Writing with my right hand

                                Week 13, 5 – 11 January 2012

As I had to sign a form for my bank in Hong Kong, I was practising writing with my right hand. For the serious documents, I always sign in my Chinese name as it is more difficult to imitate 模仿. I could not clench 緊合 my fist 拳頭 yet. Grabbing the pen and holding it firm was still difficult. After a while, my wrist felt sore and I had to have a rest. The bank officer knew I had an accident but she said the signature still has to look like the one in the bank’s record.

Soon after I was discharged from the hospital, I went to a local Australian bank and withdrew some money. My right hand was non functional at that time but they accepted me signing with my left hand. The signature was nowhere near my signature on record. Anyway, they said it was fine.

Every Wednesday, I have four carers coming to my place to help me shower and change the brace lining.  We were talking about my accident and injuries. I told them I had three near death misses. One with peritonitis 腹膜炎, another one pulmonary embolism 肺栓塞 and this time this terrible car accident. They said three times lucky!

One of the carers came every week and she was like the constant team member. She shared her near death experience. She has a rare disease and had a number of serious attacks in her digestive system before. When there is an inflammation 發炎, scars will form after healing. In her case, the scars in her intestine 小腸 will grab other tissues and spread the scars and will eventually reach the heart. She had a trial treatment in the US and now her intestines are bandaged to stop/slow down the spreading of the scars and she looks like she is pregnant or very large.  

I said it is probably not safe for her to live in Tasmania as medical skills available here are, in my opinion, fairly basic. She said every time she had a problem, experts from around Australia flew over to Launceston to look at her because she is a walking medical experiment. Despite that she may have another attack and die unexpectedly, she is very cheerful and positive. Simply admirable.