My birthday :)

On my birthday we got to watch another operation (previous post), and then we decided to go out for food. I came home while the girls went to the local mall for a bit. I decided that this was the best opportunity to get out my polka dot swing dress, new heels and pin curls, and pretend I’m from the 50’s for a bit :P

When I was finally ready, and the girls had got back, we set off to coco walk, a mall nearby with two floors of restaurants. We decided to go for an Indian, as my usual favourite would be unfair on everyone (sushi). I ordered a super hot paneer curry, cheese naan and mango lassi, while the girls both got sweet chicken curry sets

The chef actually came out and handed me my curry, smiling in a bit of a worrying way. The curry didn’t seem too hot at first, but then it built up. I genuinely think that hardly anyone orders the super hot, so the chef thought he’d see how many chillies he could get in it XD. The cheese naan was Amazing, I love cheese.

Then just as I was about to leave, the waitresses came over with an birthday cake from the girls. It was a gorgeous Baskin Robbins ice cream cake, whippy ice cream coating with Oreo ice cream centre. It was so nice. I think the waitresses thought it was a bit weird, because in Japan they all think I’m about 28, so they were wondering why I was getting essentially a children’s cake.

 Chloe then explained that the cake would melt, so we therefore had to finish it all. It didn’t take long. Love the girls so much for the cake J
And for their awesome presents, a beautiful black watch with diamantes, a long necklace with a camera on it (so cute) and cat bus chopsticks (CATBUS!)

On the way back we bought some drinks and another mini cake from the supermarket. The mini cake was because my lovely mum and dad had sent me some cake decorating stuff, icing, candles etc, and wanted a photo of the cake. Then we had our drinks and watched Get Him to the Greek J

Operation: Laryngectomy

On my birthday, we got another opportunity to watch an operation. This time we watched the entire thing, including the set up of machines etc, which was really interesting. The Anaesthetist explained to us what the operation would entail, but through his broken English we couldn’t understand too much, just that it was something to do with his throat.

The surgeons began drawing a line from just above the mans Adams apple, to between his collar bones. We realised they were going to cut this line, which made us all feel a bit queasy (I don’t like Adams apples). First they cut the line and basically dug around in the hole, cutting into the trachea. Then they inserted a tube attached to a breathing machine, and stitched it in place.

We thought that might be the whole operation, but they then started to cut around the larynx (the top part of the trachea, made of cartilage and containing the voice box). They removed the entire larynx and showed us the vocal chords, which was interesting, but pretty disgusting. Then they stitched up the hole, leaving a dent in the man’s neck. I was wondering why they had to remove the larynx, so I asked the Anaesthetist to write down the man’s condition. He shook his head, and asked me to meet him on Monday. I did, and he’d written out a case report for me in English, which was really kind of him. Here is the report overview:



Operation:  Total laryngecotomy (with permanent tracheostomy)
Cause of operation: Increased risk of accidental aspiration due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ASL, progressive disease with systemic muscular dystrophy, leading to reduced breathing and coughing power)

General condition: Severely deteriorated, needed support of breathing by mechanical ventilator
Preoperative condition: Pneumonia (left lung) diabetes mellitus, past cerebral infraction (right hemisphere)

Then there is a short paragraph about the anaesthetics used, propofol, remi-fetanyl and sevoflurane.

Operation time 3:09

Postoperative period: after cessation of propofol, his ability of oxygenation became stable so that aspiratory oxygen concentration could be decreased from 30% to 25%. Now he can recognize what we are saying, and sometimes smile. He is also able to make movements with his left hand (right hand has been paralyzed due to past cerebral infraction)




This report was very interesting to me, but made me quite sad, because the operation we saw was not going to save the mans life, or really improve it in any way, just prolong it.

Golden Week - Okinawa

So, in the first week of May in Japan, there are a series of public holidays, called golden week. We got these days off work, and decided to go to Okinawa!
Okinawa is a tiny island off the southern coast of Japan, its famous for the shi dogs, karate, and beautiful beaches.

We left on Wednesday 1^st, me and Chloe dragging our entire wardrobes stuffed into bags, me in a giant sunhat, docs and leather jacket, obviously prepared for the sun. we got the tram to the bus station in Nagasaki centre, then a 2 hour bus to Fukuoka airport, a shuttle bus to the domestic terminal, then a 2 hour flight to Okinawa Naha airport. The flight was pretty good, a bit bumpy, but the views were nice, and the plane was painted like a basking shark (an aquarium in Okinawa is famous for basking sharks).
The airport in Naha was beautiful, covered in thousands of orchids.

We then got a bus from the airport to Chantan, the area we were staying in. We hadn’t done much research on the hostel, just booked it at it was very cheap for the time, so we were a bit surprised when we found it. Hamby resort, from the outside looks like a big wooden beach hut, and from the inside too really. It’s divided up into private rooms and dormitories, has a social area, kitchen, and roof terrace. It was a bit minimalist, and quite funny, but there’s was lots of free things, wifi, coffee etc, eggs, rice and kitchen things, all bathroom things you might need, and free bike rental. I really liked it, mainly because it was just a funny place to be.We were in a dormitory with a lady from Spain called Vanessa. She was lovely and told us how to get to the American village. We all went out for tea, with Vanessa, to a little bar/restaurant overlooking sunset beach. It was really beautiful, and we all had cocktails (me having my favourite tequila sunrise)


On the second day we went down to the beach next to our hostel. It was beautiful, long stretch of white sand and shallow blue water. It wasn’t very busy which was nice, so we set our towels down, then me and Chloe immediately tested the water, it was pretty cold but nice, as it was a boiling day. We saw that there was a pier with a group of Japanese men with jet skis and some inflatable things, so we went to investigate. Ten minutes later we were on a giant inflatable sofa being pulled around by a jet ski. We’re not good at sitting still.  We managed to sit and read for about half an hour before going shopping in the American village.

 I bought a long red skirt form an American second hand shop, Chloe bought a gorgeous outfit complete with killer heels, and I bought some little black heels, just so she didn’t feel left out.  Unfortunately, the okinawan sun was clearly too much for our northern skin, and we turned redder and redder as the day went on, finally wincing our way back to the hostel, buying moisturizer on the way (which turned out to be makeup remover, silly Japanese packaging).

Us in our awesome leggings and heels :D

We couldn’t find Sarah and Vanessa, so we went to a Tex Mex place nearby, which turned out to be awesome, I Love Mexican food, and it was so nice to have cheese!

The next day we covered up a bit more, with a sun umbrella, hats, floaty scarves and maxi dresses, but still ended up on the beach, and eventually, in two inflatable rubber rings being pulled around by a jet ski. The Jet Ski man was lovely, and later on he asked us to go on the banana boat with a few of his friends for free. We did, but as we sat down it became obvious that they were planning on throwing us in the water. They managed it, but it was really fun.

On the Saturday me and Chloe went Parasailing, which was really fun. Ive only ever been parascending before, being over water was really exciting. We did worry about them dipping us in at one point, as they were friends of Jet Ski man, and would probably have found it hilarious. Thankfully we landed back on the boat nice and dry.

That night was Vanessa’s last night before her long journey home, so we went out for nice food. Chloe got a pizza and chicken, then me and Vanessa went to a gorgeous sushi bar and shared two platters. The fish was Amazing.



The next day we packed up and left, all a bit grumpy as the people who had come in Vanessa’s place were very loud and giggly. The journey home seemed very long, and we had an age to wait at Fukuoka airport. It was nice to be back in our apartments, mainly because I hate living out of a suitcase, and I was sick of sand being everywhere.