8:53
OK Dave, gotta get up, pull yourself together / Head out the door at 9:42 bound for Okayama University Hospital (switcheroo in middle), 4 checkpoints, then pharmacy (hopefully lunch at the secret kissa if time lines up just right)
Wishing best day possible to all you lovely humans ✌
9:55
Caught the bus while still putting on a snappy – hot day appropriate and injection accessible – outfit, downing meds and teas, and doing a quick load on a dishwasher to keep my “super hubbo” status intact.
Now rolling through Shinogoze en route to Okayama station for switch.
9:58
White-gloved bus driver, rocking stick shift through streets that seem too narrow for a Kei car. Unflustered, sharp cap and mask.
Mostly invincible elders on the bus and me like an aged #TinTin in his “missing years” #peace
[Addendum: made it in time for a coffee at Onsaya – sort of a local chain I guess which has a branch in the medical library, kind of tucked away… They’ve done a very nice job with quality and decor but no one really seems to know it’s there]
12:28
2 of 4 checkpoints done at hospital (check-in & C19 disclosure and injections (neurotrophin/vitamins) done
Next in line for next one (TCM)
Just hoping I’m done in time to get lunch at the secret kissa after pharmacy drop-off
Great lunch = Best part
13:34
Prescriptions dropped off, to be delivered by courier (basically nonverbal by this point of the day but they understand, take the papers with QR codes, put them through the scanner, take my medicine book and insurance card and apply appropriate stickers and stamps)
And made it in time for lunch
Kissa master is always so kind to me because he knows I’m in rough shape, there’s a little corner of my postcard art, he brings me hot water for my magic powder and sent me home with a couple of treats for Ichiro (deluxe paper folded plane and throwing star – which I will not give to him)
14:54
Last bus towards home
Weary but surviving
Had a cry in Drs office
Listening to Bandcamp playlist with Bill Janowitz, Mxmtoon Dan Mangan, John K Samson
(hopped aboard thesmall green bus (Megurib) which has a circuit around the city for a flat rate which seems like it would be designed for tourist but is very aggressively inconvenient… Anyway, I kind of messed up the whole routine of paying the fair, overpaid but whatever, it was handy)
16:46
I’m grateful to be getting good care here in Japan and for my reinvented life but this disease ain’t no joke
Home, shower, hydration, rest, nutrition, bath, cry.
{PS more to say about existential crisis and depressive spiral and “Post-Exertional Malaise” and the feeling of complete worthlessness and summer coming on and inability to do *anything* but having desire to do *everything*… but it’s no longer interesting or productive to me and certainly not engaging for you}