A shot of the external pins holding the bones at the lower limb.
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The first time we went back for the outpatient visit with the older doctor at the hospital, Tomo was with me. (I keep saying he is the older doctor but I don't think he is really that old - probably just a few years older than me.) As usual, I am the one with lots of questions for the doc and I asked it all through Tomo.
Then because of work, it was either Tomo or his mum that brought Taiga to the next few appointments. Couple of weeks later, I had to do it as it was Tomo's turn to be busy at work. So I brought Taiga myself. Went in to the doc's room. I had a couple of questions listed in my mind already. Mustering my best Japanese (which is not much), I start asking my questions. The doc then starts answering them in English! Usually I am annoyed when I speak in Japanese and the replies come in English but this time, I am just delighted/relieved. And his English is pretty good too, and he knows all the medical terms in English (I later find out through internet research that he has written a lot of articles in collaboration with US doctors - so that may be it?). So since we established that he speaks English, we have spoken in English ever since that appointment.
Recalling my first meeting with this doc in the outpatient room with Tomo though, I think it strange that even though it was obvious on that day that all the questions were mine and Tomo was just translating it, the doc never showed any signs that he spoke English or that he already understood my questions when I told them to Tomo in English in front of the doc. In fact at that appointment, I think he hardly even acknowledged my presence. Even as the doc responded to my questions, he always only looked at Tomo. Strange isn't it? But I guess this is not unusually the way it is here.
As we went for more appointments, I started to like this doc. He is not a paediatric orthopaedic surgeon (and even though we are told it is quite common for kids to break their bones, I hardly ever saw any kids in this doc's outpatient room), but he was very good with Taiga. He would literally go down on his knees and kneel in front of Taiga every time, so that he and Taiga's eyes are level. Taiga had lots of miscellaneous questions himself (what is this dustbin for? why is there no consultation room no. 4 and it jumps from no. 3 to no. 5?) but the doc was very patient in answering them. When he saw that Taiga was feeling scared and/or about to cry, he would place his hand on Taiga's head or cheek to comfort him. Or even hold Taiga's hand. Not very Japanese-doctor like. Like the time Taiga needed to open his hard cast (the hospital initially gave him a soft one but we asked for a hard one for protection) for an x-ray and the doctor brought out this equipment that Taiga was worried would cut right through his cast and his skin, through his flesh, the doc let him hold the equipment and whizzed it against his finger so that Taiga is re-assured it won't cut right through him.
So Taiga started bonding with his doc and enjoyed chatting with him. Whenever we are waiting in the waiting room and Taiga's name is called, he does not even wait for me but heads right into the consultation room himself. I am left behind struggling to quickly gather up all the toys, bags, umbrellas etc and I enter the consultation room many seconds later. On one such occassion, when I entered the consultation room, Taiga is already chatting with the doctor and I hear him telling the doctor "you know, I was so worried last night about my pin removal today I could not sleep"!!! I was horrified and amused. Taiga sounds positively like a grandma! How did he learn to speak like that when Tomo and I hardly utter such words??!! That aside, this appointment was a fairly big appointment. The doc was going to remove the external pins in his lower limb. The doc takes a quick look and confirms that we can remove the pins today. So we had to head to another room. We go to the other room and wait. Taiga gets more nervous. I tell him not to worry. The doctor will give him a local anaethstic and he will not feel the pain. The doc walks in and I could see his eyes quickly checking where the equipment is. Taiga is crying. He kneels in front of Taiga and wipes away his tears. Very quickly so that Taiga has no time to react, he takes a firm hold of Taiga's hand, spins his body around, picks up a pair of medical pincers, spins back and starts tugging the pins out. Taiga is crying really badly by now. The doc shouts out "oh no - something terrible has happened". Immediately, the nurse in the room and the other doc (who was just taking something) rushed over. "We need tissue paper for Taiga's nose - he is eating his snot!" Taiga was crying so badly his snot was dripping and going right into his mouth! The other doc had a good laugh and went back to his own business. I thought that was pretty funny but was also slightly taken aback that he pulled out the pins without local anaesthetic!
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