Traumatized (Post is a bit TMI)

I've never been probed there before! My nose!

So I went to see an otologist yesterday. I'm not really sure if he specializes in ear medicine...of the modern age. Let me explain my situation first.

Recently, my right ear has been bothering me. There isn't any pain, but it feels as if the pressure is off. It constantly feels as if I'm still at high altitudes. It's only my right ear. Over the weekend I took a short trip to Hokkaido, while I was still recovering from my cold, and I have a feeling that was the cause. On my first flight over, I suddenly heard a loud ringing in my right ear as the plane was landing. Then POP. And there was some immense pain that followed. Unfortunately, the pressure returned immediately.

So after a few days back on land I thought it would go away. It hasn't. I asked the school nurse to recommend an ear doctor in the area and had my supervisor translate my symptoms and story into Japanese. I went after work and checked in on my own. The staff is friendly and patient with me considering my inability to understand some of the medical terms. Although there were several others in the waiting room, I didn't wait long before being called in.

I walked into the room and I was horrified. I'm not exaggerating--I felt my heart start to race a little bit. I was led to a chair, similar to the ones you would see at the dentist's office, and to my left was a metallic table with what I imagined were various scalpels, tubes, and probes. I sat down and clung to my handbag. When I settled down, I took another look at the table. It was everything I thought I saw, minus the scalpels. That provided little relief considering my closer observation showed me how old and rusted everything looked.

The doctor came over. He has a gentle face like a grandfather with eyes I can barely see when he smiles. Then the examination started.

He checked both my ears and from the right he used a long, tweezer-like instrument to extract a huge clump of ear wax. Then he wiped it off and placed it back on the table. I wondered how often they cleaned their tools. The removal had little affect. He explained something in Japanese, but I could only catch pieces of what sounded like "cold" and "ear canal." He pointed to an internal picture of the human ear connected to the nasal passages. His fingers motioned near the throat area. Then he proceeded to take a thin tube, the kind you might see used by a dentist for suction, and he stuck it up my nose. It shot out what felt like air and pain. "kusuri." Medicine. He asked me to stick out my tongue and open wide. Out of no where he takes a cotton ball and shoves it down my throat! I think there was some sort of numbing agent in the medicine. When he threw it away I noticed it was bright red. I hope that was the medicine. "yappari hareteru." My throat was inflammed or swollen.

They tested my hearing and my right ear was weaker at hearing. The doctor showed me a graph of the results. Then the big guns came out. He asked me to place something into my right ear and the other end of the tube went into his ear. Then he stuck something up my right nostril, turned on the air and forced it in. OH MY BUDDHA it hurt to the point where I was whining, "ittai ittai..." It hurts, it hurts. My fingers gripped the arm rests as he moved over to the left.

When they were finished I was prescribed some medicine. Then they pointed to a calendar and said that the medicine would only last a week. I should sign up for another visit within the week. I scruntched my face and told them I would come on the last day if it wasn't better. I definitely want to avoid that procedure by all means.

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Last night, I felt like I hadn't been able to breathe like that in months. My sinuses were cleared, but my ear didn't feel any different.

My supervisor just called and asked what the procedure was. The simple explanation we got was that my nasal passage was probably inflammed or closed up, which affected the ear. So the procedure was to open it up. My guess is that its from all the times I blew my nose this past month. The good news is that I don't have to go back if that one time was all that it took to help my ears. The bad news is that this morning both my ears feel funny....

Vietnam

Wow its already been over a month since my winter break, but I wanted to write about it before I forget.


In Decemeber 2010 I took a 10-day vacay with a friend to South East Asia. We took 5 days in Vietnam and spent the other 5 days in Thailand. Because of the short length of the trip, we decided to stay in one major city and not travel around too much.


Vietnam

Melanie and I took the overnight bus over to Osaka on Christmas Eve and then the train over to the Kansai Airport on Christmas morning. It was a fairly long flight over to Ho Chi Minh city, because there was an hour layover at the Hong Kong Airport. I enjoyed my flight on Cathay Pacific since I got a meal for both flights, even though I was planning on eating at the HK Airport with some delicious HK food. But I guess free food is always good. I took advantage of the hour to get some HK style milk tea and bought a couple "I <3 Hong Kong" shirts.

The arrival in Saigon was a bit of a mess because we were swindled out of money right away. After grabbing our baggage, we walked out towards the taxi stand. We were only about 50 meters away, but a man came up to us and flashed his "taxi license" persistently. I was a bit skeptical, but we went with him after hearing that it was only "700." When we left the airport, we found that it was 700,000 Vietnamese dong, which is around $35, for the 15 minute ride. I guess during transactions they drop the last three zer0s. It was close to four times the price it should have been! Should have changed our minds when we saw that the vehicle wasn't even a taxi...

The hotel that M booked was great though! Free computers to use in the lobby, free wi-fi, free breakfast and dinner (if you wanted), personal restroom with shower. The only fall back was that we mistakenly booked a double room, so we had to share the bed. Since we arrived so late in the day, I believe it was close to 8PM, we decided to walk around and then grab some pho as our first meal--even though we had dinner on the airplane. Those free meals weren't going to spoil my foodventures! Down a small street near our District 1 hotel there was a restaurant serving pho. I got a small bowl of tendon pho and it was very satisfying. I've yet to find a decent pho restaurant in Japan and this was delicious at a more than reasonable price. All the food from the food stands were around $2 or less.

The area we stayed in had tons of bars and restaurants. We grabbed a beer from a small bar and sat outside watching the vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The first thing I noticed about Vietnam was the horrible traffic. While riding in the car/taxi, which was driven by the worst driver ever, we were surrounded by cars and motorbikes. The driver zoomed quickly by all the traffic without much consideration to the motorbikes. It felt as if we were dangerously close to hitting many of the bikers. I remember the honking the most. Everyone honking, cursing, and pushing around each other. Add pedestrians into the picture and lack of pedestrian crosswalks and you have the chaos that is Saigon traffic.

The next bar we went to was busier. It was called Go and its hard to miss with the hundreds of lights on the sign. The most Christmas spirit I saw on the strip of bars--neon signs and Christmas lights wrapping the palm trees. I had hookah, or shisha, for the first time. The flavor we got was apple and I can't say that I enjoyed it too much. It was fun chatting with a couple tourists at our table, a couple of Vietnamese Americans who were with two local Vietnamese girls. We were quite tired after our hookah and headed off to bed.

The first day of sunshine in Vietnam was far warmer than expected given we had come from the Ishikawa winter. We got our free breakfast buffet in the morning--a mix of Western style foods and Asian cuisine that I wouldn't usually consider breakfast. My favorite part of my plate was the fried egg roll. After stuffing ourselves, we flagged a taxi down and headed to the Giac Lam Pagoda. It wasn't the most amazing attraction, but it was nice to do some traditional Buddhist prayer that my family usually does. The rest of the day was full of temple visits--the nearby temple, the temples in the Chinatown area. We had a delicious lunch on the streets and then we headed to the main event--the local waterpark named Dam Sen. With it being my first time at a waterpark and the high degree temperature, the park was a highlight in my Vietnam trip. It was cheap to get in, close to $5 for the day, and 90% of the people were Vietnamese locals.

The evening was more eventful than I expected. We signed up for the hotel's "Family Dinner" and joined an international group of people for the Sunday night meal. We were all given t-shirts with the slogan: We are a family, then encouraged to meet others at the dinner. A free meal, new friends, an awkward dance party and karaoke made the night silly, but fun. M and I left after the round of karaoke and changed for the "Apocalypse" club. We were joined by the Singaporean couple we met at dinner and danced a little less awkwardly to dance/house music.

The second full day followed a scheduled tour from 8AM until 4PM. A van picked us up from the hotel and we sat with other tourists that were picked up along the way to the attractions. The first stop was a factory with handicapped workers--many of them were affected by the Vietnam/American war. The tourguide led us around to the work stations and of course the store. The second stop was the temple, Tay Ninh Holy See, where many people practice Cao Dai. The temple is extremely ornate and colorful with dragons wrapping around the pillars and a sky blue vaulted ceiling. The visitors, and I don't mean the tourists watching from the second level, dorned colored robes that indicated the religion they believe in--Buddhism, Catholocism, Christianity, etc. Unfortunately, I can't remember what each color represented...

After lunch we headed to the Cu Chi Tunnels where the American war had been fought. These then hidden tunnels are surrounded by death traps, which are now safely displayed for the tourists. Sounds of AK47 and machine guns firing can be heard throughout the site because they have an area where you can pay to fire the massive weaponry. Walking underground through the tunnels was an experience I'm glad I tried but would never do again. It's stuffy with poor ventilation, narrow with room only to kneel or crawl and its pitch black most of the time. I must have gotten out after 50 meters.

We were exhausted after the tour and starved so we went to grab some pizza near our hotel. Dessert was fresh coconut juice from a stand in an alley. Then I took some time alone at a cafe and continued to read Norwegian Wood from the page I left off on. On my walk back to the hotel I bumped into a couple friends from Japan and had a beer with them.

The third day was not as eventful but it was probably a good idea to relax. We would be leaving for Thailand the next morning. The first part of the day was spent at the War Time Museum. It is disheartening to see so many images of the people affected by Agent Orange. While I took plenty of videos and images there, I doubt I would ever show these to people because its something a person needs to see on their own volition. The museum soon closed after we got in because there was a midday break.

The rest of our time after lunch was spent shopping for gifts. I started conversing with one of the friendliest store clerks I've ever met. I think it might have been because she is young and eager to speak English. She was so talkative! I invited her to go out after she finished work and we ended up getting smoothies somewhere. It was interesting talking to her about various things, but sitting out that night in the outdoor tables was a horrible idea. 10 new mosquito bites! I forgot why I hated the Asian summers until that night. We said we would keep in contact, but I lost her information. :(

That was the last night in Vietnam and then it was off to Bangkok.