Surgery, and the cost of Pringles

We had to be at the hospital at 8:30.  We were met at the entrance by the friendly old Japanese lady who interpreted for us.  We signed some papers, got our ID badges, and said goodbye to Mike.  Mike wasn't allowed to stay because of Covid.  They took us up to the floor where Eli would have his surgery and we waited in the lobby for a little while until a nurse had us sign more papers and then we were taken into a small room for our covid tests.  At about 10 we were taken back to our room.  The interpreter said goodbye to us at this point and from then on we communicated through google translate until the following morning when the interpreter came back to help us check out.  I think I explained in the last post that we had to pay for a private room so that I could stay with Eli because normally, you are in a room with four or five other people.  Once in the room we waited while they did his IV, shaved his leg, and waited for our negative covid tests.  The doctor had a surgery right before Eli's and that surgery went longer than he anticipated so it wasn't until 4 when they finally came to get Eli.  Poor Eli was starving since he hadn't eaten since 9 PM the previous day.  

He didn't get back to the room until around 6:30 and the surgery was supposed to be a quick surgery so I started to feel a little worried.  The doctor explained that his injury was worse than expected and Eli didn't want to wake up from the general anesthesia.  Eli said that they asked him to count backwards from 10-1 and when he got to 1 he was still awake so he just looked at the nurse like, "What do you want me to do now?" and then he just closed his eyes and felt a rush of cold go through his arm and then he was out.  Anyway, I guess once he was finally out, he didn't want to wake up and they kept him back to make sure he was breathing ok.  The MRI showed a partial tear but when they got in to see his knee it was a full tear and then another new tear.  They also discovered that his meniscus is shaped oddly, too thick and big, which apparently lends itself to tears.  The surgeon said he thought the tear wasn't caused by falling down on the scooter but was probably already starting to tear long before that.  They sutured both tears and then shaved down the meniscus to a more normal size and shape with the hopes that it would keep him from having more tears.  I asked if it was probable that the other side was also shaped that way and the surgeon said there wasn't really a way to know until he started having symptoms. The surgeon spoke really good English so he was able to explain everything to us. 

 He had missed dinner but wasn't allowed to eat until 8.  Mike had brought a sandwich for me and some snacks for the two of us for our dinner and for breakfast the following morning.  More on this later....At 8 I got Eli some water but he didn't really want to drink anything because the nurse said he had to stay in bed for 3-5 hours and if he had to pee, he'd have to pee in a "urine cup" which is like a big plastic bowl with a long spout that he'd have to pee into.  He was not happy about that so he just didn't drink much.  At about 9 or 9:30 they said he could finally eat so he ate a go squeeze and asked for some beef jerky that Mike had brought.  At 10 they finally took his oxygen off.  He was ready for bed by 9 but could not sleep.  We brought Mike's old phone that had Eli's spotify playlist on it and he just listened to music and tapped his foot to distract himself from the pain.  They gave him some medicine through the IV but never said what the medicine was and it didn't seem to be doing anything to alleviate his pain.  At around 1 he said he had to go to the bathroom so we called the nurse to come and help him get unhooked from his IV and get him to the bathroom.  He was relieved to make it past his 3-5 hour window and avoid the "urine cup".  When he got back in bed I told the nurse that Eli wasn't sleeping and was in too much pain and asked if they could give him something to sleep.  They were hesitant about giving him any medicine but finally said that because he was a tall kid that they would give him half a pill.  Just getting up to go to the bathroom caused so much discomfort that he got dizzy and broke out in a sweat from head to toe.  I thought for sure that the sleeping pill would knock him out so at around 1:30 AM I decided to finally try and get some sleep.  A baby was crying in hallway and Eli looked like he was sleeping (or at least trying too) so I decided to put ear plugs in, thinking that if I just put them in gently I'd still hear him when he needed me.  Some time between 2 and 2:30 AM I woke up to Eli barfing all over.  I hopped out of bed to grab the trash can and stepped right into barf.  He had pressed the nurse button and when she finally came in, the lights were off so she couldn't see what was happening and she turned her phone screen to me so I could read, "What is wrong?"  It took her a minute to register that I was standing in barf holding a trash can with one hand and trying to get Eli toilet paper with the other.  Between myself and two nurses we scrubbed the floor and remade the cot I was sleeping on that got barfed on.  The mask I brought was under the cot and it got covered in throw up so we also had to try to clean that and the nurses had to get me a new mask while I cleaned my barf covered feet.  The room smelled strongly of beef jerky vomit so we had to open the window to air the room out.  By now it was 3 AM, and Eli was still not sleeping.  I got him the phone and found a quiet instrumental station for him to listen to.  He drifted in and out of sleep but each time an ad came on he'd wake up and try to get comfortable enough to fall asleep again, just in time for another ad to wake him up.  I tried to sleep but the noisy cicadas, trucks, and ambulances outside the window kept me awake.  I finally decided that the beef jerky puke smell was more pleasant than the sirens wailing past and shut the window.  At 5:20 both myself and Eli were awake.  

The nurses never brought Eli any pain medication after 11 PM the night before so he spent the entire night trying to be comfortable.  It was a pretty awful night.  They brought him food at 7:30 (tea, a bowl of rice, some weird vegetable dish with some green something or other--seaweed?--some yogurt, and an unidentifiable fruit).  He felt awful and tried to eat the rice but only got a few mouthfuls full before he gave up.  At 9 the doctor came in to check his bandages and tell us about what healing would look like moving forward.  They had a physical therapist come in to help Eli practice getting up and down without putting any weight on his leg and the gave him one more round of antibiotics through his IV.  

While this is happening, they called up the interpreter to help with the final check out steps, which included discussing the payment of the brace they were sending home with Eli.  So, the day before, while Eli was in surgery, the nurse came in the room and told me that we would have to pay for this brace.  I went to give her money and she said, through google translate, "Don't worry about paying until tomorrow" so I put it out of my mind and headed down to the little corner in the hospital where they sold little snacks.  When I say corner, I mean corner, I'm not exaggerating.  The hospital didn't have a cafeteria and because of Covid, I wasn't allowed to leave the hospital.  I hadn't eaten since the night before so I grabbed some Pringles and a little bag of lemon crackers. My bill totalled 300 yen. I go back upstairs and while I'm in the middle of eating my Pringles, the nurse comes back in and has me sign and fill out a form for the brace.  She says that the manufacturer will send me a bill and then I'll take the bill to the bank and have money transfered to the bank.  I told them that we didn't have a Japanese bank account so the nurse left the room and came back and said, "I've talked to the manufacturer and you are in luck because he is here today and he agreed that if you pay today, you won't have to worry about the bank transfer."  I go to get the money out of my wallet and discover that I am short yen...yep, you guessed it...300 yen short.  My half eaten Pringles sat on the table taunting me.  I wanted to shove the Pringles at the nurse and say, "I'll pay you all the money I have plus the Pringles because this is your fault for not letting me pay for the brace an hour ago before I bought the Pringles."  I explained that I didn't have the money needed for the brace but my husband was going to bring more money when he brought me dinner in 45 mins.  They said that the manufacturer would not be here anymore so I'd have to come back on Friday and pay the bill when he was there because they were uncomfortable with having money sit around the hospital for two days.  When I texted Mike he was not having it.  He said, "I will not be coming back on Friday to pay a bill for a brace that they didn't tell me about when I have the money to give them now."  He was already annoyed that the nurses were saying I wasn't going to be allowed to come downstairs to get the dinner he brought.  The surgeon convinced them that they should let me go downstairs and see him and they said, "Well, okay but she can't be too close to him for too long or she will have to repeat her covid test."  

So, fast forward to the next morning when it is time to check out and Mike is still saying he isn't going to come back Friday to pay the bill and the nurses are still saying that they can't take cash without the manufacturer being there so the interpreter finally convinces them that they should send us a bill and we can go to the bank without an account and give them our money and ask them to transfer money to the manufacturer.  Mike is still grumbling about that and says we will just find someone in the ward who has a Japanese bank account and give them the money and then ask them to have money transfered.  

Good grief.

Anyway, Eli is home and recovering.  They sent us home with less Tylenol and Ibuprofen than is in a normal pill you'd get from the states.  Yesterday was pretty bad for him and after spending another sleepless night, he felt pretty defeated and finally broke down, crying about how awful everything was.  We filled him up with as much Tylenol and Ibuprofen as we felt was safe and gave him a melatonin. We also tried to fill him with encouragement and give him all our empathy and love.  This is a pretty crappy summer for him and a pretty awful experience over the last few days.  His recovery is going to be long and difficult and he is justified in feeling discouraged.  It hurts to see him struggling so much.  My heart feels so tender for him and has grown in love in the last few days watching him struggle.  He's been so gracious, thanking everyone who helps him, telling us how sorry he is that our summer includes taking care of him, and trying his hardest to be cheerful.  That makes me love him but also, I just wish I could make it all better for him.  He finally slept last night and he is already improved.  

What an experience.  We are all praying that no one else in the family will need any hospital stays and that Eli's recovery will go smoothly.