Let me telling you a scary story. Yesterday I had to go to the dentist for some swelling in my mouth. I went to Okaya because a supervisor recommended a dentist there as a good English speaker. I took the day off work and went to Okaya by train. The dentist was very nice and quite relaxing actually. I was very nervous because I have heard stories about how different it can be to back home. The only too things that was noticeably different was the layout of the place and the cost. It was completely open concept so you have your teeth worked out in front of the people waiting for their appointments. This is a little strange but not terrible. Also the cost for the visit and x-ray was only 23 dollars! So cheap! But unfortunately, this guy said he couldn’t help me with this problem and I should take the x-rays and go to Matsumoto Dental Hospital. I have some kind of cyst or tumor in my mouth. Sounds bad but nothing too serious really.
So I take the train back to the home and make a grilled cheese sandwich and then head off to Matsumoto Dental Hospital. This is where things start to go distinctly down hill. I thought I found the right place initially but it was actually the driver’s license bureau. It was a little funny. They redirected me to the right place and I checked in. The dentist in the morning had written me a letter of introduction so they would understand why I was there. Filling out the forms was a challenge because they didn’t have any English samples. They basically figured everything out with me though. Then I spent the next four hours having all kinds of tests. I have never experienced a CAT scan before and let me tell you I was a little nervous!
About two hours into it, they found a translator to help me out which was great because I was so nervous not knowing what was going on! There was a whole team of doctors who followed me around the whole time. This is a teaching hospital so they let some of the resident doctors do some of the tests. I wasn’t really thrilled about that but I guess they have to that I can tell you! Hope you are all doing well and I will talk to you soon. learn somehow. They wanted to run some electricity into my mouth to determine what kind of lump was in my face and how much feeling I had. This was a little scary. I sat in the waiting area and all of the doctors and nurses came out to see me with the translator. They said they had to ask me some questions. They said they had been looking at my charts which said my name was April but my birthday was in July. Why would this be they wondered? Can we focus on the problem at hand people?! After I had given them a satisfactory answer to this burning question they did some more tests and then we set then next appointment. I will go back on Monday and set a date for surgery. I will need someone who can speak English that day for sure. Surgery in a foreign country is not an optimal situation but it could be worse. I think they will make me stay in the hospital for a while though.
In other news, there is a big Halloween festival in my town on the weekend. It is the largest one in Japan. I have been helping them decorate and plan it for the past two weeks and we are almost done. I just have to make a piñata of a cat and I am finished. There will be lots of pictures from that I can tell you! I will be a bunch of grapes. I hope you are all doing well and I will talk to you soon.