What an interesting week it has been since my last post! The day after my last email, we found out that Thomas had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and was being medevac’ed off his ship to Okinawa Naval Hospital. Now, as many of you know, Thomas is somewhat nervous around needles. He can’t stand to get shots, so his future actions would be very interesting… Well, a couple of days went by, until Friday morning when I read my email in the morning before going to school. Mummy and Pop asked me to go to Okinawa to visit Thomas. I had asked them if I should go earlier in the week, but since we weren’t sure of the Navy’s plans for Thomas, we decided I should wait.
So, Friday at 0630 I read the email. The previous four days at school were for exams so I hadn’t taught any classes. I had one class to teach Friday morning, and then the rest of the day was devoted to something else (never found out what). Thankfully, my class was first period. So, I went to school, and right after morning announcements, told my supervisor of my plans. She was awesome and looked up flights to Oki for me as well as filling out my nenkyu (paid leave) form. I spent half an hour after class getting things sorted before walking home and packing. An hour after I left school I was on a bus on my way to the airport in Fukuoka.
As soon as I got off the bus at the airport I walked up to the counter and bought a ticket for the next flight to Naha, the capital city of Okinawa. The flight was delayed 40 min in leaving but I finally made it. Mummy and I had read the Navy Hospital’s website, so I knew to get a particular kind of taxi with a green stripe, which indicated it could go on base. I knew from a couple of hours earlier that they might move Thomas from the ICU to outpatient status, so as soon as I got off the plane, I called the Thomas’ cell to ask him where he was, but his phone was off. I then called the ICU to ask Thomas where I should go. Unfortunately he wasn’t there, but they told me they had sent him to the BOQ on one of the other bases nearby. I then called the BOQ. Thomas hadn’t checked in yet. My first thought was “Oh, s**t, what do I do?” but then I realized I could leave my cell number with Reception so Thomas could call me back when he checked in. As I was doing that, Thomas walked in. What luck!
After a 45 minute taxi ride from the airport I finally made it to the base. He looked thin and a little gray, but otherwise was well. He was also in good spirits, so I was relieved. He was about 150 lbs, and I could count his ribs. Thankfully over the course of the weekend he gained 7 lbs back. After checking in, it was time for dinner. I must admit, it kind of weirded me out to see Thomas doing a stick and trying to draw and inject his insulin. He sometimes psyches himself out right before injecting, but is getting less hesitant as time goes on. Carb counting really annoyed him. He was told only to eat 45g of carb, and before diabetes he normally at 2-3 times that… After dinner we went for a 15 min walk down the street and back, which really tired him. However, even that small amount of exercise had an impact on his bg.
After the walking we noticed that the front desk rented movies for 24 hours for free, so we spent a couple of hours watching the first few episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which was really fun. Growing up, we’d seen a lot of Star Trek (mostly Voyager, but some TNG, DS9, and Enterprise as well), so it was awesome to see the beginning of this one.
The next morning after getting breakfast we went to the exchange and commissary to get Thomas an insulated lunch box with a strap, blue ice, and snacks so we could outfit a kit for him to take around with his insulin and stick kit. After lunch and a nap, we drove to Kadena AFB to go to the exchange there because it is larger and we still needed a few things. What an adventure that was!
Before leaving Camp Foster, we asked for directions to the base and were told to go down Rte 330 until you get to Goya, then make a left turn. Simple right? Wrong. There were two Goya intersections, Goya South and Goya North. Not realizing there were two, we turned down the first one we saw, which was South. After realizing our error, we drove around on the back roads a bit until we could turn around. We tried again at Goya North, but Thomas was sure she said turn right, not left. Another 20 min of driving through narrow streets and up the world’s steepest hills before getting back to Rte 330. By this time we’d been lost for almost 45 minutes and had stopped to ask various people directions about 4 times until we made one last stop at a Lawson’s (convenience store) on the main road. We were told to go left at the light (Goya North) and continue on down the road until we arrived at the gate. We.finally.made.it. Le sigh. While we were there we wanted to eat at Sam’s by the Sea (a popular Okinawan chain, located near all the bases. Also Sam’s Café and Sam’s Maui I think). Unfortunately we realized we hadn’t brought Thomas’ insulin, so back home we went. Instead we went to Taco Bell’s on and got take out before going back to the room and watching Star Trek. Many of the meals we ate were take out from fast food, for two reasons. Firstly, Thomas was a little self-conscious about giving himself and insulin shot in public and also because there was an internet terminal in the room so we could google the carb count of the food we’d bought.
Saturday we decided to get up on time and go to the Naha Aquarium, which isn’t actually in Naha or anywhere near it. The aquarium is in Motobu-cho, about 1.5-2 hours north of the base (the range depends on if Americans are driving or not, they tend to drive faster than the Japanese, but never get pulled over by the police because of the Y, indicating American military, on their license plates).
After 15 minutes of searching for the entrance to the Okinawa Interchange (the big hwy on the main island) we finally found it and were on our way. It was a gorgeous day for a drive. We made it to the aquarium in good time. When we arrived it was lunch time, so we went to a buffet place (and at nowhere near the cost-effective amount) because it would be easier for Thomas to carb count.
The aquarium was amazing! They have many interesting kinds of fish, shallow salt water ocean fish, deep salt water ocean fish, mangrove fish, etc. Near the end of the walk about of the aquarium, there is a HUGE tank. They have 3 whale sharks, other kinds of sharks, a giant manta ray, other rays, and a ton of interesting fish. I highly recommend a visit to any visitor to Okinawa. We then drove back to Camp Foster, just in time to see the day’s movie, Eagle Eye, playing at the base theater. Really interesting, action-packed, sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat movie.
That evening we went to Sam’s Café for dinner, which was right outside the gate. For the month of October, all of the servers were dressing up in some sort of Halloween Costume, so there were witches and clowns serving the food. Thomas had Kobe beef and I had some delicious tuna. After that we took a walk to the Baskin Robbins, but by the time we got there we decided we didn’t want any and went home and watched more Star Trek.
The next day, Monday, Thomas had an appointment at the hospital again. So after breakfast and some organization and room clean-up time, and lunch Thomas dressed in his uniform and we went to the hospital. We had a visit with his doctor and the nutritionist and then a visit to the Tricare person for orders back to Sasebo so he could go to the clinic there. Then Thomas dropped me off at the airport where I did my outgoing trip in the reverse with one exception. I wasn’t sure where the bus picked up at the airport, so I took Fukuoka’s metro to the bus station. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to buy a ticket, even though the vending machines had English, because you have to figure out which line your destination is on and go through the menus that way. Finally made it to the bus station and got a bus home to
Had a great weekend and wished I could’ve spent more time touring Oki, but that will have to wait for another visit.
Almost forgot to mention a funny incident today. Every Tuesday during third period is the English Teacher’s meeting, which takes place in the English resource room on the third floor. When I went up today I was a few minutes early, so decided to go to the bathroom. The typical layout for the bathrooms at my school is boys on the left and girls on the right. I don’t usually spend any time on the third floor; admin is first floor, teacher’s room second, and the English classroom fourth. So, when I walked into the right doorway I got a bit of a shock. I was in the boys bathroom! I immediately turned around and walked out as soon as I realized. I could hear the boys laughing after I left. The boy’s bathroom on this floor, from what I saw has taken up what is both bathrooms in other places. Thankfully, when you walk in, the first thing you see is a bank of sinks. I’m going to be more careful about looking for signs now, for sure.
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