Oh I hate not posting about sewing again! But in the past two weeks, my health has been in an on and off mode. Sidra caught the virus first, and as usual I caught it from him. My husband, who is stronger, caught it later. As a result, after Sidra and I got better, I caught the virus again from my husband. Bummer.

My back pain is also worsening, so recently we went to an orthopaedist to get it checked. The last time it was checked was when I was in junior high school. Yikes! That was when I got diagnosed for scoliosis and then put on a brace. I wore the brace for about a year. But then something happened that put my spine at the end of the list of important things in the family. So, it was kinda neglected.

The orthopaedist clinic was literally full of old people. We started to wonder if there was some kind of age restriction to get checked there. But of course we were just being paranoid. I got my X-ray taken, and when the doctor showed it to me, I was a bit shocked. I mean, it looked like something from a medical text book with a caption: case of Mrs. N or something.

The doctor showed a very concern face and said that my spine is curved about 52 degrees and a bit rotated as well. But he didn’t suggest operation as it is dangerous. Actually, it was kinda hard understanding him. Although my husband can speak Japanese pretty well, the doctor had apparently decided to exercise his English upon seeing the two gaijin in front of him. So he spoke in broken English which neither of us could understand easily, and maybe neither the doctor himself could understand. At the end, he told me to get checked again next year, gave me some painkillers and exercise leaflets, and told me to go to the rehabilitation room to get, err, rehabilitated, I suppose?

It turned out that the rehabilitation consisted of lying on a bed to get a back massage from a very kind lady and then sitting under the heat lamp pointed to my back. The nurses were very nice and kind. I felt so old. I still haven’t take the painkillers until now. I’m planning to seek for a second opinion or alternative treatment.

After we got back from the clinic, I had the virus attack #2 and started to have a fever. Fortunately my husband works at home in the morning so he can take care of me. He’s such an angel, taking care of Sidra in the morning and bringing me breakfast and medicine. He took his notebook to the bedroom to work while keeping me company. It was kinda nice, lying sleepy in bed while watching him working.

After he left to go to the office, Sidra took care of me in the afternoon. Although his idea of keeping me company was sitting beside my pillow playing Mario Bros on his Nintendo with those annoying electronic sounds. But he was trying hard. He would put the blanket over me and brush my hair with his little fingers. He would offer me things he likes because he thought I would like that too. “Are you okay, Mama? Would you like my chocolate? But they’re very good! You can have them all! Do you want more water? Here’s water for you. You have to drink it if you want to get well! Would you like to check your temperature? Can I have my temperature checked too? Can you make me some pancakes? But it’s okay if you can’t, I’ll just eat some bananas…” and so on.

Here’s a video of Sidra trying to cheer me up. I hope everyone will stay warm and healthy!