Game of Life

While recovering from my injuries in 2013, I played Scrabble all my waking hours, stopping briefly for meals and personal hygiene routines only. I was trying to avoid taking painkillers by exercising my brain and keeping myself mentally occupied. For many years, there were two boxes of Scrabble sitting on the shelf in the recreation room. However, nobody wanted to play the game with me. So I resorted to play online with strangers on Facebook. Even though I was never a big fan of arcade type of games, I had to play arcade games in between the Scrabble moves to keep me busy. I was beginning to understand why arcade games are so addictive. As with material possessions, players always have an urge to get to higher levels every time they play. It is an addiction that is common for all ages since things usually do not play out the way that people plan. Arcade games provide apparently provide escapes from reality.

Online Scrabble is a snapshot of our society today. People seem to forget that it is just a game. Everyone is there just to win. Some youngsters have turned it into a game of "filling the blanks". They have no idea how to spell words with more than four alphabets. A few men play Scrabble to solicit cyber sex. After all it is a women's game and there is a high concentration of females. Most of the female players are no ladies either. I have been called names that I would be too embarrassed to repeat them here. I also discovered that there were websites dedicated to help people cheat at Scrabble when I had to wait for hours until the other player came up with the next word. At the end of the day, my love for the game could not help me to overlook the vulgarity of the players. Then I remembered why those boxes of Scrabble were collecting dust on the shelf.

Tree of Life

The Tree of Life carries different meanings for different cultures. The symbol is ubiquitous.  This is a magnificent image of such symbol on a wall of Wat Xieng Thong in Luang Prabang, Laos.

One meaning is the propagation of human life. These days people are more into investigating their roots and the genealogy charts certainly resemble trees. The family trees intertwine with each from marriages and adoptions. This Eastern interpretation carries an connotation of finite time frame of earth's history. Ironically it goes hand in hand with creationism as suggested by the Judeo-Christian faith.

A second belief is that the tree of life represents the accumulation of wisdom and knowledge. This interpretation is taken from the Book of Genesis. There is a Tree of Knowledge in the centre of Garden of Eden. However, this idea collaborates with the Buddhist belief of birth and rebirth. There is no finite start or end of the earth. The cycles are intermingled among all living things, human, animal, fish, plant, etc. The pain and suffering in this life is attributed to the bad karma that I created in my past life. I nourish my tree of life by doing good deeds and learning from my life lessons.

During these injury recovery days, I have had more time to reflect upon both interpretations. I should hope that I lead a happier life because of the good karma that I have attained. When my physical form expires, I would like to have people remember me by the wisdom that I have gained.

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

South Pacific Odyssey

Twelve Apostles, Australia

In about 4 days, I will be flying to Australia. I will spend four weeks visiting the famous landmarks of the Land Down Under. I have been checking the weather forecast in Oz everyday since the news of country-wide bush fires broke. Somehow I know the temperature is going to be just right during my stay. I could not wait to see the Twelve Apostles, Uluru, Great Barrier Reef and Wave Rock. A week in Fiji then follows. I am not a big drinker; however, a Kava session is going to be a highlight in Fiji. Tonga is my third destination. I am in for some amazing choir singing there. Maybe I would even get to see the Tongan Royals at a Sunday service. I wanted to go by sea from Tonga to Samoa but there are no regular ferries between countries in the South Pacific. So I become an incidental tourist in New Zealand. I am not into extreme sports so I will be spending a lot of time with nature and sheep, breathing the pure air and riding on a train or bus. My 18-day stay in NZ might just be long enough for me to visit both islands. My new life will start in the Cook Islands on April 1st, 2013.  (To be continued)