Week in Review pt. 2

Sunday, Sept. 6th

After an epic night of drinking and revelry, I woke up at about 8:30 am to head out to Tokyo for
Ultimate practice, because that's how Ultimate players roll. The train rides are long, but pretty
boring to describe. I've finally started to really decipher the train system around me. I've been
able to brute-force my way to pretty much anywhere I need to get go, but I'm finally becoming
savvy about finding and using the rapid trains, and figuring out the fastest route on the fly. So
that's cool. I head out so early because we were trying to have a long practice for our Japan Open
Nationals tournament the next weekend. I'm super stoked for this tournament, because in Tokyo we pretty much only play co-ed, and I was looking forward to a men's tournament. Unfortuantely, Sunday was not a good day for this ultimate player.

I'm still not sure how exactly I did this to myself, but when I was warming up before practice,
my back died. Really, it just decided it was done working for a while. Unfortunately, the rest of
my body didn't get that memo, so I was in a tight spot. Basically, my lower back just seized up,
and clamped down. I couldn't stand up straight, walking was really painful, and general torso
movement was a dubious proposition at best. Turns out your lower back is right in the middle of
your body, and it is involved in a ton of things I like to do. Also, I was about 3hrs of walking,
sitting, and standing away from my bed. It was a miserable trip home.

When I finally did get home, I lay down on my bed, and physically couldn't leave it for over 24
hrs. The next night, I still couldn't stand up, and I couldn't crawl, because, funny story,
crawling uses your lower back muscles. Turns out, crab-walking doesn't so much, so I crab-walked to get around the appartment. I know, I'm a classy s.o.b. By then, I had asked around, and the general consensus was that I had a back spasm. This means that I was not really injured, I was just in pain: my back wasn't hurt, just painfully confused.

By Wednesday, I could walk (slowly) and I went to the doctor. Someone from my company came by to drive me to the doctors and to generally facilitate the visit. She was fantastic: really helpful,
friendly, and her English was great. Its moments like these that I really really enjoy working
for a good, thoughtful company. Japanese doctor visits are funny, because they always x-ray you. Always. I came in, the nurse asked me what was wrong, I (through the translator) told her about what happened on Sunday, she said, ok, we're going to X-ray your back. So they did, developed them in probably 10 minutes, and confirmed that there was nothing wrong with my spinal cord, and then the doctor, after a bit more poking and proding diagnosed me with acute lower back pain. Good thing we got that X-ray. Everyone was very happy to see that there was nothing wrong with my spine- my helper even asked me if I was relieved to know that my spine was ok. I got a perscription for some pain killers and muscle relaxants that I am pretty certain are less potent than the Ibprofen I was already on.

I was planning on going back to work on Thursday, but my Kyoto Sensei (Vice-principal) told my company that since they were spending all day rehearsing for a sports festival that weekend, I didn't have to come. My school rocks. I was bumbled about missing all that school time, but it
turns out this was a "good" week to miss because they were practicing for the sports festival,
and over 4 days I only missed 2 English classes. So I go back to work on Friday, and have
everyone in the school- from the Kocho Sensei (Principal) to the ichinensei (first year students)
ask me if my back was ok, and show general concern that I was walking around and working. It was totally endearing. Also, I couldn't really explain that my back problem was really temporary, and that I really was feeling much much better, so I just said thanks, and smiled.