New Apartment & surgery update

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ChouDoufu

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 21, 2008
Messages
725
Location
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long time so logon. finally got out of the crappy (literally!) apartment i
was in, even got the landlord to refund half-month's rent....seeing as i
had a sewer pipe running through the bedroom....

anyway, moved into a lovely high-rise, 2 bedroom with balcony, on the
8th floor, with elevator. unfortunately, the bathroom has no toilet, just
the standard hole in the floor. that's really my only concern....using the
'squattie' after surgery, but i don't suppose anyone on the forum has any
experience with this. suppose i'll have to buy a cheap lawn chair and
cut a hole in the seat.

anyway, nice location, across the street from the hospital, and 1/4
mile walk from the riverfront 'promenade' where i do my running. and
the three neighbors on my floor are all doctors. kinda strange, when i
leave my apartment at the end of the 12-3pm noon-time sleep, they're
usually drunk, smoking, playing pingpong in the hall, just before heading
back to work at the hospital.

got my schedule for india, plan to arrive on the 5th of january, check in
that night, undergo 3 days of tests, then avr on the 9th. now i get to
buy airline tickets. planning a vacation is an adventure. in the land of
5-year plans, it's nearly impossible to book a flight more than a month in
advance. i got the international flight booked (long story), and i can
get a flight from the next city to my connection, but they don't sell
flights from this city more than 30 days out. then i'll need a train ticket
to get to the city with the airport, but train tix are only sold three days
in advance.

buying tix was such fun! tell the travel agent i want to go from city A to
city B. she says no airlines fly that route. no kidding, you're the agent,
let's mix and match airlines. oh, that's a new concept. what city do you
want to transfer at? what are my options? she says she doesn't know,
i have to tell her. but, but, but, you have the info on your computer.
what airline do you want? well, which airlines fly to city B? she asks from
where? wahhhhh!!!

hope to be able to log in more often, but currently have no internet access
in my apartment. in order to increase competition, the city government
has authorized three companies to provide internet service here. but then
they carved the city into three districts and give each company a monopoly
within one area. hoping for an open circuit within a couple months.

happy turkey day y'all
 
Sounds really primative over there. Of course, walking down 8 flights of stairs to go to a real bathroom would be out of the question, so I suppose one does what they must do.
 
Hi Doug, your place sounds wonderful. The chair mod is a good idea but don't go too cheap, I think an unscheduled collapse could set you back ;) not to mention the messy scandal you'd create amidst the drunken docs.
 
Glad to here that you've moved and your plans are in order.
Now for your bathroom. I like your lawn chair idea, but you may want to put down a layer of plywood or something over your "hole in the chair" and a cylinder tube (so you don't miss).......just a thought that has to be REALLY thought through. :)
 
Good to hear from you and that your plans are moving along. So sorry for the frustrations you have to cope with but in some ways, maybe a distraction from the purpose of this 'vacation'.

You'll do great with your wonderful coping skills.
After your description of your neighbors, the doctors, good you have chosen to travel for your surgery. :eek: It could be a bit unsettling to see these drunken doctors at noon nap time and then later have them treating you in Cardiac Surgical Floor. Not good!!

You have things well in hand and will be fixed up and healing before you know it.
PLEASE keep us posted. I find it so interesting following your saga and what you have to deal with that none of us would have conceived of.

Good luck.
 
The new apartment sounds groovy, but I would be out shopping for a very solid chair with the capacity to have a potty hole cut into it. Then I would do like Freddie suggested, and buy some kind of cylinder tubing to connect it to the squat hole and keep a piece of wood on top.
Your neighbours may get jealous!
 
Good to read your post....been awhile we read from you

and i am contemplating the thought if these fellows have their

own bathronn (holes) forbid if in their abreiviated state they would

happen to walk into one or trip in from not being covered:eek:

Have a great weekend,glad to hear your getting flight
arrangements completed.

zipper2 (DEB)
 
uhhhh, ross, (anyway i got an elevator) walk down eight flights for a real bathroom?
nononono, this is asia. we have squatties. kinda like a narrow porcelain sink 18"
long by 6" wide, about 6" deep. at the north end is a hole about 4" diameter.
squat and (try to) aim for the hole. and you don't want to use public toilets, the
farmers (peasants) don't understand the concept. they stand and squat on the
toilet seat, leaving nasty, yucky footprints. they are also unclear on the concept of
flushing. so public toilets are usually a series of cubicles (walls are 2-3' high with no
doors. privacy? hah!) connected by a trench. on the wall at one end is a reserviour
tank that slowly refills. every half hour or so, the little float pops up, dumping ten
gallons or so (NOT enough!) of water into the trench. the smell is indescribable,
especially in summer here in the tropics. that's in the developed areas where they
have running water. some villages just dump the communal outhouse leavings in the
lake where they wash the water buffaloes, bathe, wash clothes and dishes, raise
fish....and get their drinking water.

the nearest real bathroom with lovely, lovely porcelain buddhas is a block away at the
hotel. even the hospital across the street has holes.

yes a little dangerous. the showerhead is above the squattie, so you kinda have to
lean over to wash, or straddle the squattie. great for shower-aerobics.

chair will be no problem, i'll get a solid wood dining room chair and have a hole cut.
how to explain this to the guy with the saw will be interesting. i'll skip the ductwork,
too much trouble to keep clean. i'm sure i won't miss. i've gotten good at it.

leaving wednesday night to get my medical visa. unfortunately no convenient flights.
so will take a 14-hour train, spend 20 minutes submitting the application (gotta be
in person) and turn around for another 14-hours on the train. at least it's not spring
festival!!! that's when 1 billion peasants and itinerant laborers are crammed aboard
the trains for the trip home. think overcrowded cars, standing room only, only one
bathroom. one roll of toilet paper at the beginning of a 36-hour journey, never refilled.
toilets not cleaned. lots of drinking and spitting and puking. the one toilet per car
is not cleaned, and water tanks are not often refilled. now that you've got that
picture in your mind, consider that the week before the festival, all the department
stores run out of adult diapers.

i miss the home depot plumbing aisle!!!!
 
Sorry, but camping cured me of squatties. The smell in those outhouses had me getting sick long before entering the place. I got to the point that I drove the 7 miles to a gas station with a real toilet.
 
Wishing you the best with this 14 hour train ride,well 36 hrs i guess

sending my best for all your 3 day tests and avr on the 9th of January.

We will all be with you,you know in our best thoughts and prayers,so

you will be spanking brand new and feeling alot better,i cant wait for

your post surgery posts when you are able..........Keep in touch.

zipper2 (DEB)
 
Woah. All of these toilet stories have brought back memories of a trip I took through the Yunan Province a few years ago. Those of you who think that Choudoufu is exaggerating, think again! China really is an amazing place, though.

You shouldn't have to worry about the toilets Post Op if you're good at squatting. We've got plenty of squat toilets over here in Japan too, but I didn't have any problems using them after my surgery. Just keep your back straight and maintain your center of gravity.
 
i'm just worried about squatting and getting dizzy, or too weak to stand.

but out shopping today for a plastic stool (how appropriate, yes?) and what do i find?
a foldy-chair with a toilet seat! it's still light out, so i'll wait until dark to buy it.
i get stared at enough as it is.

more fun with tickets. none of the travel agents here were able to get me return
tickets on the train, so had to cycle ten miles out to the train station only to find
it's not possible to buy round-trip tickets. i can get from here to there, but can't
guarantee there will be return tickets when i arrive. guess i could walk, it's only
500 miles.
 
i'm just worried about squatting and getting dizzy, or too weak to stand.

but out shopping today for a plastic stool (how appropriate, yes?) and what do i find?
a foldy-chair with a toilet seat! it's still light out, so i'll wait until dark to buy it.
i get stared at enough as it is.

more fun with tickets. none of the travel agents here were able to get me return
tickets on the train, so had to cycle ten miles out to the train station only to find
it's not possible to buy round-trip tickets. i can get from here to there, but can't
guarantee there will be return tickets when i arrive. guess i could walk, it's only
500 miles.

I trust you made it in darker circumstances with your foldy-chair

and don't walk the 500 miles you may have to carry your foldy-chair:p

I just thought the foldy-chair was quite the discription in itself
very amusing but also a necessity no argument there.;):)

zipper2 (DEB)
 
back from guangzhou, and it was a travel experience. the train office here does not
sell RT tickets, have to get the return tix at the destination. when i arrived, they
said no tix for four days. also all flights were sold out, not to hard to imagine,
as there is only one or two flights a day (noone really knows) to my local airstrip.
finally had to take the long-distance sleeper bus to nanning, with a connection to
baise. not too bad i guess, other than the bunks being too short. and the snoring,
and the spitting, and the snot-blowing. ah, well, it was only 15 hours.

managed to get into the us consulate to add visa pages to my passport (good
service, online appointment scheduling), then a trip to indian consulate to submit
visa application. extra fast service, less than 20 minutes.

of course, it took half a day to find a long-distance bus station with tix, very
frustrating, since they don't speak real chinese here, just icky cantonese, and
their standard mandarin pronunciation is almost unintelligible.

but it was nice to visit a developed area for a short time. christmas trees
everywhere, and the wonderful local restaurants: subway, papa johns, starbuck,
kfc, mcdonalds, chilis..........had my first bigmac and shake in three years. with
cheese!!! next day hit the jackpot, a chinese-canadian was celebrating his first
year in business, the special at his japanese restaurant was allyoucaneat sushi
and tempura. gorged for two hours on salmon and tuna and squid and other stuff
i can't pronounce for the princely sum of $5. (cheaper than mcdonalds)
 
i'm mostly worried about straining myself. the foldie-chair will indeed be needed.
if what i read here is correct, then after avr i will have to sit to urinate, as i
won't be permitted to lift heavy objects.
 
your life is an adventure! so interesting to read all about it. What in the world do you do over there? for fun; for career. we love hearing about other countries. China sounds pretty primitive!
 
next day hit the jackpot, a chinese-canadian was celebrating his first
year in business, the special at his japanese restaurant was allyoucaneat sushi and tempura. gorged for two hours on salmon and tuna and squid and other stuff i can't pronounce for the princely sum of $5.

Oh man, that IS the jackpot! Love Japanese food. Glad you had some fun on your "road trip."

Best wishes,

Jim
 
Success!!!! i finally got a train ticket today for the three-hour ride to nanning where
i catch a flight to guangzhou, and then to indialand!! the agent worried me at first
when she said there were no seats available on the 5am run. then worried me some
more when she said she didn't mean no tickets, she meant no seats, as in these
are 'standing room only' tickets. turns out, it's just concert seating...no numbers on
the seats. (what? the number of seats changes?)

and with any luck, in two days i'll be able to buy a return flight from guangzhou to
my home city. don't want to have to deal with trains and busses on the way back.

trying to get everything ready, clean the house, fresh linens, stock up on milk and
coffee and oatmeal and toilet paper. the less i have to buy and carry home later the
better. have a maid/cook/assistant lined up, although i'll be coming back three
weeks out, so may not need her. get all the furniture arranged for convenience.
squattie seat is ready to go with a "sanitized for your protection" ribbon added.

hard to believe less than a week until my flight, and ten days to the valve job.
 
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