I'm going to tell you my most "memorable" Christmas that I've had. Unfortunately, this story is best told in person with many sound effects and imitations of the people involved, however, my attempt at the written version will have to suffice.
My story takes place in Japan. It was our first Christmas away from our homes. Colleen's Mom and sister came to visit but had just left. According to my recollection, it was somewhere around a week or so before Christmas (you will understand why my memory is hazy as the story continues). Being new to the country, my body was not used to the new germs etc etc that lived in the Tokyo metropolitan area and as such, I got very very sick. I had a nasty fever and a very bad ear infection. The ear infection was so bad that I was actually bleeding out of my ear along with other nasty discharges. It was so bad that I agreed that I needed to see a doctor.
In Japan, one doesn't just go to the doctor. One must see a specialist. So in my case, I had to go to the ear, nose, and throat specialist. Since we had been in Japan for a whopping 5 months or so, my Japanese was rudimentary at best, and downright horrible in reality. Dakara (therefore), Don Love (a missionary in Japan whom Colleen was doing some volunteer work for) accompanied me to this....specialist.
Upon entry into this doctor's office, I felt immediately transported backwards in time. Instead of a futuristic doctor's office like one would expect from the technological leaders of the world, I felt like I had just stepped into the doctor's office in the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon. All of the instruments were made of stainless steel (tongue depressors, chair, etc.) and all of the doctors and nurses were wearing surgical masks and gloves. Don proceeds to go to the front desk lady (who was behind a big piece of glass with a little hole for talking through making me wonder exactly what kind of people usually show up at this place) and check me in.
It comes time for us to go in to see the doctor who has me sit in this very old fashioned looking chair made of mostly metal that goes up and down and leans back and the whole shabang. He gets his little light and starts looking in my ear to see what the matter is. He then proceeds to mutter under his breath in Japanese. "Ahhhh, nan darou. Mita koto nainda. Hmmmmm. Nani sore." Unless you understand Japanese, that made no sense to you, which is exactly how I felt. The doctor then proceeds to pull this giant book off the shelf and starts flipping through the pages looking at pictures, then looking back in my ear. At this point I'm beginning to realize that this guy has no idea what is wrong with my ear and is looking it up in his 'doctor book' right in front of me.
Having apparently come no closer to a conclusion as to what was wrong with my ear, the specialist then proceeds to 'treat' my problem. This is where it gets very interesting. For those who have a tendency to be queasy, this your chance to stop reading. For the more adventurous and those who enjoy hearing of other's agony, read on.
The doctor gets out this 12 inch long stainless steel rod with little cotton swabs on either end. Its basically a giant steel Q-tip. He then starts coming at me with this thing. My first thought is, "okay he's going to try and clean out my ear a little bit. It's a little bit big and a little overkill, but I'm sure he's just ran out of the smaller steel Q-tips." Just as I thought he was going to clean the inside of my ear he starts to put this thing in my nose. My next thought is, "Well maybe he wants to clean out the inside of my nose a bit. Maybe that will help my ear?" I'm sure you have figured out where this is going by now, but I shall continue anyway. The doctor then keeps pushing the giant steel Q-tip all the way up my nose until all 12 inches of it have disappeared into my head. I can feel this thing behind my eye scraping the drum of my ear from the inside. I daren't move at this point for fear that he'll accidentally push it in too far and will be unable to retrieve it. I have to say, that it was probably the most uncomfortable, intrusive thing I've ever had done to me (and I've had a vasectomy). This lasted for probably 30 seconds, although it felt a lot longer than that, until he finally pulled the thing back out which felt like he was going to pull my brain out at the same time a la Egyptian mummification techniques.
The doctor then starts muttering under his breath some more and flipping through his book again when he comes back and starts setting up some kind of....machine. I don't remember exactly what the machine looked like, but I do know what it did. He attached a long rubber hose (about 1/4" in diameter) to the machine and at this point I could already guess where that rubber hose is going. Unfortunately my guess was correct. Up my nose with a rubber hose. He shoves the thing right up there until its touching my ear drum and apparently, the machine was an air compressor which he fired up. He opened up the valve to the rubber hose and started blowing air right into my ear drum from the inside. In retrospect, I would like to know what psi was on that thing and exactly how much pressure it actually took until my ear drum finally blew open and air was flying out of my ear from the inside of my head. Once he had finished blowing air through my nose and out my ear, he pulled the rubber hose back out (my ear immediately plugged up again, although I must admit, those 5 seconds of relief did kind of feel good. But the hose up my nose far outweighed any benefit that those 5 seconds gave me). That was the end of the treatment.
The doctor then prescribed me antibiotics, something else, and something to counteract the antibiotics side effects, and then another medication to counteract the side effects of the medication that was meant to counter the side effects of the antibiotics. Needless to say, it was a poor experience at the doctor and I was supposed to go back a week later for a follow-up. Naturally, I didn't want to have the steel rod rubber hose treatment again so we told everybody we knew to pray for my ear. Within a week, before I had to go back, my ear was completely cleared up. When Don and I went back to the doctor, he looked in my ear and did nothing else. He then explained to Don that he had actually been really worried about my ear and didn't think that it was going to recover and that I was going to lose my hearing. So it is quite safe to say that God performed a miracle for me that Christmas and allowed me to keep my hearing in that ear. In fact, the last time I had a hearing test, that ear did better than the other one. And that is my most memorable Christmas story.
Owarimashita! (The End)
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5 comments:
Trevor is right - his mind was apparently foggy, because it wasn't 2 weeks before Christmas at all (since my mom and sister had come FOR Christmas and had just left the day before!!) We were all really sick right through Christmas, and this experience at the doctor was on December 30th. It was actually really stressful because after that day, the doctor's office and everything was closed for New Years (which is a huge deal over there). It was really very very scary and awful for me too (although no cavities of my body were invaded like his were!) Since Trevor was so sick, I had to make the 3 hour (each way) trip to the airport alone with my mom and sister to see them off - which in itself was one of the hardest things I'd ever had to do because I was so homesick and stuff. But then having my husband being on the brink of losing his hearing at the same time was pretty nasty.
And this brings me to my sequel to Trevor's Christmas Miracle - which was MY Christmas Miracle that same year. I was just leaving the airport an absolute wreck after having said good-bye to my family. I was getting back on this bus that was going to be a 3 hour trip in the dark. I got on at the first of 2 terminals' bus stops. I was so sad and lonely and worried, I couldn't even pray or anything, I tried to listen to some music but that wouldn't even help. I tried calling Trevor for comfort, only to find out that he was now bleeding out of his ear and that his fever had gone up. I remember saying to God that I was at the end of my rope and that I didn’t think I could handle much more of this.
About 10 minutes after I got on, our bus pulled up to the 2nd bus stop at the next terminal, and I thought to myself, "oh great, look at all those people waiting to get on - now I'll have to sit right beside a total stranger while I’m bawling like a baby.” ((Now lets keep in mind that we lived in a city of 35 million people - we'd only lived there for 4 months, and there were only 2 people in the whole place that I could call friends of mine. And remember I'm sitting there in total despair, crying))...
Then, onto the bus steps one of those two friends, an angel of a friend of mine named Taly. She got on and came and sat down beside me. Of all the people in all of Tokyo, Taly got on MY bus. These buses ran every 12 minutes all day, there were hundreds of buses going all over the city, and she got on mine. She didn’t even live in the same city as me either. It was unmistakably God reaching out to me when I was at the end of my rope and throwing me a line. I’ll never forget it. And that is one of the main reasons that I can't give up on him cuz I KNOW he is there.
Trev and Colleen... wow... those stories are AMAZING! (And hilarious, in the case of Trevor!). Thanks for passing those on. I only wish I had something to offer by way of comparison! Thanks again.
Oh Trevor, I just read this post and it was 11:45pm at the parents and I was laughing out loud so hard that I was crying and my tummy hurt and Mom had to come in with her housecoat on to see if I was alright! And I've already heard this story before! Oh...you are SO funny!
That was a fantastic story, both parts! Thank you Trevor AND Colleen for the laugh and the reminder that God is with us.
Wow Trev, that is super intense and scary. You are brave.
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