Another hot week of August

Another quiet week of just bearing up under the horrible heat and humidity.  It makes me feel so worthless, just sitting in an air conditioned room wishing the heat would break, sometimes sketching and painting, sometimes sewing, sometimes walking to YouTube videos, sometimes practicing Spanish with Duolingo.  I managed to wash three windows and their screens but Tetsu doesn't like me standing on chairs and I'm not overly enthusiastic about the physical labor either.  

Our mornings start with an early walk around the cemetery and with Obon over, there are rarely people there so we play a simple game of hide-and-seek with John who seems to like the challenge of finding one or the other of us as we go down different paths.  Now that I'm back to walking, this former routine is in practice again and we all get a bit more exercise than we did before.  I have a feeling John needs it more than Tetsu or me.

Also because of my increased walking ability I decided to inform the City Hall and the elementary school that I would be starting work on schedule rather than take another month off as I'd originally planned.  Friday was the first day of school and I was happy to be back at my corner smiling at drivers and greeting the children again. 

"How was your summer vacation?  Can you say what the date is today in English?"  

If nothing else all the kids who have gone to this elementary school for the past 14 years have all learned the months of the year, the days of the week and numbers up to 31!

It feels great to be out and working again, even if it is only for an hour every morning!  I'm still not allowed to drive however so Tetsu accompanied me and snapped a few photos of my return to the crosswalk.

There was one overcast morning this past week when Tetsu and I visited a local dam to walk around the man-made pond a couple of laps but it soon got to be too hot for even that.

Doesn't Tetsu look "cool" in his California sunglasses that he is usually too embarrassed to wear?

M-san has been making some wonderful things and hopefully I'll be able to show them in my next post.  And I'm almost finished with my Mola project so I'll get pictures of that...  I'll soon have to think of something new!

Hoping for cooler weather soon!

Obon week in Japan

So, what has been going on this week?  Not too much because it is still too hot and our energy is being zapped.  Tetsu has been happy with a lot of high school baseball on TV, always a favorite during the summers for sports lovers.  I stay downstairs in the cool room and sew while he watches TV but usually I'm hooked into audiobooks as I don't have much interest in high school baseball...

I guess I've been keeping my handwork pretty much under wraps but I've been working on my Mola piece since just before I went into the hospital and since coming home.  I knew it would be too hot to do any sewing upstairs and I'd prepped this piece for cool air-conditioning time.  It is nearly done but I've got a bit of running stitch embroidery to add here and there and then I'll decide what I'm going to do with this small piece...

I had a fun hour's zoom chat with a friend who lives in another part of Japan and whom I haven't talked to in over 4 years.  Our kids all grew up together and until she moved away we were quite close, but time apart neither of us has been good about communication except for New Year's cards.  That didn't change the fun we had online sharing our recent lives.  It turns out she has been painting also and we laughed to think that in our old age we've both developed completely new hobbies.  (She also started writing poetry but I don't think I'm going to go that route...)

This week was Obon in Japan which is a four day holiday of welcoming ancestors back for a visit, and the cemetery across the street was a busy place with loads of families coming to scrub down headstones and decorate the graves.

Some people bring lanterns as well as flowers and incense and our usually quiet morning walk felt like we'd joined a parade with all the people walking between the rows and carrying water and offerings etc.

Marlene invited us to their neighborhood summer festival which her husband was in charge of and we braved the heat and joined the fun eating grilled corn and pot stickers and baked potatoes.  Oh did I feel sorry for all the people manning the grilling booths!  Marlene had worked in her hot kitchen all week last week making cookies to sell at the event and of course I supported her booth too.

Some snippits from yesterday's festival.

Besides the heat, we also had a typhoon last week and I tried to think of the high winds and rain as something positive rather than just being stuck inside a hot and humid house with the air-conditioning turned off because of the lightning and thunder!

The cats and John are doing well despite the heat.  John suffers through 15 seconds of being held and then he's done with Tetsu for the day...

I've continued taking Skillshare classes, this one with Samantha Dion Baker on making a full journal spread.  My day on this day, included my Mola, painting, doing Yes2Next online, making potato salad, snacking on nuts and walking! 

I saw this saying on the Internet and just had to include it in my journal!  Very appropriate for me don't you think?  And by the way, it is getting easier and easier to move around these days.  I'm nearly at the one month mark since surgery!

Stay cool my friends in the Northern Hemisphere!  

Life is more than just walking!

I've been home from the hospital for a few days and I thought I'd report in the differences between being in the hospital and being home.

The hospital stay was actually very relaxing.  I got in a routine while I was there the last week...  I started the day about 6:00 with 8 laps around the hospital ward and then I joined three or four other people in the day room for Radio Exercises.  Before lunch I did another 8 laps around the ward and then spent the afternoon tatting or painting or reading (or napping).  In the late afternoon the physical therapist came by for about a half hour of massage and walking and before dinner I did another 8 laps.  Depending on the day I would take a shower or have to go for an X-ray, but before bed I got in another 8 laps which usually added up to 8000 or 9000 steps for the day.

Right outside the hospital grounds we passed a couple sunflower fields when we were leaving!  Such a cheery sight to see after just being in a hospital ward for two weeks!

Another sunflower field.  All the flowers were bowing to people leaving the hospital!

Coming home I've been hit by the humidity and heat which everyone tells me is so much better than the two weeks when I was in the hospital.  The air-conditioning there really spoiled me!  Now, Tetsu and I get out for a 20 minute walk at the cemetery across the way at around 6:00 AM but after that I'm rather housebound as it is too hot to go out.  I walk back and forth around the living room which really isn't much space.

I was thrilled with my progress in the hospital but I've learned since coming home that life isn't just about walking!  There is reaching for things in the kitchen and picking things up from lower shelves and side stepping a dog or cat in my way.  There are lots of stairs which aren't that much of a challenge but still, it is a different movement.  I am way more tired than I expected to be and have quite a bit more pain and stiffness which can be accounted to the drastic lessening of painkillers that I took home with me (with instructions to take more if needed but which I'm resisting).   And come to think of it, there is a lot more upright sitting than in the nice comfortable slightly reclining bed that I had in the hospital.  Anyway, life in that way is different.

I have been cautioned about bending over too far for the first month or so to prevent dislocation, and twisting too much and crossing my legs.  The crossing the legs is the hardest to remember as I realize how that was such a habit with me.  Not bending over means it is difficult to put on socks and shoes and pick things up that I've dropped...  Besides that I've been instructed to walk a lot and NOT just take it easy!  Also no pool or public bathing until I see the doctor again in a month but I've been to the pool with Tetsu and walked the air-conditioned facilities there while Tetsu goes in the pool and I've used their showers and seen pool friends.

Speaking of friends, I became aquainted with numerous patients at the hospital just because I spent so much time in the hallways walking, and I made friends with one older man who would bring me little yogurt drinks every morning and pass on milk or fermented bean packs that he didn't drink or eat that day...  Little gifts of what he had that I smiled at and appreciated.

The day after getting home, Marlene and Kohei came over bearing lunch for us all and we had a wonderful time catching up.  I think Marlene texted me every day while I was in the hospital and that was so nice to look forward to.

Another day, a neighbor friend stopped in bringing me a lovely display of preserved flowers that I will keep in my entry.

And yesterday our friends from Morioka, sent me a beautiful arrangement of real flowers as a coming-home-from-the-hospital gift.

Also yesterday I saw M-san and she brought me vegetables from her garden and we even got a bit of sewing in together before the heat overcame the sewing room!  We will begin our regular sewing days again if the heat will allow us.

The animals have survived the heat.  Tetsu was particularly worried about Cleo our oldest cat, but he is still going strong (and won't come downstairs to the air-conditioning!)  John was very happy to see me and though he bonded well with Tetsu while I was gone, he's done 180 degree turn of attitude and sticks by me close and is back at growling at Tetsu whenever he comes by...  John's allegience is fickle!

Anyway, I'm back home and still drawing.  The sunflowers really impressed me and this week I've been focusing on them.

And my rendition of one of the above photos...

Enjoying my new hip and new life!  (Sorry for this scary last photo but I wanted to put in on my blog for posterity...)

 

Another report from the hospital

I'm still in the hospital but I don't really think I need to be here anymore.  My days are about the same everyday, I'm doing a lot of walking around the hospital ward and I'm grateful just for that reason that I'm still here...  Once I get home it is going to be too hot to go outside and walk and our house doesn't have much space for walking indoors.  I'm making the best of the long hallways and the central air-conditioning.

The past few mornings I've joined a few other patients to meet in the day room at 6:30 AM to do "Radio Taiso", radio calisthentics.  Radio Taiso began in Japan, over the radio, in the late 1920's and its purpose is to promote health and happiness of citizens.  The music accompanying the exercises is well known throughout Japan and there are two basic routines that we all know that last only 5 minutes.  Radio Taiso is still available on the radio but it is also broadcast every day on television and over the years though the routine hasn't changed much, the program's presentation has changed slightly.  It used to be that the 5 exercise leaders all stood and they were all women.  Nowadays there is one of the leaders who demonstrates the exercises from a seated position and there are both men and women performing.  Another interesting thing is that every morning the exercises are done to live piano music, though it is always the same music and always the same pace with no flourishes whatsoever.  Anyway, Radio Taiso is a simple routine that young (children are asked to participate during summer vacations) and old, and even the disabled can participate in.

Everyday except Sunday, a physical therapist comes to my hospital room and after giving my leg a deep muscle massage, he has me up and walking around the ward, making suggestions about exercises, advising and answering questions.  I'm so back to normal now that the most he can say is "try to focus of walking beautifully, with no moving of the head."  Maybe I'll try balancing books like in my high school days when I wanted to develop grace!

Though there isn't much scenery to sketch, there was a beautiful sunset that I could just glimpse between the hospital buildings and I tried a couple of ways of putting that down on paper.  The first attempt was thought-out, with a pencil sketch and careful linework. 

And then I did it all over again almost in a continuous line using a fountain pen with no planning whatsoever.   I think I like the wonky one more than the thought-out one!

When I'm not walking the halls, I'm back to tatting and I made crosses again but actually have no one to give them to.  Nurses are polite and admire them when they see them but that's about it.  Then I started making simple butterflies and oh my!  So many compliments and when I offer one to anyone who comes into the room (nurses, cleaning ladies) they happily chose a butterfly bookmark.  I think I've given away 7 of them today and my physical therapist chose a cross for his wife, which made me happy.

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I missed my end of the month family photos but I'll include some here that my kids have sent me.

Leiya's family went to Nashville for Leiya's birthday and this funny photo is from a Yoga with Goats class!

I love this photo of them with the goats.

Luka seemed to enjoy a donut shop.

Takumi and Julieta have been trying to beat the heat by going up to the mountains to hike.

They've gotten up there quite a lot and always take the doggies with them.

I guess that's about all I have to report on from my hospital room.  Tetsu and the animals are surviving the heat but barely!  Hopefully I'll be home early next week!

Hospital life continued

Many of my blog readers seemed to be surprised that roommates aren't supposed to chat and make the most of the time we have together.  It didn't seem particularly odd to me but that's probably because I had already been hospitalized in this hospital for a week last year and it was the same thing.

TEN years ago I was in the hospital (a different hospital) for a week for surgery from a knee injury and at that time I remember all of us in our room had our curtains pushed aside and we chatted and shared snacks and did origami together.  I even was teaching one lady to do patchwork or at least to get a start on sewing pieces together.  It was a very cheerful time with lots of flowers and edibles that visitors would bring and we would all get involved with chatting with each other's visitors also!

Last October I came in to the hospital during Covid and there were so many precautions even before they would allow me to be seen by a doctor.  Taking my temperature everyday for 10 days before my appointment, of course wearing a mask, and Tetsu had to follow the same precautions just because he was accompanying me.  And once in the room I had very little contact with my roommates.

This time around, once admitted and assigned to a quad room, the curtains were pulled tight again and we are required to wear masks when out of the room.  No visitors are allowed on the ward at all and the amount of talking to each other has been limited.   No visitors allowed means no flowers and no snacking.  Patients also are not allowed OFF the ward, so though there are convenience stores and a Starbucks on the first floor, we are not allowed to visit.  

Some of the patients have family members pick up and bring back laundry (most of us wear our own pajamas though there was an option to use hospital pajamas that would be laundered) but as I live an hour away from the hospital, I told Tetsu that I was managing fine with the pay washing machine and dryer in the ward.  Tetsu insisted he didn't mind the trip, but if we couldn't even talk with each other (a wave from 20 meters away) I declined his offer...

In front of the elevators there is a table with two bottles of sanitizing gel (there is also a bottle in front of all rooms) and lots of signs saying DO NOT ENTER.  A call button is on the table so that family who are delivering laundry can call the nurse to come and pick it up and take it to the patient.  And if a family member plans to come with laundry they have to show proof of a normal temperature for the past 10 days and get clearance at the entrance to the hospital.  Patients are kept very isolated and protected!

So that is why roommates are not supposed to socialize.  Japan is still very concerned with a resurgence of Covid and the nurses not only wear masks but also face shields.  Life is not as colorful as when visitors were coming in and out during visiting hours (non-existent now), but it is definitely quieter and I guess that's the purpose for patients to be in the hospital.  To rest, recuperate and recover.

 

Hospital life

Good morning from my hospital room!  I am on day 5 since my surgery and maybe you can tell, I'm in fine spirits.  Today's post is only hospital talk so it may get a bit tedious.

(The community day room where patients can watch the Doctor Heli take off and land)

Surgery was scheduled for Monday morning at 8:30 AM and Tetsu arrived at the hospital at around 7:45 though I wasn't allowed out of the room to see him.  The nurse had hooked me up to an IV and she helped me change into a surgical gown and then together we passed Tetsu in the hallway giving him a wave and I walked a couple of floors down to the operating room.  Once on a table the anesthesiologist did a lumbar procedure (I think it must be called an epidural) and also put something in my IV to make me drowsy though I could still hear what was going on around me.  I had been fearful of having to be awake throughout the sawing and grinding etc, but whatever anesthesia I was given, the noise (and I remember hearing it) didn't much bother me.  The surgery was an hour and a half but it sure seemed shorter to me.  I was placed back on my bed and was wheeled back past Tetsu in the hallway and I was with it enough to give him a thumbs up and another wave.

(The very boring view from my hospital bed)

The doctor must have come in to tell me all was fine and to inform Tetsu because from then on I was in my room with nurses coming to check on me.  As the local anesthesia wore off the pain was starting to become very uncomfortable but when I mentioned it to the nurse something more was put in my IV and since then I haven't felt any major pain.  Amazing!

For the first two days I was hooked up to a urine bag, and a wound drainage bag and IV and then later a blood transfusion which was just my own blood they were returning to me that the hospital had stocked a couple of weeks before.  I was sitting up in bed the next morning and feeling perky enough to ask for someone to hand me my iPhone and Kindle so I was no longer bored with looking at the ceiling as I'd been the night before.

(My walker the first day)

Tuesday the drainage and urine bags were removed and the physical therapist arrived wheeling a walker and after some soft muscle massages he had me up and walking down the hall hanging on for dear life to the walker!  Hey!  I can do this and it's not too bad! 

(And my pink cane)

The next day, Wednesday I was finally disconnected from the IV and the therapist had me walking a lap around the hospital ward with a cane and the walker could be retired!  

(Practicing a lap with no cane!)

And then yesterday, Thursday,  we walked another lap around the ward without the cane! I'm basically free again!  My homework for this weekend is to walk as much as possible around the hospital ward using the cane still, and today I think the therapist is going to start giving advice about how to tackle stairs.  Isn't that amazing!  In four days I'm walking almost normally again!  Supposedly before surgery the bad leg had been about 3/4 of an inch shorter than the other (what with the wearing away of the cartilage) but now they are of equal lengths and I don't see-saw any more when I walk!  I'm really happy about that (vanity).

(We've only had bread once for breakfast.  Usually it is white rice)

(Lunch was a tofu hamburger.  I decorated my hamburger myself)

I am in a room with three other ladies (well, one lady went home yesterday) and we are discouraged from talking with each other and instead have our curtains tightly surrounding our beds.  Even so, I do exchange a few words with one lady who is 86, and the other roommate is 100 and quite chipper!

(At least once a day we are served fish)

Our meals are simple but tasty.  Every time one is served I think that Tetsu would never survive on this amount of food (maybe for men there are bigger portions).  1400 calories a day with very little sugar or salt...  And no choice of menu like a remember in the States (when I was in high school I was a Candy Striper during summer vacations).

(My reward to myself in the afternoon after walking laps!)

Anyway, everything is going smoothly and I am so happy with the progress I'm making.  I'm back to tatting and painting but most of the time I'm just relaxing.  The hospital is so comfortable and cool while Tetsu and the animals and the rest of Japan swelters in the horrible heat.  I feel rather guilty but I'm enjoying the time while I can!