Be strong jana..

Hey everyone!!! First of all thank you very much for the support you all have been giving to me these days. Without you I couldn't go through something like this. It's being very painful and difficult. I'll explain what happened first, then all say how I am now.

The beggining
One day after my birthday, on august 19th, I saw a little "ball" inside my armpit. The first thing I thought was "maybe it's an acne or a little fur that got inflamed". So I decided to keep an eye on it. On the weekend, days 21 and 22 of august, while a was camping in Wakayama, the "ball" was growing and hurting. As soon as I came back to Osaka I asked some friends (one of them is a doctor) about what it could be. He told me that it was a kind of boil (furuncle) and in some time it would burst. Unfortunately it didn't and was got worst, so I asked my father's wife (that is a doctor) and she said that I could take some anti-inflammatories, but if it didn't reduce the size then I should go to the hospital.

The Surgery
Thursday, august 27, the pain got worst and I saw that my arm was also swollen and the "ball" was expanding to my arm. So I decided to go to the hospital at friday morning. Tommy (australia) and Ahmad (lebanon) went there with me and the doctor said that I had an infectious atheroma and he needed to make a little surgery to extract it. I went to the surgery table and he gave me 6 big injections of anesthesia, my pressure started to get very very low and he didn't do anything about it. I called for Tommy and he brought me some salt (that was inside my purse) and stood there with me during the whole surgery. He tried so hard to make me feel better and calm down. Thank you very much for that.

The doctor stitched my arm using metal rings and said that in one week I would have to go back there to take them out. 10 min after the operation the doctor said that I could go home. I asked for medicine and he said that I wouldn't need it. I asked again, for pain killers, and he said that the pain would be very low. So... he didn't gave me anything. After some hours the pain was very strong and Tommy came with some ice and paracetamol for me... he stood here taking care of me for the whole afternoon. At the beginning of the night it started bleeding and was hurting too much, so I went to the hospital again (that was already closing) with Adrianna (poland) and the director of the dormitory. They changed the bandages and that was all. The doctor said that he couldn't prescribe me any antibiotic because he didn't made the operation (bullshit) and told me to go back there on the next morning. When I asked about painkillers the nurse told me that they only had aspirin (that is NOT recommended after a surgery) and I'm allergic to it. Then she said: "this medicine here only has 10% of aspirin, you can try". DO YOU BELIEVE ON THAT??? Of course I refused it and we went back home. I only got through the first night because of Edlira (albania) that gave me a very strong pain killer that she had (here in Japan you can't buy painkillers in the pharmacy without a doctor prescription).

The First Days after
Saturday morning, august 29th, I was there again, with Ahmad and Adrianna. Another doctor talked with me and prescribed FINALLY antibiotics and painkillers. They also changed the bandage again. The weekend was tuff. I couldn't move my right arm (hurts too much), couldn't sleep (because of the pain (even with the painkillers), couldn't even feed myself with the left hand (that also was making the right arm hurt). Adrianna, Hana (vietnam), Por (thailand) and Ahmad were making food for me and feeding me... and bringing water and juice and fruits... and helping me with every little thing I needed. The strange thing is that the pain wasn't going away (sometimes it seemed to get even worst) and yesterday my right arm was swollen again. The night was very bad... the pain was strong even with Eda's painkiller (the strong one) and I was afraid of what they did to my arm. Nic (new zeland) tried to calm me down and make me think about other things... but I knew that I had to go to the hospital again and see what was going on...

The Second Surgery
today. september 1st. things are getting worst. I went to the hospital again but, this time, a doctor from the University Hospital was there and talked with so much care and concern. He explained that probably the infection from the lymphs was making the arm swollen. Then he took off the bandage, looked at the stitches and said that I have a infection inside and he has to open it again and remove the infection. there i was again. looking to those big lights above me and that dead ceiling again. I never felt so much pain in my whole life as I did today. Adrianna was with me during the surgery.. and there we discovered that the infection was serious, that I could loose some movements of my arm if I didn't had the second surgery and that the first doctor did a mess inside my arm. i never thought i would cry so much because of pain. he tried. he gave me a lot of local anesthesia. but.. the pain. the tears. the ceiling. After the surgery he gave me intra vein antibiotics, prescribed me painkillers and antibiotic for the next 5 days and explained every single detail of what happened. He said that probably the nodule (caused by the infectious atheroma) wasn't malignant (but we'll never know because the first doctor didn't send it for pathologic exams). During the surgery he took out all the metal rings (that he only could find following my screams of pain), took off the infection and the necrosed tissue, put a drain inside my skin to try to block the infection and closed the incision with absorptive stitches (13 stitches). I'll have to go to the hospital every 1 day, for them to clean and look if it the infection is not starting again.

Now I'm in my room... very sleepy... but trying to write this for you.. all of you..

I really hope things will get better...

And again.. thank you for all the support and help... I really feel blessed to have such good friends.

PS: Yes we pay for insurance here in Japan, but we still have to pay for everything in the hospital and every visit. Till now I payed around $200,00 american dollars.

PS2: I'll try to give you more news as soon as possible.