Hospital Days, part 2 - Post-surgery

Thursday afternoon

Woke up shivering and teeth chattering, it was really intense. People were talking to me and I could answer, but really couldn’t make myself stop shaking. Learned a new Chinese word: fa dou (shivering or shaking) it sounds like “giving out beans” though probably not the same tones. 發抖....發豆 Finally I did stop and they took me down to x-ray (requiring your bed to be wheeled through where all the outpatients wait, isn’t that lovely?) and back up to my room. I slept off and on, and had more visitors.

The cleaning lady bought me dinner. I’d chatted with her a bit earlier when she came to empty my garbage, and around 5 she started getting concerned that I might be hungry. I ate ritz crackers and an apple, but she insisted that she go down and buy me something. I tried to refuse again and told her that some people were bringing me stuff later. She came back to my room a 3^rd time and said she was about to get off work and she really thought I should eat something, so finally I said ok. Actually I’m glad she did since my other friends didn’t show up bearing food until after 8.

Friday morning

Had a ton of visitors right around 11am, including my coworker who brought two huge bags of bread for me. As per Taiwanese custom, I’ve been inundated with fruit as well. So far in my room there have been 8 giant asian pears, two big apples, three bunches of grapes, some plums and bell fruit, cut up pineapple, and 3 highly debated bananas. If you’re not familiar with the banana story, may I direct your attention here. Apparently in Chinese medicine, bananas are bad for bones, or legs, or surgical incisions or something.. must be all the potassium… my theory is that the word for banana – xiang jiao, has the word for leg in it (jiao) albeit different characters and tones. That’s the most sense I can make out of it.. the Indonesian girl TOTALLY tracked with me on that theory by the way!

After the 5 people left on Friday, I didn’t have any more visitors until Saturday morning.. they really gotta coordinate something! I got the bad news on one of those days that I had to stay in the hospital until Monday. I really started to miss my bed, and my Facebook…