6.12.2012 - bit of an update

Hello all,

Well, things went a little mental there for a minute. I spend all last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in bed absolutely sick as a dog. Monday I felt better and went back to work, but I've been feeling so... sort of weak since then. I suppose fighting strep throat for almost 3 months takes it out of a girl.
Still haven't been back to the dojo, I'll be going on Saturday night. I can't make tomorrow night and I've been having a really hard time sleeping lately, so the morning classes are a bit too much right now.
Been eating well and making sure I'm getting plenty of electrolytes back in my system, so hopefully I'll be good as new soon!

I only working tomorrow and the weekend, and then I'm off for nearly a month, which is so lovely!
I can't believe I've been working here for a whole school term, time is odd.
Clearly been watching too much Doctor Who because every time I think about time at all I just think it's all wibbley-wobbley timey-whimey.
(Sorry Magnus.)

It's currently Thursday night and in exactly 8 days I will be having dinner with my family for the first time in almost 4 months. Oh my god I am so excited. I love them, I'm so excited to show them Tokyo... Everything is fantastic!

Aaaaaand the washing machine is finally fixed, after two weeks of it being broken.
I still need to have someone translate the controls before I can use it, but still, it's here in the house!

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Been working on a new project since I got here, it's a series who's working title is 'lost', but I'm not 100% set on that.
I was originally thinking about waiting until I left Japan to unveil it (so far only two people have seen any, and they haven't even seen the same ones.) but now I'm thinking considerably earlier, like maybe next week?

Honestly I'm really nervous about showing people because it's one of the most personally meaningful series of photos I've ever made, so the response is much scarier than for most of my work.
I suppose that's the sign of good stuff though.

But it's definitely scary, I'm afraid people won't like them, or won't somehow understand the importance.
I know that not everything is important to everyone, things that are my heart and soul can seem boring and snapshots for me can change someone's life.... it's just hard to remember that sometimes.

Anyway, you'll probably be seeing some or all of the photos sooner rather than later.

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To finish this post off, have a funny Wes Anderson flow chart.

I hope you all have a good day and a pleasant tomorrow!

30.11.2012 - finally found out what's wrong

Hey guys,

so I felt a little ill yesterday and then last night I got really really bad again. swollen tonsils, intense nausea, crazy bad headache, backache, stuffed up sinuses, cough, light sensitivity, basically everything hurt terribly.

Went to a new, different doctor who's an English lady at a different clinic. It's much farther from me but I really wanted to be able to explain my symptoms and get some advice because I had what I thought was my third round of tonsillitis in 2 months.

Turns out I never even had tonsillitis, but have had strep throat probably since mid september, which means that at this point I am seriously ill. I'm currently on doctor ordered bed rest for 3 days, she said I much have a pretty serious immune system to have been working and stuff, given how long the virus had been in my throat.
She also gave my 10 days of antibiotics and said the 4 days the other guy gave me where absolutely not enough to kill anything, even if he'd given me ones for strep. Just enough to make me appear healthy, but not enough to fix the problem.

Even though being this sick absolutely blows, I'm really happy I went to her and finally know what's going on and have the right meds to deal with it.

I'm currently downloading seasons 1 through 5 of Doctor Who (the reboot) to keep myself occupied and in bed, stoked to get my David Tennent on, yo!
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To end this on a much better note: in exactly two weeks I will be seeing my family for the first time in over three months and I am so goddamn excited!

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I hope you all have a good day and a pleasant tomorrow!

24.09.2012 - tonsillitis & a trip to the grocery store.

Sunday

I spent most of today just hoping I'd die.
(not really)

So sick. throat's still killing me, about 98% sure I have strep throat at this point.

stopped on the way back from work and got some vegan ice cream & some soup.

drank like 5 cups of my garlic/ginger/honey tea (seriously just put chopped garlic and ginger (not minced, you want it to be big pieces) in a mug, add hot water. And honey, if you want.) and watched the new Doctor Who. And ate some ice cream.

Took a bath, read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for a bit.
Nothing like your favourite book when you're feeling down.

Called my insurance company to make sure I'm covered/find out what to do etc.
It was scary. I've never really had to properly deal with stuff like that before.
It made me feel grown up, but it also made me burst into tears the moment I was off the phone.
So.

Took some more painkillers, they don't seem to help my throat much but if I could just get my neck pain/headache to go away or at least mellow down that'd be fantastic.

Took a nap for a while, I'm so bloody tired from being sick and still working.

Now I'm going to see if I can force down some soup and drink some more tea.
Pretty much just waiting up until I can Skype with Da. I miss my family so much when I'm sick.
Magnus will soon be waking up to his second full day at camp, I miss talking to him already.
Though I hope it has a really outstanding time, I'm sure he will.

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My day actually got better from there. The painkillers did help my throat a bit, or maybe  it was all the tea but I was able to eat the better part of a bowl of soup (indian dal soup, a bit bland for my normal tastes but it was good for the moment) and drink more tea. I hadn't actually eaten anything that could be called a meal since Thursday night, so I really needed it.

my throat! good lord!

poor me, what's a lady to do!

Skyped with Da, he's awesome. Gave me good advice, made me laugh, sent me a photo of my cat to cheer me up, I mean seriously. Best father ever.

Watched the new SNL, because everyone love a good laugh.
(I'm just going to get it out in the open and say I want to be best friends with and/or marry Kate McKinnon. Funniest most adorable person ever.)

Skyped with my uncle for a bit, but unfortunately I had to go to bed so it just our talk short.

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Monday

went to the hospital, no one spoke English.
They gave me some number to call, called it. They sent me to some clinic (that was waaaay closer to where I live than the hospital) and the doctor there told me I don't have strep, I have tonsillitis!
Which is neutral? I mean it's almost the same medication, so.
Luckily they don't have to remove them, which apparently they don't always do?

I'm on 4 pills per meal (so, 3 times a day) for the next 4 days. Phew.

Going to take a nap, have some lunch and my first round of meds, and then go to work.

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Went to work, it was ok. The actual working bit was fine. Kids were nice, didn't get too confused about stuff, my throat wasn't even killing me.

But falling is the thing killing me right now. I can't really hold my head properly because of how swollen my throat still is, so I'm tensing my neck as I fall which is what's been giving me all the neck pain.
And just being thrown at the floor something like nearly 100 times in two hours (even if it's by 5 year olds) is pretty much the worst thing I can think of doing while feeling sick.
Everything hurts again. boo.

My boss brought my my claims forms he printed, so I need to get that in the post tomorrow. Or maybe Wednesday since tomorrow's super busy for me.

Got home just in time to grab my laundry inside before it started pouring.
Then I went to Olympic to get some food, made a video about it!

boom. enjoy.

Something to look forward tomorrow is that since I can't go to Hombu until Wednesday night (well, I can do whatever I want. But since there's still a chance I'm contagious until 48 hours after my medication started I would never go to somewhere like that where I'm breathing all over people and their stuff.) is that I will probably go out to Eat More Greens! All my talk and I've still actually only been there once. So I think I'll do that and then come home and talk to da.

have a pleasant day, all!