My Hospital Stay

This is Tokyo Idai (Tokyo University Medical Hospital)  probably the most famous hospital in Japan.  This is the one from the movie Lost In Translation.  I use this hospital a lot since I live a 10 minute walk away.  It's also the one I stayed at for the past week.  It was an interesting week!

The nurses (above) were (mostly) awesome but some bad apples as well.

A view from my room.  Not bad scenery.


Monday, May 30, 2010

The following is what my wife Masae told me since I have no recollection:

I was writhing in agony on the kitchen floor in a seizure like state.  I was incoherent and Aimee-Anne and Anjou-Marie were crying.  I think that they suffered some emotional damage from this.  I briefly remember the medics hovering over me trying to talk to me but they sounded so 'far away'
I  regained my senses briefly to find two famous MMA fighters on gurneys next to me.  I actually smiled.  They were pretty mashed up/  No tournies so it was probably a training session that went bad.  I am awake now but I cannot speak.  I have lost the use of speech.  I can only nod or shake my head.  They are running me through a battery of tests (Blood/x-ray/CAT scan).   
I finally make it to my room.  I can hear my little girls voices outside.  My wife is with them.
I am in total agony writhing in pain and coughing uncontrollably.  I am surrounded by doctors and nurses trying to talk to me.  They are very annoying. They sedate me heavily.

Tuesday June 1, 2010

The nurse comes in at 6:00am to change my IV bags, get my temp, BP and check my blood oxygen levels.  She says the results of the test are back and that the doctor would be here at 9:00 to discuss this. 
I still don't have my speech faculties.  I nod (off).  Two shady characters walk into my room and are checking everyone even if their curtains are closed.  They are obviously looking for someone and they unmistakenly Japanese Yakuza.  They are both very scary and intimidating.  They ignored me.
OK exactly 9:00am and a group of doctors enter my room. Punctuality is unbelievable here.  My doctor, (a cute Japanese woman with a pudgy face and bobbed hair) takes the lead while the other doctor's puff out their chests and try to look important when a nurse enters the room.  I am informed that I have a very serious case of pneumonia.  Well that explains the coughing.  I would have to stay at least a week and possibly two.  Well at least I was lying down in a fully adjustable bed.  I needed a break from my futon and tatami mats. I nodded.  
The gaggle of doctors left.  I basically left all of my food untouched.  I had lost my appetite fnd basically eaten no solid foods for the past three weeks.  I lost 10kg.  I wasn't happy because my body fat% was at 3%. Ouch!!!  I still can't move so I just lie there.  I am still in agony and cannot talk.  The wife stops by throws a bag on the floor with some essentials and places signed divorce papers in front of me.  She demands that I sigh them before she leaves.  I can't talk or move but I have that magic orange button that brings a nurse into my room at a sprint.  The nurse explains my condition to my wife.  She says she is coming back the next morning and they had better be signed.  I understand the year of hell I put her through but I am very put out by the timing.  
It's been 19 years since my father passed away.  June 1st is his birthday and I usually have a bad day on June 1st every year.  I don't drink alcohol so I just can't get drunk.  I've seen better days.
Some big dude walks into my room doing a recon.  This guy is definitely a Korean Mafia bodyguard. This guy is a mountain and definitely qualifies as one of the scariest/most intimidating people I have ever seen in my life.  I manage to sit up by myself.  The antibiotics are really helping. 11:00am I am sleeping!! Cold water when they come to change my IV at midnight.  I am awake again.  I try to negotiate an earlier time but NG.  My request is repeatedly denied.  There was one really cool nurse (the mostest awesomenest nurse in the whole damn world!!)  She wasn't a pretty girl but her personality more than made up for it.  I'll talk about her again later.  Whenever she was on night duty she would secretly move it to 11:00.  This could easily get her fired but she did it anyway. See what I mean?  That is humanity!!!


Wednesday June 2

6:00am arrives that the nurse comes into my room like clockwork to change the IV bags.  I am sitting on the edge of the bed and felling a lot better now.  I still have coughing fits but they are less frequent now.  8:00 arrives and my appetite has returned with a vengeance.  I scarf down every available morsel and I am still hungry.  I find myself counting the minutes to lunch and get really upsaet if they are late.  They were today by about 30 mins.  I was furious.  The old lady who does the cart delivery was in tears and apologizing profusely.