My Day July 28th, 2008

As you have probably guess by looking at the title of this post, I will not be doing any news tonight. The reason is because I had an extremely long and trying day.

Actually everything started last night. You see, yesterday I had a shamisen practice with a lot of other shamisen students. This is a rare thing so a party was planned for after the practice. That would normally be a good thing, right? Well in this case that's not true. It was a good party, but about halfway though the evening people started singing karaoke. Since everyone was drunk people were dancing. I was told to go dance, so I did. In the middle of a perfect rendition of a cancan something bad happened. I put my right leg down on the ground and slipped. I ended up putting all of my weight on the right knee. That was followed by a lot of snapping noises and pain.

Let me tell you, there is no better way to get sober really quick than a lot of pain. I stumbled off the dance floor and went to sit down. I found that I couldn't really walk at all. I had to get around by dragging my ass on the tatami. Not a convenient way to get around, bit it worked. After the party someone was kind enough to give me a ride home. When I got home I crawled my way up the stairs and fell asleep with my right hand on my right knee.

During the middle of the night I had to go downstairs and I found that there was no easy way to do that. I ended up going down stairs on my ass as well. Now that was painful. I ended up sleeping on my first first just because I didn't want to go back upstairs.

In the morning I took time off from work to go to the hospital. I couldn't find the place my teacher suggested so I went to the closest one. It was one hell of a long wait but I got some cold patches for my knees and some pain killers (yay for pain killers).

Any way so today had a major meeting. I was told it would be at 2:30 but my boss ran in panicking around 1:45 and said that he was wrong and it actually started at 1:30. I never felt like smacking someone so much in my life. Any way it took me about 10 minutes to limp to the building that the meeting was in. I had to limp from group to group to make sure everything was going smoothly for everyone.

After that I saw the teacher that recommended the hospital that I should have went to. She drew me a map and I was off to the hospital again. I get to the hospital and I filled out a lot of forms and waited yet again. I wish I could add up all that time I waited today and use it for something good. I see the doctor and he takes some x-rays. All I can hear him say in the other room is "this is not good." That is not something you want to hear your doctor say!

He comes back to me and tells me I have osteoarthritis of my right knee. Arthritis at 30! What the hell! He showed me the x-ray of my knee and it was very pointy where it was suppose to be very smooth. They said I should use the cold patches and pain killers from the other doctor. They were going to give me a brace, but there was no brace there that would have fit my legs. Damn the Japanese and their tiny legs!

I just got to take it easy and let it heal up a little. Osteoarthritis never really heals, but if there is no pain than it really is the same thing as being healed in my book. If all goes well I will be back on my feet and walking straight in about a week. I hope.

I guess since it is science day I will talk about Osteoarthritis a little bit. Osteoarthritis is actually the most common form of arthritis. It is caused when the cushions between two bones in a joint get worn down and the bones start rubbing on each other. The cushion is actually made from a slippery version of cartilage. Osteoarthritis is a common cause of water on the knee. This happens when liquid such as blood or any other body fluid starts building up in the knee. It can severely limit the motion of the knee joint.

Any way I really don't want to talk any more about it.

Talk to you all later.