On the Road of Recovery

It is Day 57 of my recovery. Even though the wounds on my left knee and elbow are pretty much healed, I now face another kind of chronic pain. My sleep patterns are erratic. Sometimes I could sleep for 16-18 hours a day and sometimes I slept for 3-4 hours a day. I could hear my stomach growling and yet I have no appetite.

Perhaps I have become more aware of the trauma that my head sustained from the injury. It is as though a contractable steel band is put on my head. As far as I know, I have no bone fractures or brain injuries. I try not to take painkillers as much as possible. Massaging the scar on the left side of my face has somewhat lessen the tension in my forehead and around my eyes. I cannot read or watch television for more than a couple hours at a time.

The nurses have been telling me that my recovery has been remarkable. I tend to agree with them, claiming that the wounds on my left side now balance out the ones on my right side from the car accident three years ago. Two major accidents in three years are a bit too much to deal with for most people. Maybe I am just getting impatient to resume my journey. As the saying goes, what doesn't kill you would only make you stronger. I am definitely one of the strongest people that I know!

It is Day 80 since my accident. I now have a new hair line. I had to shave more hair to massage the keloids on top of my head. I am rather fond of the new style without the side part. It makes me look more intellectual. The dressings on my elbow and knee have been removed for three weeks. I have resumed walking after dinner since Monday. This week I could walk slowly for 15 minutes before the wounds started to hurt. I hope to increase by 5 minutes each week until the walk is 45 minutes long. I could not do the Xiang Gong exercises yet because my elbow would still bleed when moved too much. Both the knee and elbow feel very tight.

Who is my neighbour?

A bicycle accident in Tonga on March 1st cut short my South Pacific tour. I had to return to Vancouver on March 17, 2013 from Auckland, NZ for medical treatment.

I was hospitalized for 8 days in Tonga. Even though the hospital was recently refurbished, it remained a very basic hospital where nurses still wear the traditional uniform and doctors' ward rounds are kept formal. The Tongans took me in as one of their own and took excellent care of me. They had little but they gave their all. Nurses regularly came to the ward to make sure that the patients were comfortable. If it weren't for the multiple infections on the open wounds all over my body, I would have stayed in the hospital even longer. 

I arrived in Auckland on March 13th in terrible shape. The following morning I went to Auckland Hospital, trying to get my dressings changed at an Outpatient Department. Well, I stumbled into a "Transition Lounge". A nurse there took pity of me and changed my dressings on her break. Afterwards, she even looked up the phone number of a medical centre and urged me to see a doctor about the infected wounds. I was sent back to Auckland Hospital by the GP on duty at the medical centre. 

After waiting in the emergency ward for no more than a couple of hours, I was seen by an orthopedic surgeon at the hospital. He reviewed my wounds and recommended immediate surgeries with a hospital stay of 7-10 days. I did not have additional travelers insurance and opted to return to Canada for medical treatment. The nurses were kind and encouraged me. The hospital supplied me with compression stockings, blood thinners, new dressing and antibiotic prescription for the 13 hour flight.

My sister picked me from the Airport and drove me to Vancouver General Hospital directly on Sunday, March 17th. I was seen by emergency doctors, trauma doctors, plastics, orthopedics. They all took pictures of the wounds and poked at my wounds. After waiting for eleven hours in an emergency treatment room, a young doctor came to tell me that they would not do anything. He told me that I should see my family doctor instead and ask her to arrange for a home care nurse to change the dressing daily. 

Well, they forgot to contact the community nurse to change my dressing on Monday. When I went to see my family doctor on Tuesday, my dressings were soaked and gave out a terrible odor. My family doctor sent me back to the Emergency Dept of VGH right away. This time the Emergency doctor said that I should be able to change the dressings myself. I replied that I might be able to change the dressing on my left knee but I doubted if I could do that for my left elbow.

I might have grown up in Canada and considered myself a Canadian through and through after living here for so many decades. This whole experience nevertheless taught me valuable lessons.

"My true neighbor is somewhere else in the world."

My angels of mercy and me at the Vaiola Hospital in Tonga