Entry

February 11 2007

My hand prepped to receive drips

okay, now on to the serious stuff. i entered taipei veteran's hospital on sunday morning, february 11th with my entourage of father and colin. no list of tests and checks this time. they knew exactly what i had and what they were going to do about it. luckily i had a room all to myself this time, so it was quiet and had a great view. maybe taipei is designed so that all the hospital's get the best views in the city?! i received pink hospital pyjamas that covered my naughty bits pretty well and was pushed around in a wheelchair everywhere. first we had a meeting with dr. chung and two other neurosurgeons to discuss the procedure (which i will describe in excruciating detail later).

my hand was then prepped to receive drips for the next day. the main reason this was done was because the nurses were having trouble finding a vein through which to take a blood sample. i have small veins and am used to medical personnel having trouble getting a needle into one. by this time i was also used to being poked with needles and watching my blood flow into little test tubes. 'get the sterile cotton wool and hold for a minute', been there, done that. but this time it got a bit ridiculous. i had three nurses try sticking needles into different areas of my arms and hands, digging around with the needle trying to find a vein. this hurts like hell by the way and leaves lovely bruises. so, the head nurse came and put a big needle into my hand with a tube with a cap on it. anytime someone wanted blood, they could just open the cap and pour it out. i felt a bit like a beer barrel.

i also had to shave my pubic area again (for another angiography, yippee!) and wash my hair. other than this the day was pretty uneventful until that evening at about 7pm. i started having bad convulsions, which lasted for about two hours. the neurosurgeon on duty took one look at me and said 'NO, sorry, we can't do the gamma knife tomorrow'. you have to be able to keep your head perfectly still, if you can't then you have to have the whole procedure under general anaesthetic. there was no way they could organise an anaesthesiologist for tomorrow. i would have to wait until after chinese new year. WHAT? i was in tears, i had come all this way, i had mentally prepared myself, this was one of my blessings, i HAD to have the procedure tomorrow! i couldn't fathom how i would deal with waiting for another week or two knowing i had been that close to achieving my goal. dr. chung came in to save me, 'i believe you can do it, do you want to try?' HELL YES! i believed i could do it too.

Landlord

September 2005 - July 2007

Mr. Fuping's local pub, 'Oldie Goodie'

i thought i would insert a (hopefully) humorous post before we got onto the heavy, gruesome material. this post will also help ratify my earlier claim that there would be attempts at 'character sketches' in this blog. so, Colin and i moved into our little flat in Taipei in September 2005 and have overstayed our one year contract by quite a long time. this doesn't bother our landlord, although nothing much bothers Mr.Fuping.

Mr. Fuping is upwards of 60 years old and is a charmer and a fast-talker through and through. He has the flinted eyes of a hardened businessman and i wouldn't want to go head-to-head with him in any negotiation. He has a sharp wit in his second language, english, so i can only imagine what verbal tricks he can perform in chinese. a short, square man who dresses like a beach-bum, drinks like a sailor and rides around on a beaten-up bicycle. he is retired and therefore just out to have a good time. life is short and he must enjoy it to the fullest and apparently, the best way of enjoying life to the fullest is to drink like a madman.

Mr.Fuping is always looking for an angle, a good overseas business opportunity. he was convinced that colin was going to help him break into the 'bakery equipment market' in south africa (NOT colin's 'thing' at all!). it took him almost a year to give up. but he still enjoys our company. Mr. Fuping is young at heart so loves hanging around with young people, especially if they enjoy drinking.

he is also incredibly sexist and totally ignored me; leaving me to talk to his wife (Amy) the first night we had dinner with them. that is, until he realised that i was keeping up with his and colin's 'down downs'. in chinese you say gan bei and you have to down your drink. most taiwanese women are excluded from this ritual and i think are quite happy to be. but for the men it is a very important relationship strengthener. once i had proved i could drink with the men, i gained his respect and attention. we have been invited to drinking nights at his 'local', oldie goodie several times. of course, he knows everybody, including the band that sings songs i remember from my childhood, the beatles, rolling stones etc. Mr. Fuping always drinks johnnie walker black label and has his own bottle that is kept at the bar for him. every time he drinks from it, the date and 'water level' are marked on the bottle. everytime we go, we have to finish a bottle with him.

one night we brought a south african red wine for him to taste, especially because he always pays for all our drinks and food on these oldie goodie nights. the wine got poured into proper wine glasses and 'okay, now we gan bei!' i refused, i just couldn't DOWN an entire glass of good red wine. Mr. Fuping didn't pour another whiskey for me that night, i had upset his sense of drinking propriety. but all was forgotten as we helped him outside to his bicycle and decided that he should leave his bicycle by our flat and take a taxi home. 'good friends don't let friends drive drunk'. later that week i received a phone call 'aah susy, do you know where i left my bicycle?' yes, I remembered, but he had no idea!

the reason i have added Mr. Fuping to the story is that both my mother and father met him. he took my mother, colin and i out for amazing peking duck and ordered faaar too much food, as any good taiwanese host would. and he was particuarly impressed with my mother's drinking prowess. now he could see where i got my 'skillz' from. my mom did particularly well as Mr. Fuping had brought a famous taiwanese liquor, kao liang, which tastes like petrol. he also took my dad on a drinking binge where my dad arrived back at 3am drunk out of his mind. my father had left saying Mr. Fuping will just have to accept NO as an answer by 12am, he just didn't know that you can never say no to Mr. Fuping.