Queen of Bad Luck

Well, that was the worst string of bad luck I've experienced in a while. I guess I'm lucky that it was only bad luck for like... getting back home and not something worse like losing my wallet, or bad luck with my graduate school applications (which, I am very happy to announce, I have finished applying for!). I mean, I guess that's pretty bad luck anyways... but as they say... it could've been worse. I could have broken something or not healed as fast.

But yeah. I got discharged from the hospital Monday... but my journey didn't end there.

So, I wrote that entry at the hospital on Sunday night/early monday morning because I had very little to do. It was actually a good thing I was awake that late and writing because they came in to take my blood pressure, heartrate, and temperature while I was writing that. At 2 am! Crazy. But when I woke up in the morning, my fever was actually not as bad - practically gone. Breakfast was this congee/jook stuff that wasn't too bad, since they used like... actual chicken soup or something. And! They actually gave me a couple pieces of cantaloupe. This was big, since fruit was on the forbidden list. My stomach didn't make too many weird noises either. The doctor came back and told me that it was possible for me to get discharged that day, and that the customer service downstairs would help me get everything in order and rebook my flight and stuff. I had to pay an extra hundred dollars because they weren't able to find the same booking class I made the reservation in, but at that point it was like... ugh, I just want to get back.

So they made my reservation for the same flight I had missed: the 1am flight on Tuesday. This meant I was going to get back sometime around Tuesday afternoon. The whole morning was spent in correspondence with my prefectural advisor and emails to my teachers and supervisors and family and friends (one of whom kindly called my supervisor for me, since in Japan, monday was a national holiday... so nobody was going to be checking their emails until Tuesday when it was too late.) So people knew what was going on. I had to deal with things for insurance and stuff, with getting paper work. Once they knew I was going to get discharged, things like medication and paper work started to slowly but surely trickle in.

One of our family's friends who was working and living in Thailand came to visit me with his driver and stuff. He kindly offered to give me a ride to the airport if I could leave that afternoon when he visited, but at that point I didn't have all the paper work I needed, and they said taxis were fairly cheap so I just opted to take a taxi to the hospital since there was a protest happening near his wife's workplace, which was going to back up the traffic for two or three hours. Super sucky.

Before he arrived though, I had the chance to eat lunch and shower. Lunch was a chicken patty thing with two potatoes (I think that's like... one of the only main dishes I had those few days) and also pork wonton soup, which, to my surprise, was actually really freaking tasty. They gave me fish sauce to add to the pork wonton broth (which was like all the broth I had before, which is to say, it tasted like water). But the fish sauce? Oh my god. It was like magic. IT MADE IT TASTE AMAZING.

Showering was more interesting, since I was still attached to the IV drip at that point. I had to call the nurse in to ask her how I should shower, if she could just disconnect the IV drip from the bag for a little bit and then... she disappeared. I got super worried, because I thought she was going to take the IV out of my hand and then put it back in when I finished. I don't think I could have done that again, put the IV back in my hand. I mean, I had a hard enough time doing it when I was half conscious and sick and kinda in pain already, but now? I was like, no way.

Luckily for me, when the nurse returned, she told me that I didn't actually need the IV anymore, so she just took it out for good. It left a huge bump in my hand, and is still a little sore when I press on it now or stretch my hand. I also have a little dot there where it went in. My bruise from where they drew blood has finally disappeared too. I think I almost passed out when they drew my blood, cause I could feel myself get lightheaded and start to do that ah-ha-ha-nervous-laughter kind of thing after they were pulling blood for a few moments. Part of me panics a little, but usually I'm able to keep it under control unless they pull blood for too long.

The shower was really really nice though, since I hadn't showered since I left the Philippines (though other than being sick, it's not like I really did anything...)

Eventually, I got all my paperwork that I needed for insurance stuff - it turns out that we JETs *are* covered when we travel abroad, through both the national insurance as well as an additional JET insurance, which is good, because my bill was *not* cheap. I was also told that my hotel was not one of the cheapest hotels - er, and by hotel I mean hospital, but inside kinda felt like a hotel. People spoke English there and it was super clean and nice. And there was the clinic visit, the ER visit, the hospital food, the room itself, the doctors, the ambulance... yeah, thank god for insurance.

Right though. So after I got discharged, I went to the airport since they said that I wouldn't really have much time to explore the city on my own, plus at that point I was more concerned about getting home than I was about looking around. Plus, I decided that it probably still wasn't a good idea to eat like... street food with my stomach, so I elected to stay at the airport after checking in. Read or something.

I did get to hang out with my friend though! She actually came to the airport to visit me :) That made me super happy. She also helped me go on a manhunt for my baggage, since we weren't sure if it was in Thailand, Beijing, or in Osaka since it had been checked all the way in theory. Eventually, after being let back in to baggage claim, we managed to find it and they brought it out for us. THank goodness! We had dinner together (and I got some pad thai, which she pronounced to be not actually pad thai but hey, I wasn't super picky at that point) and waited until I could check in for my flight before parting ways. She was one of my friends from my study abroad program, The Scholar Ship. I hadn't seen her in five years, so it was a super special treat to be able to see her again.

At 1 am, I boarded my plane from Bangkok to Beijing and decided I was going to sleep for most of it. ANd sleep I did, when they weren't serving us food (which actually wasn't half bad). But when I woke up, we had landed... in Taiyuan, about 6-7 hours away from Beijing, where we were supposed to be. Nobody knew what was going on, but eventually, my seat buddy, who spoke Chinese and English, found out and then passed along that we were unable to land in Beijing due to "fog" (I don't think it was just fog...) so we were going to chill there until we got cleared.

So we sat there. For three hours. THREE HOURS. They gave us these biscuit cookie things... but they weren't letting anyone off the plane. By the time we were actually cleared to leave, we still had an hour of travel to do. By the time we got into Beijing, it was already 11:30 am.

My connecting flight to Osaka was supposed to be at 8 am.

We got put at the very end of the terminal... and holy christ, Beijing's airport is HUGE. There are actually two (or three?) terminals, and I was lucky in that I was in the same terminal... but I swear, it's like a half mile to where the transfer area is. I almost ran to the international transfers counter, where they told me (after having to wait ages behind this really slow couple) that my plane had already left a while ago. I was like, wtf.

They rescheduled me for another flight, one that left at 4. I really should have asked them, or someone, if I could reschedule my flight to the one that left two hours earlier. I went to the gate to see if there was anyone, but I only saw that the flight was delayed an hour and there was still nobody at the gate, an hour before it was supposed to fly. So I decided I would get lunch since that'd at least probably boost my mood, and send off a few more emails and check train times.

Lunch was really tasty. I didn't have Chinese food... kinda. I had suejiao, or boiled dumplings. They were pretty tasty :3 and I had lasagna, since who knew when I was going to get that again. It was hella small though. And they had a charger area as well, so I was looking up train times and emailing people while I killed time. I figured an hour difference wasn't too bad, though my flight was going to maybe not get me back in time to take the last train to Takahashi.

After lunch, I went to check the boards again since I had no idea where my gate was and started walking towards there.... and then I checked the board again closer, only to find out my flight had been delayed an hour as well.

I started to panic. I pulled out my computer and checked the train times again... only to find out that now, instead of missing the last train back to Takahashi, there was a very real chance I would miss the last train back to Okayama. And the flight I was thinking of asking to transfer to was in its final boarding call, so basically, I couldn't make that flight.

I think at that point, I got really down because I was like, what do you mean, I can't even get back to my home prefecture? We were slightly delayed in getting off the ground as well because a couple people were late and also I don't know what.

We landed in Osaka and I practically ran off the train and to get my bags and everything and through customs. By the way, bringing cans of food and oatmeal in to Japan? Totally doable. Worth hauling a heavy suitcase everywhere. Now the problem is... do I hoard it, or do I just eat it whenever I feel like it? Decisions.

But I got out and ran to the train station and decided against buying a shink ticket since I wasn't a hundred percent sure when the train left and all, or if I would have time. I decided on taking JR for some stupid reason, and got on the first train that left there since it was cheaper.

It wasn't until I was on the train that I checked the times and stuff. I had come in a couple minutes too late for the subway line that would have gotten me to the shink station in time, so getting back tonight was kind of impossible. The trains that I could have caught wouldn't actually get me to the station in time. One train got in two minutes after the train left. There was only a train that went back to Himeiji, still a good hour and a half away from where I was.

So knowing this, I decided to look for a place to stay, and messaged the people on our Okayama AJET group asking for suggestions and found a place that wasn't too far from the train station for a not ridiculous price. They had free breakfast too. I decided to go there and decided that I was going to try to catch the first train back, which would have gotten me back to school actually on time for work, maybe.

By the time I got to the hotel and checked in, it was already like... 00:45, but I was feeling super gross so I decided to take a shower after getting a little settled and sending off some emails to people so they had an update on what was going on. When I got out of the shower.... I discovered that the water was stuck or something, and it wouldn't actually turn off. It wasn't a small trickle either. I'm talking like, gushing water. It had two settings. Gushing, or torrential gushing downpour. Not the kind of thing you want to keep running, so I contacted the front desk and they told me that I would have to change rooms. At 2 am. By the time I actually got into bed, it was 2:30, and at that point, I was like, no way am I going to be at the train station by 5:45 to catch the 6 am train. I actually tried to wake up at 6:30 to catch the next train... but I woke up and then decided that sleep was a better idea for my body, and went back to sleep.

The trip back to Okayama, thankfully, was rather non-eventful. I'm okay with that. I got back, ate lunch, and then went in to work since I had to talk to some of my teachers and get stuff sorted out.

Longest. Trip. Back. Ever.

So, if you count the days I was sick, from when I was supposed to be back...
I was supposed to get back to Takahashi Sunday around 1pm. I didn't get back until Wednesday around 1pm. It took me three extra days to get back.

Hot damn.

Never flying through Beijing again though, if I can help it. It's not worth saving that much money to get dicked over that hard and for that much stress. I'm not overly fond of Air China either and their old planes.

I'm just happy to be back.

Oh, also I turned in my paper work for my recontracting. In a way, it was kind of easy since I had already made the decision to apply to graduate school a long time ago, and the deadline for the papers was long before I would find out any results.

Bittersweet. It feels like I have a limited amount of time here. It makes me sad though, because the people here are just so... awesome.

adventures in thai HOSPITALity

Well, I obviously failed at getting updates while I was in the Philippines. Currently, I'm in Thailand.

...I'm not supposed to be in Thailand right now. Really, I should be in Japan. I was supposed to be back at home already by now.

So what happened? A really unfortunate case of food poisoning, that's what. I don't know what gave me it either, though my hunch is that it was due to the unrefrigerated food that I had eaten on the plane as a snack. As soon as I got off the plane in Bangkok, I quickly went into a downward spiral of bathroom-visiting, nauseous illness. I was supposed to visit a friend in Bangkok (and enjoy some street food) but it quickly became obvious that I wasn't going to be able to as I became unable to walk more than 50 feet/20m without feeling ill and seeking the refuge of the bathroom. When it came to the point where, in order to feel better, I just sat on the bathroom floor (inside the airport, the bathrooms were pretty clean), I was having doubts about making it out. When I actually reached the "outside" of the airport (where the general public was allowed, and where the departures counter and exit is) and was faced with a tiny bathroom that was not-so-clean, my new goal became to find a phone and call my friend to let her know I wasn't coming. I mean, I had been trying to find a phone to call her with for a while, since I was *really* late but I had, thus far, been unsuccessful in using the phone.

Did I mention I couldn't actually stand at the phones for very long? Talk about not feeling well... I was having these awful stomach pangs that came and went. Moving seemed to aggravate it a bit more.

Eventually, when operating the credit-card based pay phones to contact local numbers proved futile and confusing, and when my stomach felt like someone was stabbing me and even standing for 20 m felt like a huge challenge, I checked in to the medical center at the airport on the third floor. It was like a clinic thing, and the word "stagger" comes to mind when I think about how I entered there.

I think I must have looked a little like death, since all I told the receptionist was "I don't think I feel very well" before taking a seat. They were pretty quick to put me in one of those beds though, and it wasn't long before I was being hooked up to an IV and given an injection to make the pain go away.

The pain did go away, for a bit. I also managed to borrow a cellphone and call my friend. I felt so bad about that, since I hadn't given her any notice and I was ridiculously late. Like a good two or three hours.

They deduced that I had an infection in my stomach or intestines that was probably due to food poisoning, something I had kinda guessed. After I was admitted around 8pm (I think it was 8? Or 7ish...) I pretty much was in and out of consciousness/sleep up until 11pm, two hours before my flight to PEK > KIX (Osaka). They woke me back up then, and asked me how I felt.

Unfortunately, I still felt a little bit like hell. Not as much as before - now I realize that truly, I was kind of a wreck when I entered the clinic - but there was still a lot of pain and nausea when I moved. They recommended that I move to the hospital, since they had no more injections to give me. They also said they could see about my flight and stuff.

I told them that I would think about it, and that I needed to check the status of my health insurance since I wasn't sure if I had travel insurance (stupid me). So I got to go use the bathroom and the pay phone to call my mom... in a wheelchair. I looked like a legit sick person. I felt like a legit sick person. I had someone pushing me, and another person who was carrying the IV bag next to me.

I gotta say, IVs kinda suck. My first one was when I was getting my wisdom teeth out, and the nurse was all, "oh these are much better than shots since you hardly feel a thing!" Sorry lady, IVs freak me out worse. I mean, you have a needle tube thing sticking out of your hand/arm. Those aren't supposed to be there.

It's been over 24 hours now since I've had mine in. Ughhhhhh.

Anyways, after I called my mom and told her about it and found out that yes, I am covered insurance wise abroad, and found out that air china would let me rebook for free with a letter from the doctor, I realized from that short trip to the payphone in the wheel chair and the brief, less than ten minutes I was standing at the payphone, that going on a plane at that point was impossible. I was feeling pretty awful from standing for such a short period of time, and going on a plane was probably going to make me feel worse. I mean, I have the hunch that when we were sitting, it would be somewhat alright, but still not super great.

Either way, when I told them around midnight that yes, I would like to go to the hospital... that's when things got kinda interesting.

They had me get into what looked like a high wheelchair, but it turned out to be one of those gurney beds that you see people laying on when they get carted to an ambulance. Soon after I got into the bed thing and they lay me on my back, I got carted to an ambulance. We went up a bunch of escalators too; that was kinda weird, since I was on the bed, looking like an invalid/sick person. My only thoughts at that point were "cool, I'm going to get to see Thailand without ever having to take one step! I get to look at it in style! Laying down even!"

"Hahahaha I get to enjoy Thai HOSPITALity. HAHAHA. PUNNN." Kid you not, those were my exact thoughts at the moment. I blame the nausea and the overall fever I had developed.

I'm not sure what I expected (to be put in a taxi, I think) but when they rolled me outside (legit sickie style!) there was an ambulance waiting. I was like, "woah... sweet, I get to ride in an ambulance. Oh god, how much is this going to cost? Are they going to use the lights? OH SWEET THEY'RE GOING TO USE THE LIGHTS. But I don't *need* the lights because it's not like it's life threatening or super urgent... right?"

The hospital they took me to was Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital. I can't pronounce it at all. It's a children's hospital, which made me feel kind of... old. They rolled me into the ER, where, in my feverish sick state, they had me sign a couple papers and decide what kind of room I wanted. Then they took my blood (though I didn't know it at the time, since they said they were giving me an injection and I can't look at what they're doing if I don't want to freak out) and gave me more IV stuff before letting me alone for a little bit. I think they basically upped the dosage of whatever they had given me before, and gave me something to try and get my fever down a little since I was clocking in around 38.8C (~101F) and something for my ah, bowels. Those were doing the worst, actually, since you know how when you're nauseous, it comes out one end or the other? Yeaahhh I wasn't vomiting. Sorry if that's TMI. But that was probably part of the reason why they had suggested going to the hospital in the first place. I'll spare you the more disgusting detail though, haha.

Eventually, around 2ish, they moved me to my room via gurney again, to a bed that's really really... stiff. It's almost like sleeping on the floor - that's how hard this bed is. The couch is much softer. My futon is definitely softer than this bed. I actually started to miss the gurney. Sigh. They gave me more medicine, before it was off to sleep with me (finally). Stupid hard bed. They asked me if I had any questions, and - you can tell where my priorities lie - I asked if they had wifi in the hospital. Then I told the doctor I had asked nevermind, since it wasn't like I was going to use it right then anyways.

I woke up several times during the night and in the morning, because they would come to check on me and do things like take my temperature and blood pressure. Breakfast... was dismal. They gave me Thai chicken soup, two pieces of toast, two slices of ham, and a hotdog cut in half. Oh, and tea. The chicken soup... was deceptive. I expected it to taste like chicken broth, but mostly it tasted like water with some spices in it. Sadface. I've had that broth at every meal, and thankfully, my stomach can tolerate it pretty well. But I still didn't have much of an appetite, despite having eaten last at 2pm the previous day, so I only managed to get through the soup, 3/4 of one piece of dry toast, the tea, and a small bite of ham. This convinced me that I still wasn't well yet.

The doctor came back and asked me how I was doing, and told me that they were waiting for my fever to go away and my stomach to get better before they released me from the hospital. They said possibly tomorrow, possibly 3-5 days. I'm hoping for tomorrow, since otherwise, I have to sit here in the hospital all day long like I did today. Super boring. Or well, I spent most of the morning kind of drifting in and out of sleep anyways, and most of the afternoon writing emails to people about what happened and working out my internet connection. Hooray for free wifi in the hospital! And yet, I can't find free wifi in Japan anywhere...

Lunch was slightly improved over breakfast. In addition to the not-chicken broth soup, I got a small bit of tomato soup that was actually pretty good, and a chicken... patty... burger... thing, with no bread, but a couple slices of potatoes instead. I managed to eat most of that, thankfully, since I was actually pretty hungry at that point. A woman also came in to take my order for dinner and breakfast the next day, and lunch. My internal alarm went off, since part of me went "oh no, does that mean I'm going to be here until tomorrow afternoon?"

It also turns out I'm on a special diet, hence the sparse breakfast and lunch. The nurse lady told me that I wasn't allowed to eat fruit, eggs, cereal, milk (or dairy really)... and vegetables. The first few I can kinda understand, but no vegetables? D:

I think I went through like, four different choices for breakfast before I was finally able to select one that I was allowed to have. I'm not even allowed to have the continental breakfast. That made me really sad. Or the American breakfast, which had an omelet and other tasty things. I forget what I actually ordered. I also went through a number of choices for lunch before finding one I could actually have. I ordered creamy chicken soup... but got a call later saying I wasn't allowed to have creamy things so I was just going to have chicken soup. I also ordered a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. I was kinda surprised they actually let me have that, but when I got the sandwich, it looked like they had just melted a little bit of cheese between the ham... not grilled at all. Sigh.

My IV just started making weird noises. Hmm.

The nurse I page chided me for not being asleep hahaha...

Anyways. I felt so... rebel-y and like a smuggler for having contraband cheese on my sandwich. Then I ate the sandwich, and found out they had probably forbidden cheese for a good reason. My stomach made some pretty weird noises.

When I was picking from the asian menu side, they had a whole bunch of interesting looking noodles and they had pad thai! BUT I COULDN'T HAVE IT because it had eggs and vegetables in it.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Seriously, the biggest irony about all this is that I deliberately put a long layover in here so I could stop off to visit my friend and eat some delicious delicious Thai street food, yet I haven't been able to actually go outside let alone eat any delicious food here because of something I ate elsewhere. LAME FACE.

Hopefully though, I'll be let out here soon, and then it's going to be fun fun fun trying to rebook my flight. I don't think I'll be able to make it back by Tuesday. Crap. I'm supposed to be at work then. I feel kinda bad, because before I left, I had also missed days at work due to being in the hospital since I was getting my knee checked out after I fell on my bike.

But yeah. Thank god for free wifi. Hopefully I'll be let out of here tomorrow. I guess I should go to bed. The sooner they get this stupid IV out of my hand (I've had it for over 24 hours now T_T) the better. It's so hard to do anything with it in my hand, though I've finally got the hang for typing with it in. Otherwise, writing this post would have been kind of awful. :D

I really wish I knew what made me sick. Sigh. But! I am feeling much much better, despite still being hospitalized. You know those IV drip bags and the wheeled stands that you see old people and sick people have in movies and stuff? I HAVE ONE OF THOSE. It makes me feel old. And sick. But I think it's just pumping electrolytes (mostly) into my body. Something else too, but I don't know. Mostly now, I have a very slight temperature, a small bit of stomach pain, the occasional headache, and this stupid IV sticking out of my hand. I'd wager that I'm actually able to fly, but they want to make sure I'm fully better before they release me from the hospital. Also, I think they might have a hunch that once I get out of the hospital, I will throw myself into the thai street food scene and get sick again, but this time because my stomach can't handle the awesomeness.