The cold I had when I first arrived eventually subsided, but it developed into a nasty, nasty ear infection during its course. On the flight here, I experienced severe barotrauma during landing. It was extremely painful, and I think I may have slightly damaged my ear. Best I can figure, while I was sick with my cold, the gunk in my sinuses must have made its way to the damaged part of my ear and infected it.
For a while, I was in some major pain and had some less than pleasant things coming out of my ear. Eventually, my ear drained and most of the pain went away--However, at the time of this writing, my ear is still infected, swollen, and my hearing ability has been affected to a very inconvenient degree.
My experience with the Japanese medical system has been interesting, though not necessarily unpleasant. Japanese medicine is socialized, so it is quite cheap to get medical care and medications here. The detriment, of course, is the lack of personalization. You don't have a personal doctor--You just walk in and see the doc on duty. I've had to go multiple times, so it can be a little frustrating not seeing the same doctor. They take detailed notes that get passed on to future doctors though, so at least there is a sense of progression. I've been on multiple medications the past week or so, and today I was described Prednisone as a more extreme measure to beat this heavy inflammation.
I have received a couple hearing tests, and they have shown that the hearing function in my left ear is currently quite low. The nerves inside my left ear are also being affected, unfortunately. The doctors seem confident that if we can beat the infection soon, my hearing should slowly return. Please pray that I can be rid of the infection, and that the healing process can begin--Permanent damage would be heavily unfortunate, as you can imagine. To me, it basically feels like my ear is swollen shut. I can hear myself inside my head when I talk, and the ear rings. Loudly. All the time. It's very annoying, and makes talking to anyone in a group setting disorienting and frustrating--Especially when they're speaking Japanese.
This has obviously been a rather depressing and discouraging time for me. I am thankful God has brought me this far, and that he has been caring for me even in this sickness. But I just can't help but question--Why bring me this far and allow these problems that have inhibited my ministry and ability to perform? I've been thinking of my mother though all this. Though she's not here in person, her influence reaches across the sea, into Japan. She knows more than anyone what it's like to be struck with illness and not understand exactly why. Pray that I'll be able to exhibit the faith and Christ-likeness she has exhibited over the years through much worse experiences. When I was talking to her this evening, she reminded me of Paul's thorn in the flesh. He did not understand why God placed it there, but trusted Him despite it.
To everyone who's been praying for me--Thanks.
In lieu of a picture set, here's a video I took of Murray and Kathy rehearsing for some of the worship music during Sunday morning. It'll give you a good feel of the music style here at Agape. Please understand that it's difficult for me to get actual pictures/videos of services in progress. As you can imagine, the reason I don't attempt to get them is that it feels disrespectful to be whipping a camera out mid-service.
つづく。見ていますか? この偽光。
Hope your ear gets better soon! Otherwise, you'll be like George Bailey with your "bad ear"! :P
ReplyDeleteSeriously, though, I know how a condition that doesn't get better in a few days or weeks can be very discouraging and exhausting. When I've had to contend with something like that, I remind myself of some very dear people I've known who've had to/are going through even more difficult things, and I say to myself "okay, this sucks, but it's not as bad as what so-and-so has to deal with, so I can deal with this." Hang in there!