On being Disabled in Japan...pt 1 of what will likely be a very tedious series...

Along with the fun, typical, curious cultural lessons that go along with being in a new country, I've also learned a lot about being injured in Japan. Having a disability in Japan is challenging, to say the least. There seems to be a general lack of understanding and comprehension about injuries. That great "gaman" spirit is used to justify pushing people past their pain limits and just "suck it up" and keep at it. Priority to use the elevators is given to the staff, then disabled, and yet, that seems to matter little to the many, many students who like to use them, and on top of all this.....many of the elevators on campus are locked. You can't even use the damn things until you hunt down the person with the key!!!!

When I was given a room on the first floor of a dorm very close to my university, I assumed it was because they were being sensitive to my knee disabilities. Only yesterday, I realized that I got this place out of puuuuure luck of the draw. They put a girl with multiple sclerosis, who cannot climb stairs, on the fifth floor of my dorm. If there is a fire and the elevators are shut down, what is she supposed to do?!

It really hits home how lucky I am to have this particular dorm, especially when things like this happen:

I have had knee problems since I was a kid. My kneecaps twist partially out of the socket, very, very easily and depending on the severity of the twist, I may need to rest a few hours, or a few weeks. Yesterday, I tripped in the street, went stumbling forward and twisted the shit out of both knees before hitting the pavement. My right knee was the size of a fucking cantalope but due to my inability to communicate clearly in Japanese, everyone thought I was crying because the fall surprised me. So the first health clinic I went to didn't give me pain meds, gave me tiny little ice packs, and then dabbed alcohol on my skinned knee before wanting to send me off.

Lucky for me, nurses began to realize that there was something a little more serious going on and my dorm mom insisted that we go to another clinic for an Xray. Only after waiting for about an hour, they didn't have an xray, couldn't do anything to help but, they referred me to a sports injury Doctor at a nearby hospital who could speak English. I had to wait another two hours but as soon as I saw him, I got an Xray done, a brace made, and an MRI taken. They wanted to hospitalize me for the weekend, due to the fact that I could hardly walk but I wanted nothing more than to be home so I could contact my parents, sleep in my own bed and just be on my own. I took my first pain meds at eight that night and put on a proper icepack shortly after that.

Needless to say, yesterday was a very long day.

I am worried about the severity of this injury. The last time I popped my knee out in this kind of a manner, I was lined up for surgery within a few months. The doctor was vague as to what damage had been done this time. There was too much blood and other assorted fluids in my knee to even let the doctor manipulate my patella, so he was vague as to whether it may still be dislocated, or fractured but he seemed pretty certain I had contused the bones and there were little bone shards even I could pick up when I saw the Xray. My emotional health is a whole other ballgame. I just want to be left alone, but I can't manage tasks beyond being in my room, using the bathroom and feeding myself. So far, I'm sitting on who to contact until I have no other choice.

My parents have reminded me that I can come home and that my health is priority. If I have to go home, I have to go home, right? Right.

<3
Rocketfrog