damn my feet....
the past 24 hours has been very.... not good and had i posted this sooner, this entry would have likely been a rant, but as it stands now, i don`t feel like ranting. so you`re lucky. unless this entry somehow accidentally still turns into a rant, but that wouldnt be my fault.
anyway, before i get into that i should say that even though i haven`t been mentioning the injury to my feet that happened nearly a month ago now, my feet still are not better. after practically a month, i have still been having problems with them.
about 2 weeks ago or so, i could have sworn that my feet were nearly 100% better. they were so close to full recovery, i swear i could taste it. but then, last thursday i took a shower, maybe slightly hotter than usual, but it somehow undid almost all recovery that had been done. my right foot swelled up immensely and my toes felt like they were on fire and about to pop all over again. it was horrible. >_< so i went to bed early as i couldn`t stand it. when i got up the next morning, my feet were feeling better, so i went about going to work normally, except i absolutely avoided taking showers, sanitizing in other ways.
until this past thursday. everything was fine until i got home from Ikku and my feet swelled and killed me again. went to bed early because i couldn`t stand the pain, got up yesterday morning and my feet were feeling well enough, so i went to work as usual again. but when i got home from Ikku yesterday, my feet (specifically my right foot) got so bad that i couldn`t take it anymore....
the sharp pain that i was getting in my right foot was so bad that for the first time i really was on the edge of tears and could barely function as each sharp pain brought twitching with it. during all this happening, i was somehow able to convey my pain to a friend (skrobo <3) through a bunch of cursing and misc letters strung together randomly and being the awesome friend that he is, insisted that i go to the hospital. at first i refused, but i soon caved in. however, going to the hospital isn`t something easily done. first of all, i didn`t even know where the nearest open hospital was (it was 7pm by this time, and in Japan most hospitals close around this time if not earlier), let alone how to get to one in my condition and what i would do once i got there. i needed to contact my supervisor.
franticly i tried to compose myself and call my supervisor, but i got her voice mail twice. i went through my address book calling 4 other English teachers, all of which i got their voice mail. at this point all i could do was cry and wonder what i could possibly do, but then i remembered that i had just gotten the cellphone number of my Japanese tutor the other day (because i was suppose to go to a nabe party with her tomorrow/today), so i tried my best to compose myself again and call her. thank god she answered, but at this point i was so distraught that i could barely speak Japanese and her English isn`t that great. plus it was hard to keep from crying on the phone. >_> but somehow i managed to half-assedly communicate to her that i needed to go to a hospital, but didn`t know where to go and she managed to tell me where i could go, but i couldn`t bare to ask her to take me. she said she`d call the hospital and let them know i was coming, though..... just when i got off the phone with her and frantically tried to google the name of the hospital to confirm how to get there, my supervisor called me back. thank god, because her English is better than my sensei`s. >_>;; she was able to tell me how to get to the hospital, but she couldn`t take me because she was in the middle of a meeting.... i had to get there on my own.
i somehow managed to drag myself down the street to the train station and made it to the hospital without dying. just before i got there, i got a call from my sensei and my supervisor both saying they would meet me at the hospital in 15 mins. D`; yay. so i managed to hobble my way into the reception of the hospital, where one of the clerks had gotten the call from my sensei and helped me fill out the paperwork. <3 then it was off to the waiting room. sensei arrived just before i was called back to the examination "room". thank god for sensei arriving. <3 the Japanese that was exchanged between her and the doctor about my condition was way over my head, partially because of the pain i was in.
to avoid this turning into a rant, i will be brief as to what happened next. the doctor took a little look at my feet, felt up the one that was swollen (which fin hurt), went "hmmmm" and exchanged some comments with my sensei, asking me a few more questions and then came to the conclusion that i had suffered a "low heat burn" from my heater. he got the nurse to prepare some dressing for my foot, wrapped it up in gauze and told me i needed to come back again in the morning to see what effect the dressing had on my foot. (this was done to my right foot only, my left foot didn`t hurt, although it still sucks). in the middle of this, my supervisor arrived, at which point there was a bunch of bowing and exchanging of "いつもお世話になっています、本当にありがとうございます" (hard to translate, but basically "thank you for everything you have done". something commonly said in Japanese). this was the first time my sensei and supervisor had met. >_>; lots and lots of bowing and お世話 exchanging. after which, sensei had to leave and my supervisor took over.
afterwards, i paid the fee that my insurance didn`t cover and my supervisor drove me home. she picked me up again early this morning (because the hospital closes at 11:30am on the weekend, plus i still wanted to go to my sensei`s nabe party at 10am if i could) and took me to the hospital. yay for Tanaka-san (my supervisor). <3
when i was called back to see the doctor (a different doctor than last night), he took off the dressing and gauze and my toes were still very swollen, they just didn`t hurt much now. i guess he interpreted this as being a good thing and had the nurse prepare another set of dressing and rewrap my foot, this time taking care to dress and wrap my toes (last night my toes hadnt been dressed or wrapped). he told me to come back again tomorrow morning to see the effects the dressing has on my toes, so i paid the fee my insurance didn`t cover again, and Tanaka-san was kind enough to drive me to the nabe party, where i managed to enjoy the party, although my foot isn`t so great. i will save talk of the nabe party for a later entry.
briefly, my thoughts on the doctor`s diagnosis of my feet: i feel that they (the doctors) honestly don`t know what`s wrong with my feet. the first doctor said "low heat burns" by heaters are common in the winter because people position heaters close to them for a while to get warm, but i had only stuck my feet infront of my heater (a lowly ceramic heater that doesnt even have a very high setting) for 3 minutes! i burned my feet just by sticking them infront of the heater for 3 mintues? i think not. but there is no point in arguing with the doctor, especially when the person translating for you agrees with the doctor. u-u; i really don`t think that my feet were burned.... it`s not like i stuck them infront of a stove for 3 mintues... and i don`t think a burn fits the symptoms i have either. :/
i`m very doubtful that this dressing that they are putting on my foot is anything but a temp fix for a real problem. i strongly fear that once they stop dressing my foot, it will just get as bad as it is now again if i take another shower or if my feet get too warm. :[ but even if i tell the doctors this, what will they do? will they do anything? prescribe pain killers, which doesnt help the swelling at all? keep telling me to come back forever? they want me to go to a hospital (doesnt have to be the same hospital) again on tuesday, too (monday is a holiday). :/ i can`t keep going to the hospital, and i`m suppose to work starting tuesday! >_< i can take a sickday, but.... gah. i`d rather not.... do i have a choice...?
*sigh* Japanese hospitals are very, very different from American hospitals.... i have never liked hospitals, thus why i have tried so hard to avoid going to one, but honestly the difference in American and Japanese hospitals does nothing to help a distressed foreigner when they are in pain. :`[ ...but whatever, i just felt like saying that, there`s no point in pointing that out. i`m sure many foreigners in every country that is very different from their own feel this way.
right now my right foot feels alright.... still some tingling sometimes, but it`s bearable.... i just wish my feet would go back to normal.... i seriously will never take my feet for granted again now. i will be so, so, so happy once my feet have fully recovered.... this condition sucks so much, nothing i can say here truly describes it.
thank god this weekend is a 3-day weekend atleast... i will stay off my feet as much as i can. it`s hard to leave the apartment right now anyway.
anyway, before i get into that i should say that even though i haven`t been mentioning the injury to my feet that happened nearly a month ago now, my feet still are not better. after practically a month, i have still been having problems with them.
about 2 weeks ago or so, i could have sworn that my feet were nearly 100% better. they were so close to full recovery, i swear i could taste it. but then, last thursday i took a shower, maybe slightly hotter than usual, but it somehow undid almost all recovery that had been done. my right foot swelled up immensely and my toes felt like they were on fire and about to pop all over again. it was horrible. >_< so i went to bed early as i couldn`t stand it. when i got up the next morning, my feet were feeling better, so i went about going to work normally, except i absolutely avoided taking showers, sanitizing in other ways.
until this past thursday. everything was fine until i got home from Ikku and my feet swelled and killed me again. went to bed early because i couldn`t stand the pain, got up yesterday morning and my feet were feeling well enough, so i went to work as usual again. but when i got home from Ikku yesterday, my feet (specifically my right foot) got so bad that i couldn`t take it anymore....
the sharp pain that i was getting in my right foot was so bad that for the first time i really was on the edge of tears and could barely function as each sharp pain brought twitching with it. during all this happening, i was somehow able to convey my pain to a friend (skrobo <3) through a bunch of cursing and misc letters strung together randomly and being the awesome friend that he is, insisted that i go to the hospital. at first i refused, but i soon caved in. however, going to the hospital isn`t something easily done. first of all, i didn`t even know where the nearest open hospital was (it was 7pm by this time, and in Japan most hospitals close around this time if not earlier), let alone how to get to one in my condition and what i would do once i got there. i needed to contact my supervisor.
franticly i tried to compose myself and call my supervisor, but i got her voice mail twice. i went through my address book calling 4 other English teachers, all of which i got their voice mail. at this point all i could do was cry and wonder what i could possibly do, but then i remembered that i had just gotten the cellphone number of my Japanese tutor the other day (because i was suppose to go to a nabe party with her tomorrow/today), so i tried my best to compose myself again and call her. thank god she answered, but at this point i was so distraught that i could barely speak Japanese and her English isn`t that great. plus it was hard to keep from crying on the phone. >_> but somehow i managed to half-assedly communicate to her that i needed to go to a hospital, but didn`t know where to go and she managed to tell me where i could go, but i couldn`t bare to ask her to take me. she said she`d call the hospital and let them know i was coming, though..... just when i got off the phone with her and frantically tried to google the name of the hospital to confirm how to get there, my supervisor called me back. thank god, because her English is better than my sensei`s. >_>;; she was able to tell me how to get to the hospital, but she couldn`t take me because she was in the middle of a meeting.... i had to get there on my own.
i somehow managed to drag myself down the street to the train station and made it to the hospital without dying. just before i got there, i got a call from my sensei and my supervisor both saying they would meet me at the hospital in 15 mins. D`; yay. so i managed to hobble my way into the reception of the hospital, where one of the clerks had gotten the call from my sensei and helped me fill out the paperwork. <3 then it was off to the waiting room. sensei arrived just before i was called back to the examination "room". thank god for sensei arriving. <3 the Japanese that was exchanged between her and the doctor about my condition was way over my head, partially because of the pain i was in.
to avoid this turning into a rant, i will be brief as to what happened next. the doctor took a little look at my feet, felt up the one that was swollen (which fin hurt), went "hmmmm" and exchanged some comments with my sensei, asking me a few more questions and then came to the conclusion that i had suffered a "low heat burn" from my heater. he got the nurse to prepare some dressing for my foot, wrapped it up in gauze and told me i needed to come back again in the morning to see what effect the dressing had on my foot. (this was done to my right foot only, my left foot didn`t hurt, although it still sucks). in the middle of this, my supervisor arrived, at which point there was a bunch of bowing and exchanging of "いつもお世話になっています、本当にありがとうございます" (hard to translate, but basically "thank you for everything you have done". something commonly said in Japanese). this was the first time my sensei and supervisor had met. >_>; lots and lots of bowing and お世話 exchanging. after which, sensei had to leave and my supervisor took over.
afterwards, i paid the fee that my insurance didn`t cover and my supervisor drove me home. she picked me up again early this morning (because the hospital closes at 11:30am on the weekend, plus i still wanted to go to my sensei`s nabe party at 10am if i could) and took me to the hospital. yay for Tanaka-san (my supervisor). <3
when i was called back to see the doctor (a different doctor than last night), he took off the dressing and gauze and my toes were still very swollen, they just didn`t hurt much now. i guess he interpreted this as being a good thing and had the nurse prepare another set of dressing and rewrap my foot, this time taking care to dress and wrap my toes (last night my toes hadnt been dressed or wrapped). he told me to come back again tomorrow morning to see the effects the dressing has on my toes, so i paid the fee my insurance didn`t cover again, and Tanaka-san was kind enough to drive me to the nabe party, where i managed to enjoy the party, although my foot isn`t so great. i will save talk of the nabe party for a later entry.
briefly, my thoughts on the doctor`s diagnosis of my feet: i feel that they (the doctors) honestly don`t know what`s wrong with my feet. the first doctor said "low heat burns" by heaters are common in the winter because people position heaters close to them for a while to get warm, but i had only stuck my feet infront of my heater (a lowly ceramic heater that doesnt even have a very high setting) for 3 minutes! i burned my feet just by sticking them infront of the heater for 3 mintues? i think not. but there is no point in arguing with the doctor, especially when the person translating for you agrees with the doctor. u-u; i really don`t think that my feet were burned.... it`s not like i stuck them infront of a stove for 3 mintues... and i don`t think a burn fits the symptoms i have either. :/
i`m very doubtful that this dressing that they are putting on my foot is anything but a temp fix for a real problem. i strongly fear that once they stop dressing my foot, it will just get as bad as it is now again if i take another shower or if my feet get too warm. :[ but even if i tell the doctors this, what will they do? will they do anything? prescribe pain killers, which doesnt help the swelling at all? keep telling me to come back forever? they want me to go to a hospital (doesnt have to be the same hospital) again on tuesday, too (monday is a holiday). :/ i can`t keep going to the hospital, and i`m suppose to work starting tuesday! >_< i can take a sickday, but.... gah. i`d rather not.... do i have a choice...?
*sigh* Japanese hospitals are very, very different from American hospitals.... i have never liked hospitals, thus why i have tried so hard to avoid going to one, but honestly the difference in American and Japanese hospitals does nothing to help a distressed foreigner when they are in pain. :`[ ...but whatever, i just felt like saying that, there`s no point in pointing that out. i`m sure many foreigners in every country that is very different from their own feel this way.
right now my right foot feels alright.... still some tingling sometimes, but it`s bearable.... i just wish my feet would go back to normal.... i seriously will never take my feet for granted again now. i will be so, so, so happy once my feet have fully recovered.... this condition sucks so much, nothing i can say here truly describes it.
thank god this weekend is a 3-day weekend atleast... i will stay off my feet as much as i can. it`s hard to leave the apartment right now anyway.