Now that the green season is on, bike trail builders around Hokkaido are being pretty busy fixing and rebuilding trails after the winter. I was going to take part in it, but ended up having to focus on repairing my own body after a series of major injuries that took place in April.
First of which happened on April 5, when an ordinary fall off the skateboard turned into a disaster because my foot was shaken up good inside the safety shoes I happened to be wearing, resulting in the big toe bone broken into pieces.
Then on April 17, I sprained the left thumb and index finger pretty badly after tumbling down the stairs in the house in the middle of the night. Sprained fingers can be pretty complicated, but considering the height I may as well have been very lucky to walk away with nothing any worse than that.
A week later at the dirt trails, the reckless and invincible angel whispers in my head: “If you can jump them doubles despite those injuries, you’ll get a mad confidence boost… Rad ain’t it?” So I went for it, crashed, bye bye collar bone.
It’s like the third time for me to break a collar bone, and the first to take a surgery for it. The broken ends are far apart and misaligned so it’s just optimal that way. Plus I was feeling weary of spending weeks wearing the clavicle band.
Best way to spend the Golden Week holidays under Corona ban: Hospitalization. Really glad my doctor was able to schedule it quickly and conveniently.
Been about a week since this photo, and I’m feeling so much better. Of course there still is the swelling and all that, but the bones are where they should be. Whereas, before the surgery, I had to fear coughing, sneezing, and even breathing deeply, because of the pain and general wrongness in the wounded region.
Speaking of unpleasantness, hunger and starvation were a real concern this time, probably due to my body requiring extra energy for the recovery. Most hospitals can give you larger servings of rice than normal, but that’s the only thing you can have more of. It’s kind of backward – who would need more carbs than normal due to higher basal metabolism but not any more protein than the 70-80g “norm” they set? That just wasn’t quite athlete-friendly.
When I run out of the entrees, packs of raw eggs I brought in have served me well. Also the hospital was nice enough to give me some extras, like a cup of yogurt or a pack of soy milk, after some negotiation.
You can choose to have breads for breakfast, and some of the breads are actually amazing, like this walnut loaf thingy.
I got lucky with the view. It’s quite soothing to look out the window and see the mountaintops and the snow that gradually goes away, and then sometimes comes back.
This building was also interesting. You’ll see why after staring at it for a while…
Doesn’t each floor start to look like a face? Those facing right, facing left, rare ones with crossed eyes, and the top one with big hazel eyes, turning this building into the world’s biggest totem pole.
Big holidays mean few rehab sessions, and no visitor is currently allowed, leaving me with plenty of time to take it slow and stay relaxed. Seems like that’s the way this month will roll on.