Those of you that follow me on Facebook know that I flew my mother to Korea to assist in repatriating me because the three screws that attached my femur to the femoral head of my right leg managed to unwind, creating a gap where the original fracture is. I can't begin to explain how excruciatingly painful the unwinding process was, but when it did happen it seemed like almost daily, over a period of a couple weeks, my slight limp became more pronounced... Then even more pronounced, then on a Friday evening, on my way home, I stood leaning up against a tree with fear and contemplation of my next steps. Should I crawl on hand and knee? Could I bear the pain?
Sweat poured down my face and upper body even though it was about 45 degrees Fahrenheit and I was wearing a light jacket. The stress of the road ahead wore heavily on my mind. The locals remained indifferent as they passed by. The ones that did notice gave me the scrunched up look of pity with a look of wonder at a foreign beggar in their country. Luckily nobody gave me any money.
I did make it home by clutching any nearby immovable object I could find. My only weakness was the crosswalk. I had two more to go and wasn't sure what would happen. Half way across the "Don't Walk" light came on. I was lucky tonight as most people in cars, buses, and taxis politely waited for me to get to the other side. However, the little monsters on those damn delivery scooters refused to heed public transportation and safety laws and whizzed through the crosswalk around me in all directions; on my left, right, and across the street on the sidewalk. I despise them all, except for the Pizza Hut delivery scooter guy. He is ok as long as my pizza is delivered hot.
Anyways, I did make it home and spent the weekend in bed contemplating whether or not this would get better or worse, and decided it was time to get some crutches. I got those on the following Monday and hobbled around on them for the next week while the screws continued to unwind and worsen my condition. By the following Friday I'd had enough and decided to make the call home. "Mom, I am coming home." She almost had that sound of relief in her voice, the kind that made me a bit nauseous at the thought of being forty and living with my parents; the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end even as I write those words. I continued, "I need hip replacement surgery as I believe I have Avascular Necrosis of my femoral head. It's when the blood supply gets cut off from the femoral head. My doctor that fixated the fracture with the three screws in my leg said that I'd have an 80% chance of getting this and needing THR. The other thing you should know is that I will be out of work and rehabilitating for three to six months post-op."
She handled all of this pretty well. She even got a bit excited when I asked her to come to Korea to help me repatriate my 70+ pounds of baggage. I spent a significant amount of time trying to figure out how I'd repatraite myself in my condition. I was concerned that at my mothers age she may not be up for the journey, or even healthy enough. In the planning I tried to minimize the amount of time she would have to lug my baggage with significant effort. We'd stay in hotels and let the bell desk handle them, take taxis, hotel shuttle buses, use the airport luggage carts, etc. Pretty much my only concern was getting six bags of varying weight and size from the nineth floor box I called hell...I mean home, to the sidewalk just outside the front door of the building so I could hail a taxi. It wasn't a very efficient sight, but with a bit of her stubourness, that she gave me an abundance of, she got everything down in one trip; she even got some help from my neighbors that felt pity for us. We must have been a real sight for sore eyes.
The remaining four days were uneventful as things went pretty smoothly. There are a few stories, but I will save them for paper for those of you that enjoy that medium. We pretty much spent three nights in a flash hotel suite in Seoul and bummed around some of the many interesting things to see. While we didn't see much because I was in a lot of pain and pretty immobile, we did enjoy what we did see, and always retired to the comfort of the suite, which we enjoyed the hell out of.
We got back to LAX at 8:30AM in the morning on December 16, 2008 and had the car service drop us off at my parents house at around 10:00AM. We ran a couple of errands, then Mom and I crashed on the sofas till around 6:00PM. For the next nine and a half hours I slept a couple hours on and off and got up with my mother around three thirty in the morning. As we sat on the sofa watching TV few words were said, but the expressions on our faces spoke louder... "Jet lag is a bitch!"
It took my mom a few days to get her body adjusted and me a bit longer. Once I saw my doctor, two days after we arrived, and got some good pain killers it only took another week for my body to relax without pain and crash from exhaustion and relief. This last week I have been sleeping pretty soundly and even dreaming some pretty funny and strange dreams. It has been good and is clearing my head and putting me in good spirits.
My first Christmas in the US in six years was pretty unusual, but special in that I actually started to get in a Christmassy mood. While 2006 Christmas was one of my favorites as I spent it at a friends house in Vanuatu drinking kava and having mexican food on the back patio in a tropical paradise listening to the sounds of holiday music played by local string bands, this year was all about family. Christmas Eve we went to my uncle's house and had a pleasant visit with his new wife and two kids. The following day we went to my sisters house for traditional seasonal dinner and watched the Lakers beat the Celtics in a very close grudge match. Overall an extraordinary experience.
Fortunately the circumstances that I find myself repatriated under have squelched the effects of reverse culture shock. It is further helped by the unusual amount of patience my stepfather is exhibiting. While I have only been back about three weeks things are still holding up well, but I know that I'll need to get away soon for a few days to give us all a break from each other.
It is NYE and the weather is so good that we'll be having a BBQ and crack open a bottle of bubbly at the stroke of midnight. The sun is finally setting on two challenging years and dawn is coming on a new decade. My thirties have been some amazing years--The last half remains my personal favorite, and since I have so much time on my hands now don't be surprised if my updates are limited as I feel the need to culmunate them into one space comparing and contrasting the unique experience of living abroad in two radically different cultures on opposing hemispheres.
