My Surgery

On the morning of December 11, 2008 I had out-patient surgery to remove the sebaceous cyst under my belly button at Taizhou Central Hospital. I had an experienced surgeon. When I first lay down on the surgery table he gave me an injection of anesthetic which hurt. When that took effect he used an electronic knife to remove the cyst, using 7 stitches at the end to close the surgical wound. He carefully bandaged me and prescribed 5 days of IV antibiotics to be sure to avoid infection. The clinic doctors can change the dressing every 3 days and he will remove the stitches himself in 10 days. He asked me to rest for several days, and keep an eye on the wound to see if it is weeping or bleeding. He wrote a notice excusing me from work up to two weeks, but also told me that I can go back to work early if I feel I can.

I was helped by my friend Mrs. Lin who is a dentist at the hospital. She accompanied me during the whole course from registration on. She assisted the surgeon... She encouraged me not to be afraid during the surgery. After surgery she accompanied my wife to pay the bill and to get antibiotics medicine. I cannot thank her enough.

Since that day's afternoon I've had pain at the surgery site... That night I was twice awakened by pain. I asked the surgeon if that is normal and he said it is.

Starting yesterday I would visit the hospital for 4 days for IV antibiotics. The transfusion clinic there is very, very busy so I will have to stand in line for it. Yesterday (Dec.12, 2008 Friday) morning my wife went there then she went to office about 8:30 am after putting in my medicine. I went there about 10 am to get my IV antibiotics. I cannot bathe or shower for 10 days... I will change my underclothes every day.

I hope my pain will stop soon. God help me!

Blogger's note: It was rewritten more in Mary's style by Mary B who I cannot thank enough. The following is my style writing which was fixed sentence by sentence by Mary B:

My Surgery

The day before yesterday, (December 11, 2008,) in the morning, I had an out-patient operation to remove the sebaceous cyst under my belly button at Taizhou Central Hospital. The surgeon is experienced. After I entered the operation room and lay down he injected anesthetic... I felt a little pain then. Next he used an electronic knife to cut out my cyst. He sutured my wound, using 6 stitches. At the end he used gauze to cover my wound and a large gauze bandage to cover it and stick to my body. He prescribed IV antibiotics for 5 days. He asked me to rest those days and check the wound to see if it was weeping or bleeding... He asked me to observe whether I develop a fever or not. I can ask a common surgeon to change gauze 3 days later, 6 days later and so on. He will take the stitches out of the wound himself 10 days later. He wrote a notice excusing me from work up to two weeks, but also told me that I can go back to work early if I feel I can.

I got the help of my friend Mrs. Lin, who is a dentist at Taizhou Central Hospital. She accompanied me the throughout the whole course from registration on. She was an assistant of the experienced surgery while I was operated on. She encouraged me not to be afraid during the surgery. After surgery she accompanied my wife to pay money, to get the antibiotics medicine. I cannot thank her enough.

Since that day's afternoon I felt pain where I was operated on. That night I was awakened by pain two times. I asked the surgeon if it is normal and he said it is.

Starting yesterday I would go to the hospital for 4 days for IV antibiotics. The transfusion clinic there is very, very busy so I will have to stand in line for it. Yesterdday morning my wife went to there then she went to office about 8:30 am. I went to there about 10 am and got my shift to have IV antibiotics. I cannot take a bath for 10 days. I cannot take a shower for 10 days. I will change my underclothes every day.

I hope I will not feel any more pain. God help me!

P.S. Last night I felt a little better. Today (Dec. 13, 2008) the experienced surgeon changed my gauze and bandage.At first he bathed the wound with iodine which kills bacteria without using expensive medication. Then he used two bandages with gauze to stick it to my body.He said my wound was healing well.

I will Have a Small Surgery This Week

I have had a sebaceous cyst under my bellybutton for more than 20 years. When I was a high school student I went swimming in the Gaoyou passage of the Grand Canal. I got an infection from the water. Then it was very little. It has gotten larger, and I have seen three doctors. All of them said I should have a small operation to cut it out. I had an appointment with a famous surgeon at the Taizhou Center Hospital. He said he was available for the surgery on December 11. So I will enter the hospital on December 11. I am afraid of the pain. He said he will use anaesthetic and I will not feel pain. He said he will test the syst and tell me the exact nature of it. I will leave the hospital, maybe on Saturday, December 13, or Sunday, December 14. God help me!

I want to thank Mary, who polished this passage. Mary has helped me not only to become a better writer and observer, but also a better person.

My Bad Experience Today

A asked me to help him this morning. I called 3 people to help him. One friend agreed to try her best to help A. After some contacts She phoned to me that she has asked her colleague to help him. If the result is come out and A succeed please thank his colleague.

This afternoon the result is come out and A passed. I said it to A and ask him to thank my freiend's colleague. A said if my freiend's colleague don't help he will succeed too. He is not willing to thank my freiend's colleague.

I am really not happy. I will not help A anymore.

If you meet such situation, what will you do?

I'm back

Sorry for that long time no new posts . I have been so busy at work these days. Now I am back.

Today is Jan. 27, 2006. The Year of the Pig is coming soon.

Let the horns and whistles blow,
So that all the world may know
One more happy year has come to bless our home!

New Year's Blessing

Today is the 4th day of the Year of the Dog.

I wish all my friends:

Four Seasons of Happiness!
Tweleve Months of Joy!
Fifty-two Weeks of Luck!
Three hundred and Sixty-five Days of Prosperity!
8,760 Hours of Peace!525,600 Minutes of Good Health!
3,153,600 Seconds of Smiles!
Zero Tears! No Crying!

May this new year bring many opportunities your way, to explore every joy of life and may your resolutions for the days ahead stay firm, turning all your dreams into reality and all your efforts into great achievements.

Welcome to China.

Making Chinese Green Tea

STEP 1: Put a small amount of tea at the bottom of a china cup, just enough to barely cover the bottom. Please, do not use too much tea.

STEP 2: Fill the cup 1/5 full of boiling water. Wait 2.5 to 3 minutes.

STEP 3: While you are waiting, put away your tea. If the tea is in a tin, please cover the tea tightly and put in the refrigerator. If the tea is in a bag, please use a strong clip to close the bag down to where the tea is, so there is no extra air in the bag. Then refrigerate.

STEP 4: Fill your cup with boiling water. Drink and enjoy!

My experience with Typhoon Rananim (revised edition 20040817)


On August 12, 2004, Taizhou witnessed Typhoon Rananim, the most powerful typhoon to hit China since 1997. Typhoon Rananim, the 14th this year, pacing high-velocity winds up to 160 km/hour, killed 106 people, left 11 missing, injured 2,845 people as well as knocking down 46,900 houses in Taizhou. Many of the injuries were caused by collapsing homes. As a local inhabitant, I had a terrible experience.

Taizhou is a coastal city in China's eastern Zhejiang province. From an administrative standpoint, Taizhou is more than just a city. The local government covers four surrounding counties, plus the two mid-sized cities of Linhai and Wenling. All in all, the administrative area of Taizhou covers some 9,400 square km and has a population of 5.5 million.

The eye of the storm made landfall at about 8 PM in the coastal city of Wenling which is under the control of Taizhou. From morning to evening that day in Taizhou city, Rananim brought torrential rains and winds. I came back from my office to my house at 2:15 PM. The rainstorm accompanying Typhoon Rananim was so severe that I had a difficult time controlling my motor scooter. It almost fell down at least three times. All the while, I had to be careful of flying shop signboards, which were hitting people's arms and legs like knives. The wind was very strong. I had never seen anything like it before. It was both a horrible and exciting time. When I got home and opened the door to the balcony, I heard a loud noise. Oh, my god! The solar water heater from the uppermost floor of my apartment building was blown down to the ground. It was luck that no man was in the ground that time. If anyone had been on the street below the building, I hesitate to think of what could have happened. Many objects landed on my balcony, having flown through the air. It was a real mess!

In Taizhou that day, lots of trees and electricity pylons were toppled. The electrical power was knocked out completely, and neither power nor water was available from 3:00 PM until the next day. From 4:00 PM to about 5:30 PM, there was no telephone or Internet service. I sat in my living room and read something interesting that afternoon. I had no candles in my apartment, and my emergency lamp did not work. The only light that I had was from my laptop. I used my laptop to connect to the Internet for about one hour that evening. I was hesitant to use it too long because I did not know if there would be power the next day. Fortunately, I did have both power and water service by the next evening. But there were some areas in Taizhou that did not have power and water service. Even as of today, power and water supplies have not returned to normal.

The Taizhou city government urged every office to have at least one person on duty on both Saturday and Sunday. I was assigned to work tomorrow, August 15, 2004. So I had to have my day off at my office.

Acknowledgements: I wrote this post on Aug.14. Dr. Carolyn Allemand checked it over for me and I made it for revised edition on Aug.15. Now the loss has been defined so I use the new and right one. I give a brief introduction about Taizhou in the 2nd paragraph too. I greatly appreciate Dr. Carolyn Allemand’s help.