Always an Adventure...

The bandages on my leg suddenly got a lot smaller as I got my stitches out today. As promised, I took a picture of the x-ray, but since I took it with my cell phone, you really can't see anything at all..... by the way the doctor seemed really excited to let me take a picture, he even got out of his chair so i could get up close! Actually that's his hand in the picture pointing to the screw holes. My doctor cracks me up. 2 things I learned today: first the screw holes look wierd and kinda gross, and second the chunk that broke the first time is actually still sticking way out, the gap has just filled in. If you look carefully at the x-ray on the right you can see a light piece of something sharp looking...pretty much parallel to the tip of the pen: that's the errant bone. Maybe you can't see it, but I can see it... then again i've been looking at x-rays of my leg regularly for almost 2 years now! I'm off to Taipei soon and back to work again. Wish me luck and no...

Ok, well there's not really a part four, especially since this is already day 10. The doctor stopped in on Sunday and added seafood and fish to my list of forbidden foods.... apparently fish is "too healthy" and will cause my tissue to grow back too rapidly making for an ugly scar.... wish he would have told me that before I bought a ton of healthy fish and put it in my freezer to cook after I got home!! About an hour later, someone from the church brought me dinner..... salmon fried rice! I decided to stop eating fish the next day instead..... So now the list of things I can't eat or drink: coffee, tea, or cola (caffeine) and probably other carbonated drinks which are bad for your bones mangoes and bananas for some unknown reason fish and seafood Well I'm not sure how long I'll follow all those rules, but i'm trying to be good for now, at least until i'm all healed up. I did have a wonderful friend bring me some decaf coffee though! So at least I can ...

Saturday Had a mini cold war with my roommate. Her great-grandchildren came to visit from 10-12, just as I was about to take a nap. They were really noisy, so I put in my headphones…. But then they decided it would be a fun game to peek around the curtain at the foreigner and run away screaming if I looked at them…. My dread grew when I head mom coaching them: “How are you?” “My name is __ what’s your name?” I wondered if I feigned a coma would they leave me alone, but it didn’t seem likely. To give the little girl credit, she really wanted to try speaking English with me. She finally jumped out from behind the curtain and said very quickly, “My name is Cindy, what’s your name?” I said “Hello” and she bolted for her mother. Back again “My name is Cindy, what’s your name” “ Charlotte ” (run away) Back again, “My name is Cindy” “How old are you?” “ My name is Cindy” sigh. I got my revenge when Christine came for lunch with her 3 youngest daughters, and I encouraged t...

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 brin ging 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 ...

note: i was on varying levels of pain medication during the writing of this blog, so just ignore random tense and voice switches! Wednesday 3:30pm : arrive, sign a multitude of papers, and take an x-ray etc. By 5 I’m in my room and have had blood taken and the iv needle taped into my hand I got a window seat! Oh wait I mean bed… roommate arrives around 6:30 , an 82 year old lady also getting some kind of leg surgery. Find out that she only speaks Taiwanese and Japanese, but I have a chat with her granddaughter. I ask if I can go out for a little while (for a walk or something) and they say “sure, just wait until the anesthesiologist comes to see you” well at 10am the next day, I still haven’t seen him grrr… Had some visitors, and put my hair into little braids, partly for something to do, partly so I wouldn't have to worry about doing anything with it for a couple of days. Partly because I'd never go to class with hair like that, so this is one of the only times I can ...

Tomorrow I go into the hospital to get ready for surgery on Thursday morning. Most of the metal in the above x-ray will be taken out (some was already taken out last year). The good thing is my bone is completely healed, and it will be great to get all the "hardware" out, and hopefully after that will be 100% healed. The bad thing is, it seems like I'll have to go back before I go forward... after the screws are taken out, there will be small holes in the bone that need to be healed, and I'll be susceptible to re-injury for a couple of months if I do fall again or get into any kind of accident. So my summer activities will be a little limited, not to mention no swimming until the incision site is healed AGAIN.... and no coffee, tea or cola for awhile, I've already been off them for about a week. I miss my coffee! I've been drinking a lot of milk and soy milk though. I was thinking that this time will be better since I know in advance that I'm having the su...

my fate is sealed: I go in for surgery (to take the metal out of my leg) on June 25. Actually the surgery will take place on the 26, one week after my last class of the semester, which is 2 weeks from tomorrow. does that sound complicated? how about this? my work visa expires June 15, which happens to be the same day we're planning our end-of-semester event for the English Bible study, and hopefully my visa will be renewed before then or i might have to leave the country... around that day.... it'll be a close call, but i go pick up my renewed passport on Friday, so hopefully everything will work out with that... I'm also in the process of booking my flights home: looks like the date will be Aug 16 - to Vancouver, then to Castlegar on the 17, heading back to Alberta somewhere in the middle to fly out of Calgary on the 28. If you happen to be in any of those cities, let me know and I'll do my best to see you! As for the summer schedule between June 25 and Aug 16.... it...

Got some pics from New Years Day. It was really hot and sunny that day as you can see from the fact that I'm squinting in EVERY picture! The weather has taken a turn for the cool (11 degrees) and my hands felt like ice all day. Had my last classes at one school today, and instated a new lateness policy which I think may just get results - 5 push-ups for every minute late. It works in my 2 hour, smaller classes where i can afford the short diversion, (I don't think I'd use it in my 50 minute classes, which end up being 45-40 minutes once everyone shows...another 5 minutes for punishment just isn't worth it). They did some fun role plays today on the topic of holidays and inviting someone to spend a holiday with you. The highlights were a group talking about ghost festival where one of the people ended up being a ghost (the other boy screamed and ran out the door at the reveal), and one 10th grade boy turning down an invitation because he had a date with Charlotte. Should...