Christeph: On the Lam

I am getting old.

This sucks.

I went to the town hospital yesterday to get the Japanese take on my back issue. The head of the English department, wonderful man that he is, came with me to translate.

I have already been warned about the public nature of one’s health history here… namely, that everyone’s all up in your business, because that’s just how it is here. It’s still a little unnerving for the vice-principal to come up and ask if I’m feeling better, when I never told him I had a problem in the first place. I just hate to think what would happen if I had a medical issue that was actually *embarrassing*. Well, more embarrassing than having to wear a brace for a month.

So. Back to being old. After 4 x-rays, the doctor says I have a herniated disk in my back, from “wear and tear”. You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m not even 30 yet. All you 25-year-olds out there who are laughing your asses off… enjoy it while you can, because things are gonna start breaking and falling off.

I have nothing but good things to say about my experience with the health care system here. We did a bit of same day physical therapy, and YES, all the machines sang to me. Thanks for asking. After x-rays, physical therapy, a visit to the doctor, pain medication, and a back brace, my total? $35.

Hot damn. If you’re going to get sick, do it while you’re in Japan.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 4th, 2006 at 11:57 am and is filed under Ambiance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.