England and Scotland and photography was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Not only was my camera gone, but all of my picture of that day from the Louvre and many other places. I did not get to go to the Eiffel Tower because I was too distraught and all of my "friends" went without me. -_- Thus, Paris obviously hated me. I still have mixed feelings on Paris, because I would like to go back some day with better companions and see more sights, but... ah well.
Anyway, that was my study abroad experience, in a nutshell.
Even more dramatic things have happened in my life since then, however. Mainly surgery.
Since July 2008, I have been dealing with Paget-Schroetter syndrome (look it up on Wikipedia for more info). It was affecting my right arm, which really sucks, since I am right-handed. I knew last fall that I would have to have surgery, but we were able to put it off until after my study abroad, because the surgeon said I would need a lot of recovery time and I might not get to go to England if I had it sooner. So we waited until this summer for the surgery.
So it was finally planned for me to have surgery on June 15, which sucks because that is my parent's wedding anniversary and they had to spend it in the hospital room taking care of me. But it couldn't be scheduled any other time.
I was literally scared to death, and had been dreading it since I first heard I would need surgery, as it is (along with planes crashing) one of my biggest fears. ...Yay. But I, quite seriously, was sure that I was going to die. Really. And I was depressed, and kept planning out my will in my head. That is not an emotional spot that I ever wish anyone to be in.
Well, the day finally came, and I had the surgery - a "first right rib resection." Yes, they took a rib out of me. O_o Crazy, huh? And I almost really did die, since they thought my lung was leaking and all sorts of horrible stuff that could have killed me. So I had a second surgery almost immediately afterward - I don't remember this at all, I was unconscious the whole time. Good thing, too.
Anyway, I ended up with a five-inch long cut across my throat and right shoulder, and a hole in my right side where I had a chest tube put in from the second one. In the end, the second surgery ended up being unnecissary, since I never actually was in any danger though the doctors thought I was at the time. Ironically, the unnecissary hole in my side hurt ten times worse than the needed cut across my throat, ha ha.
Enough gruesome stuff. I am on the long, long, long road to recovery now. Both incisions are healing well now, and they are even unbandaged. My lung is fine, too. I am still on pain medication, though, which makes me sleep a lot, so now I have daily naps, lol. The worst thing, though, is that during the surgery, the surgeon had to pull on my nerves, and when I woke up, I couldn't even feel my right hand or arm.
I have feeling in three out of five of my right-hand fingers now, but I still can't feel my middle and ring finger and the bottom of my arm. It makes all of my arm and hand movements awkward and painful, but I have to keep working with them so they will get better. Unfortunately, not feeling those fingers makes it nearly impossible for me to do any of my art projects, which is what I wanted to spend my summer doing!Even typing is hard - to write all of this has taken me forever, and I have used the backspace key a lot.
I am going to keep trying, though. I can't give up and loose all my fine motor skills. I am an artist, after all, and Studio Art is one of my double majors.
Well, it's time to wrap this up. I'll write about my fangirl life in another post. :D