Small Visitors

In addition to the funamushi William found this weekend, we have come across a few other creatures in the past month. Two of them I never, ever hope to have a run in with again.

In the beginning of May we spent a few days camping on Sensuijima, an island just off the coast of Fukuyama. During the day, we noticed a couple of tanuki hanging around the outdoor eating area begging for food. They looked incredibly diseased, scabby, and were even missing their tails. They were awake during the day, which is strange for tanuki, abnormally comfortable around humans, and seemed to be in pain. I thought it was incredibly cruel that the restaurant owners had not decided to take responsibility for these creatures and put them out of their misery.

As soon as night fell though, a whole army of healthy, bushy tailed tanuki emerged from the forest. Every where you shone your flashlight was a little raccoon dog that would stand stunned for a moment before scampering off into the trees.

About two weeks ago, I was sitting in the dark feeding the baby at about 4am. Suddenly I felt something crawl onto my back from the couch and inside my shirt. I was really groggy and so the first thought through my head was, "yuck! a cockroach just crawled into my shirt". Our house is pretty old, with lots of cracks and holes to the outside, so it wasn't too far fetched to think that a cockroach could find its way inside the house and down my shirt. I proceeded to smack at the "cockroach" as it tried to make its way from my back to my sleeve. At the time, crushing it against my shoulder under my shirt to kill it seemed like a good idea until my skin started burning. I quickly stripped off my shirt and flung it on the floor. The last thing I wanted to do at that moment was go through my shirt and search for whatever bug just bit me, so I went to bed and had a fitful sleep until the sun came up. By that time, my stomach felt kind of queasy and my arm and back felt very sensitive and painful.

Just in case you were wondering, this is what nightmares
are made of.

I searched through my shirt and didn't find the bug (it must have run back and hid in whatever hole it came from) but I found a number of curved orangey red legs that could only have come from a mukade, or giant centipede. These insects are huge, fast, and relatively poisonous. For an adult it is not such a big deal to be bitten, but the toxin can be pretty dangerous for young children. I am so happy that it was me and not Rosie or the boys that came across the centipede!

This is what my arm looked like a few hours later.
The actual bite is on the bottom near my armpit and all
 the little red dots are where its legs scratched me.

The bite itself didn't look too terrible, just red dots and scratches from where its legs scrabbled against my skin. It didn't actually hurt too badly when it bit me; kind of like a cinder landing on your skin for a few seconds. The real pain started about half an hour later radiating out from the bite down my back and arm. I was actually surprised at how little and innocuous the bite looked considering how much my muscles and joints ached. The aching feeling in my back and arm lasted about a day or two and I felt a bit dizzy and queasy for about 10 hours or so. Really, the worst part of it all was how itchy and puffy my skin became. Even the spots where its legs touched me got red and itchy and it took all I had not to touch for about two weeks until the swelling went down.

We also had our first encounter with a suzumebachi, or asian giant hornet. It came buzzing into the yard and died a few minutes later when Dustin smacked it with a broom. Like the giant centipedes, these are far larger than any hornet has a right to be and can be pretty dangerous if you are stung multiple times or if they sting a child. Once again, I counted my blessings that none of the children were around.

This is definitely not the one that flew into our garden. I wouldn't have been crazy enough
to let it walk around on my palm.

Just in case you think our house attracts only the worst sorts, we do have this lovely fellow who pops his head out from time to time. There are actually a lot of skinks that come and go in our garden, but this individual is easier to spot with his slightly shortened tail. He lives a large lavender bush at the front of the house and comes out to drink water droplets from the leaves and keep an eye on me whenever I am watering. Not all of our creature visits are bad!

More of the Same

This month has been full of doctor's appointments. Between both children, we have been to the doctor's office eight times this month. Thankfully, most of the appointments were scheduled. At the beginning of the month, Theo had an appointment with a pediatric urologist here in Fukuyama. They took a blood test at that time and noticed that his white blood cell count was higher than normal.  He didn't have a fever, was acting pretty normal (or as normal as he ever acts), and his urine test came back clean, so I didn't really think much about it.

Powder packets of medicine

That night Theo woke up with a fever and complaining that his ear hurt. The mystery was solved, but now I was faced with the problem of finding a pediatrician and trying to communicate with my limited language skills. I located the closest pediatrician from a list of doctors that we had received from city hall and walked over with the kids. The appointment was actually fine, and between my few words of Japanese, the doctor's few words of English, and quite a bit of pantomiming, we established that Theo had a middle ear infection. I thought he would prescribe antibiotics and we would head home, but that would have been far too easy. Instead, he felt the need to refer us to an otolaryngologist even though he had already established that Theo had an obvious and uncomplicated ear infection. The children and I found our way to the next doctor who preformed all of the same checks that the pediatrician had and agreed that Theo had a middle ear infection. This time, at least, we were given a prescription of penicillin, acetaminophen, and antihistamine before leaving. When I had picked up the medicine from the pharmacy, I was surprised to find that it was all in powder form in little wax paper pouches. I have never given children medicine like this, since in Canada it is always mixed into a syrup by the pharmacist. After making call to a Japanese friend of mine, I found out that the powder is supposed to be poured into his mouth and washed down with water. The powdered medicine is mixed with sugar, so Theo had no problem taking it whatsoever.

Happily waiting for a CT scan

The next week, we went twice to the hospital that we had been referred to, Okayama National Hospital. One day we had an appointment with a pediatric urologist and the next with a pediatric neurosurgeon, who both spoke excellent English. One of the biggest concerns that I had before coming to Japan was that I wouldn't be able to communicate with Theo's doctors. I really didn't want to become uninvolved and uninformed about his medical condition purely because of the language barrier. I have been really fortunate in finding specialists that are all very easy to understand and communicate with in English. At those appointments, Theo had another ultrasound and a CT scan, both of which he found very exciting. He loves what he calls "doctor machines" and thinks it is pretty cool when he gets a chance to see them in action. Lucky for him, that happens often enough.

I managed to snap this shot before they kicked me out. He
is not drugged, just blinking!

It  took us about an hour and a half one way to reach the hospital from Fukuyama and this made for really long days hauling both kids back and forth. I was pretty proud that I managed to take the right trains and buses, and make all our appointments on time without losing anyone along the way or suffering through too many temper tantrums.

The boys playing in the hospital waiting room

Lastly, William had three appointments this month getting his vaccinations started. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we decided to wait until we arrived in Japan before beginning any vaccinations. After waiting for our health cards to arrive and just plain dilly dallying, I finally decided William's time was at hand. I brought him to the same pediatrician who initially saw Theo about his earache and he referred us to a vaccination clinic. I would really like to know what pediatricians do here other than refer you to doctors that they feel are better qualified to deal with your children's health. Last week, William received his first DPT shot, and on Wednesday he had the first of his Hib and pneumococcal vaccines. Needless to say, we have had a pretty sore and cranky baby for the past few days.

This month has felt very hectic so far and I am hoping that we are done with appointments for at least a few weeks. A little bit of peace on earth would be very welcome in our household over Christmas and New Years!

Baikinman

Absolutely miserable

Beginning Saturday, my family has been plunged into varying degrees of sickness. It began with Theo, who almost certainly brought it home with him from kindergarten, and turned into a deep wet cough and runny nose over night. William has since contracted the rattly cough and runny nose and Dustin and I are starting to feel a bit of a throat tickle. This is actually the first time William has ever been sick so he has absolutely no idea what hit him. He has been dejectedly pawing at his face for the past few hours, stubbornly refusing my attempts to wipe his running nose, and being even more clingy and demanding than he normally is.

The last time that we were sick was in July, right before Theo was hospitalized for his kidney infection. Being sick in Japan is a new experience and thankfully we didn't have to think about it until now.

Before I came to Japan, I had only ever used a face mask when helping to install insulation in our house, and otherwise didn't really think about them much. If anything, I was under the impression that people in Asia wore them in an attempt to keep from getting sick. I think that is a small part of it, but more importantly I have found is  people wear them out of a social obligation to contain their germs and prevent sickness from spreading. It is interesting from an epidemiological standpoint, because you can much more readily identify the the sick people in your midst. Some weeks it seems that I run into tons of people wearing masks and sometimes I go a day or two without seeing anyone.

Theo's favorite antihero

The whole driving force behind the sick mask seems incredibly Japanese to me. Sacrificing your comfort and looks for the good of the whole population. I actually really admire that people would be willing to make themselves that much more uncomfortable for the common good. The Japanese perspective on germs is pretty apparent in the popular kid's show "Anpanman". The villain is Baikinman, or Bacteria Man, who tries to create confusion and dirtiness wherever he goes. Only healthy and clean Anpanman or soap has the ability to stop him. He is most definitely Theo's favorite character on the show, but I think that has more to do with  the spaceship he flies and less to do with his dastardly schemes.    

For the most part, the western culture in which I was raised holds a very "every man for himself" view of sickness. This is evidenced by declining vaccination rates and how very few people do anything to limit your exposure to them or their children when they are sick. I still remember the heavy, malodorous, humid breaths of a congested classmate sitting in the row behind me during an exam in university. It was not surprising, after 3 hours of his coughing and mouth breathing bathing my neck in disease ridden moistness, that I woke up the next morning feeling awful. I am sure his attitude was: "I am the one suffering here. If your immune system can't handle this, it's your own fault."

Even being sick can be kawaii

Obviously, I like the idea of disease prevention on a wider scale, but when it comes down to it, I am sure I will feel extremely awkward wearing a conspicuous face mask in public. I am also sure that the feeling of my sick breath trapped to my face uncomfortable and disgusting. Oh, well.


Theo is much harder to convince. At first, I thought that they couldn't possibly expect 3 year olds to keep a mask on their face, but I have since seen quite a few kids his age wearing them without complaint. He has not gone to kindergarten this week so far, but other than his lingering cough, it seems as though he is well enough to go back tomorrow. With a mask on. I found him a set of cute shinkansen face masks to try to make it seem fun, but when I tried one out on him this morning he was not too impressed. It only lasted about 30 seconds before he ripped it off. I am not so he will keep it on tomorrow, but at least his teacher will know I tried. Hopefully he won't become the class baikinman!

He ripped this off seconds after the picture was taken

In Sickness and In Health

A few of the unwelcome denizens of my body

Our last week and a bit has been crazily fast paced and busy trying to get everything sorted for leaving, the house packed, and all the little details of life squared away. In the midst of this frenzy, Dustin contracted an over the top cough and Theo woke up at three in the morning coughing, running a fever, and insisting on being held for the remainder of the night.  This weekend, as we were packing up the last of our things and moving them to my inlaws' place, I lost my voice and within an hour or two I was in the grip of a full on cough/cold. The only one of us who has been seemingly unaffected is William, which is the only bright side in the narrow world of self-focused bodily pain into which we have all been thrust.

Dustin has only two weeks remaining until he leaves Manitoba and with all of the things that still need to be done, I can't help but think our bodies have betrayed us in our final hour of need. Hopefully we can all manage to recuperate without any of the special attention and extra sleep that we don't have time for!