Ten years old today!

Dear blog

Happy birthday! I can't believe you're ten years old already. I know I've been neglecting you a bit of late. But let's be honest. You're a bit passé. A bit behind the times. A bit old-fogeyish. I've been hanging out with some new, hipper friends. Perhaps you've heard of them? Their names are Facebook and Twitter.

But don't worry. I promise I won't abandon you completely. After all, you're my firstborn, and as such you'll always have special place in my heart. You brought me out of my shell, gave me the confidence to share my views not only on walking, but on other topics such as music, art, books, cones, philosophy and munted body parts.

And through you I've gotten to meet lots of interesting people. Sure, some of them are a bit ill-mannered. They ask me for advice and when I give it to them they disappear and I never hear from them again. Not even a thank you. But most of them are good people. Some have even become friends. I like to think that walking brings out the best in us.

So once again, happy birthday, blog, and thanks for everything.

Walking Fool

A clean bill of health

Yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from one of the nurses at the Ear, Nose and Throat Outpatients Department (Otolaryngology) at Christchurch Hospital. She'd noticed that I wasn't due back in until tomorrow, and was ringing to make sure the infection had gone away. When I told her I was concerned that it was still a bit infected and that I'd run out of antibiotics, she said I could go in and have a nurse look at it if I wanted. So this morning I walked in to the hospital to have my nose checked.

The head nurse took a quick look at the end of my nose where I'd noticed some inflammation and declared that it wasn't infected. Apparently what I have is a common reaction among people of my "skin type" (I get the occasional pimple) who have grafts. To be on the safe side, she had me lie down and did a bit of prodding and jabbing with various implements. The conclusion was there was no infection. She then shuffled through my file and saw that I was due in again tomorrow. She thought this was a waste of a trip. The surgeon I was due to see tomorrow (the brunette, whom I now know is called Rochelle) was on hand, so she was called in. She seemed very pleased with her handiwork. She also said that tests on the bit of skin they removed confirmed that what I had was a basal cell carcinoma, but that they had successfully removed all of it. She agreed there was no need to come in tomorrow.

So there you have it. Unless something goes wrong, I don’t need to go back to the hospital again. The nose still has some healing to do, but that's just a matter of time. Meanwhile I can concentrate on other things, like training - and deciding what clothes to take.

Distance walked today: 9.6km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 207.8km
Days left until departure: 25

I'm not ready

Yesterday I was rudely reminded of how under-prepared I am for my Tokaido walk. On Saturday morning Keiko and I walked up to the Sign of the Kiwi. We used to do this walk together quite often when I was preparing to walk the Nakasendo (I mapped the route previously), but I don’t think we've done it since then. The walk itself was very enjoyable (although it was pretty foggy up the top and there were no views to be had). However, on Sunday my legs were really sore.

I'm leaving in 27 days. Unlike in 2007, I know what to expect this time, but knowing what to expect and being physically prepared are two different things. Hopefully four weeks is enough time to get myself into good enough shape.

The good news is the nose is looking better every day. The infection seems to have cleared up, and the graft is definitely returning to a more natural skin colour and texture (although it's hard to tell with the goopy ointment on). The scar on my neck is looking better too. I'm almost tempted to give it a shave. It's annoying having to shave around it every morning. Which begs the question: Seeing as they took skin from a part of my neck I normally shave and put it on my nose, does that mean from now on I'll have to shave my nose?

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 195.2km
Days left until departure: 27

Dr. Frankenstein's monster

Yesterday I went back to the hospital to have my stitches removed. After looking at my nose for a few seconds with a somewhat perplexed expression on her face, the nurse declared that it was slightly infected. I was kind of expecting this. A couple of white spots had appeared on the surface of the graft over the weekend, and I noticed first thing in the morning when I checked it out in the mirror that one of these was looking a bit pussy.

Another nurse (a specialist in cleaning wounds of this kind) was called in to spruce up my nose and take out the stitches there and in my neck. This took the best part of an hour. During this time one of the surgeons who did the graft (the blonde, whom I now know is called Emily) wandered in and had a look. Apart from the infection, she was pretty happy with the results. The name Brad Pitt was even mentioned.

The nurse removing the stitches had a bit of trouble with the last one or two in my nose. By this time Emily had gone into surgery, so another surgeon (a young man called David) was called in. He had on what looked like a pair of night vision goggles, but which I suppose were fancy glasses. He managed to untangle the last stitches. He also showed me how to "roll" the graft using cotton buds to remove any puss and help the skin heal. I'm supposed to do this three times a day.

Before leaving I was given a prescription for some antibiotics, which I have to take four times a day, and some more of the goopy ointment I was given last week, which I have to apply to my nose and neck three times a day. Before I left the hospital I had a look in a mirror. My nose looked a lot better. However, the wound on my neck where they removed the skin for the graft (and which had been bandaged since the operation) looked a bit gory. I looked a bit like Dr. Frankentstein's monster*. The good news is that there shouldn’t be a permanently visible scar there, as it will disappear into the folds of my double chin.

One of the nurses told me a funny story about a patient who came in to have some stitches removed from his neck. The nurse couldn't see any stitches, and thinking they may have been special ones, she asked the surgeon about it. But the surgeon said they were just normal stitches. It turned out the patient had had a shave, neatly removing all traces of the stitches above the surface of the skin.

*A popular misconception is that the monster in Mary Shelley's classic novel (written when she was just 19) is called Frankenstein. In fact Frankenstein is the name of the scientist who created the monster, who is nameless.

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 173km
Days left until departure: 32

Nose update

Today I finally plucked up enough courage to venture outside. I walked around the local neigbourhood for nearly an hour, being careful to avoid anywhere there might be a crowd and crossing the street whenever I saw someone walking in the opposite direction.

The nose is still a wreck. Bits of the graft are showing signs of returning to a natural skin colour, but the rest is still a reddish purple. There's a rim of dry blood around the circumference. If I cleaned this away it would look a lot better, but when I rang the hospital on Tuesday the nurse said to leave it. Also, I have to apply this goopy ointment that looks a bit like puss. The overall effect is like a small slab of meat that's been left outside for too long. And I have this on the side of my nose. So all things considered, the hooter is not something I want to foist on unsuspecting passersby at the moment thank you.

Distance walked today: 4.1km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 153.6km
Days left until departure: 36

The China Lover

I finished reading William Boyd's The Blue Afternoon on Monday, the day I had my nose surgery. In fact, I read the last dozen or so pages while sitting in the waiting room of the Ear, Nose and Throat Outpatients Department (Otolaryngology) at Christchurch Hospital. It probably wasn't the best choice of reading material, given that much of the story is set in a hospital in Manila at the dawn of the 20th century, and that Boyd seemed to find great pleasure in describing some of the less sanitary medical practices in vogue at the time. Thankfully none of these were mentioned in the final pages, otherwise I would have been even more nervous than I already was.

I've now started reading The China Lover by Ian Buruma, which is one of the books I bought in Wellington when I was up there for the jazz festival. I often find it difficult switching between novels by different authors, but this hasn’t been the case this time. Perhaps it's because Buruma's writing style is quite "neutral", for want of a better word, especially compared to the more flambouyant style of Boyd. Which is not to say that I'm not enjoying The China Lover. Quite the contrary. The characters, setting, and narrative are all fascinating, and more than make up for the rather mundane prose.

Based on the life of Japanese film star Yamaguchi Yoshiko (a.k.a. Otaka Yoshiko, Ri Koran, Shirley Yamaguchi), The China Lover is described by the author as "a work of fiction based on historical events". Many of the characters in the book are based on real people. The story begins in the 1930s in Japanese-occupied Manchuria, and I'd barely read twenty pages or so before a character I'm quite familiar with made an appearance.

I'm talking of Amakasu Masahiko, who was one of the military police officers responsible for the murder in 1923 of Osugi Sake, Ito Noe, and Sakae's nephew, an event I've touched on previously. Amakasu was convicted of this crime and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. However, he was released after just three years and, after a period of study in France, joined the Japanese occupying forces in Manchuria, where he was responsible for managing the Japanese Army's involvement in the opium trade among other things. He later became the head of the Manchukuo Film Association, a company set up by the Japanese to make propaganda films to boost support for their occupation, and as such played a prominent role in the earlier career of The China Lover's main character, Yamaguchi Yoshiko. Some of you may also remember him from the movie The Last Emperor, in which he was played by Sakamoto Ryuichi. In fact many characters from that movie appear in the first part of The China Lover, including Emperor Pu Yi himself, who was a Charlie Chaplin fan, apparently.

Distance walked today: 0km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 149.5km
Days left until departure: 37

The munted nose

Quite tired today. Lay awake for a few hours after going to bed last night. Finally decided to get up and take some paracetamol for the nagging pain in my neck (the nose wasn't sore at all by this stage). Got a bit of sleep after that.

Nose is still a mess. Didn't feel like going outside today, let alone walking. Spent the day working, reading, and listening to Keith Jarrett's At The Blue Note: The Complete Recordings after weeks of a strictly Tomasz Stanko diet. I always go back to good old KJ in the end.

Distance walked today: 0km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 149.5km
Days left until departure: 40

A midday encounter

I lay face up on a couch in the middle of the room, my feet pointing towards the door. The two women entered silently. They were younger than I expected. Both were tall and slim, one brunette, the other blonde. I was trembling slightly, not because it was cold but with nervous anticipation. The brunette walked over and stood on my left just centimetres from my face. The blonde took a similar position on my right. The blonde was the first to start working. I closed my eyes as she slowly reached over with both hands. It's the natural thing to do when someone is thrusting a long needle towards your face.

The first jab of the unaesthetic - right at the base of the nose - was bad enough. But jabs three, four and five along the side of the bridge were the worst. Compared to these the jabs into the side of my neck, from where they were taking the skin for the graft, were relatively painless. I kept my eyes firmly closed for the next hour or so as I listened to the inane conversation the two surgeons kept up in an effort to keep me relaxed. From time to time they asked me questions, and I mumbled replies, scared that talking would cause my head to move resulting in a scalpel or needle missing its target and ending up in my eye.

Several hours later I have a bit of sore nose but otherwise I feel OK. Hopefully they removed all of the carcinoma and hopefully the graft will "take". I'll know in ten days or so. In the meantime, I don't think I'll be doing a lot of training.

Distance walked today: 0km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 149.5km
Days left until departure: 41