{"id":83695,"date":"2007-06-22T00:18:25","date_gmt":"2007-06-21T15:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/?p=83695"},"modified":"2026-09-24T13:41:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T04:41:05","slug":"when-things-seem-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/20070622\/everyday-events\/when-things-seem-bad","title":{"rendered":"When Things Seem Bad"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"decob-3142271319\" class=\"decob- decob-entity-placement\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/advertise\" aria-label=\"ad_sample_1456_180_1\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/ad_sample_1456_180_1.png\" alt=\"\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/ad_sample_1456_180_1.png 1456w, https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/ad_sample_1456_180_1-300x37.png 300w, https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/ad_sample_1456_180_1-1024x127.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/ad_sample_1456_180_1-768x95.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1456px) 100vw, 1456px\" width=\"812\" height=\"100\"   \/><\/a><\/div><p>I&#8217;m back at work starting today, but I&#8217;m not quite sharp yet, so please bear with me until I&#8217;m fully recovered.<br \/>\nEarlier while eating, I had chopsticks over my miso soup and chopsticks in my other hand too! What the\u2014?<br \/>\nToday&#8217;s been rough from the start! My throat still hurts, but the intense headache has eased, so I&#8217;m satisfied enough to decide to work.<br \/>\nBut at home, there&#8217;s a ton of stuff I need to do.<br \/>\nFirst, laundry. There&#8217;s way more than I&#8217;d expect to have left from Sunday&#8230;<br \/>\nWell, I&#8217;ve been sweating and changing clothes, so that adds up&#8230;<br \/>\nOf course, pillow covers and sheets too&#8230; the washing machine just keeps spinning and spinning.<br \/>\nEven my house&#8217;s big drying rack can&#8217;t hold it all, so I&#8217;m hanging it overloaded.<br \/>\nI don&#8217;t like it when things dry partially, but there&#8217;s no help for it.<br \/>\nWeeds have been growing a lot lately, so I sprinkle powder herbicide, wash the dishes, clean the toilet, and I&#8217;m done! (Shower and vacuuming are for tonight)<br \/>\nOff I go to work, but my head feels all fuzzy and out of it.<br \/>\nI&#8217;m only going about 30 kilometers per hour and it feels fast. I&#8217;m in trouble. \u2606 On the way I stopped by the pharmacy and said, &#8220;Sorry, I need something for my throat!&#8221;<br \/>\nThis old guy goes, &#8220;Ah, ah, ah\u2014around here!&#8221; But\u2014he&#8217;s not a doctor or anything, just some old guy selling stuff.<br \/>\nThere&#8217;s nothing I need to ask him.<br \/>\nI don&#8217;t really like pharmacies\u2014the people working there wear white coats and all, and I get the feeling they&#8217;re saying, &#8220;We sell healthy stuff here,<br \/>\nwe&#8217;re all about health&#8221;\u2014but that&#8217;s just my own weird take, so forgive me. \u2606<br \/>\nAnyway, I bought that throat spray and got to the shop! I opened the box and right away sprayed it on my throat going, &#8220;Ah, ah, ah\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Whoa, that hurts! What is this, is it okay?! You there\u2014? Huh?&#8221;<br \/>\nI&#8217;m pretty tough with pain, so I figured pain means it&#8217;s working, and I kept using it, but nothing changed!<br \/>\nUgh, this is no good. But there&#8217;s packages and emails and letters and invoices and invoice writing and&#8230;<br \/>\nNo point panicking, so let me just do what I can.<br \/>\nBy around 5 p.m., I should be mostly done, and maybe I can actually make it to the hospital.<br \/>\nI&#8217;d looked up places near the shop, so it&#8217;s either there, or the clinic nearby that I go to during hay fever season, or the one in Ebisu run by some<br \/>\nenthusiast who lectures you and has a painful bedside manner. Three choices. \u2606<br \/>\nNo time to waste\u2014I headed straight to the one near the shop. I called and they said reception closes at 5:30, so I pedaled hard on my bike for<br \/>\n2 minutes (so close!).<br \/>\nThis is it! Sure enough, it&#8217;s got that local special sketchy vibe wafting through, but I can&#8217;t help it. I&#8217;m out of time!<br \/>\nSorry\u2014I called a minute ago\u2014<br \/>\n&#8220;Okay, okay, can you fill this out?&#8221; &#8220;Sure, sure!&#8221; So I started filling out the form.<br \/>\nWhatever, but it&#8217;s not dark in here, right? That&#8217;s fine! There&#8217;s only babies as patients! The average patient age is weirdly low.<br \/>\nMaybe I&#8217;ll read something. Let&#8217;s see\u2014picture books&#8230; hmm, I don&#8217;t hate them but I&#8217;m not in the mood.<br \/>\nJarinko Chie&#8230; hmm, nope, that&#8217;s not it either.<br \/>\nNewspaper&#8230; hmm, I don&#8217;t have the energy for that.<br \/>\nWhile I was doing all that, they called me! &#8220;Come on in,&#8221; they said.<br \/>\nI opened the frosted glass door and\u2014whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa\u2014&#8221;It&#8217;s dark again\u2014the room! It&#8217;s really dark!&#8221;<br \/>\nOut comes this lady who looks like an old grandpa\u2014a female nurse, that is. \u2606<br \/>\nThe doctor&#8217;s almost a grandma too, but she keeps her face super close\u2014like 30 centimeters away! That&#8217;s scary!<br \/>\nDoctor: &#8220;So what&#8217;s wrong?&#8221;<br \/>\nMe: &#8220;I had a fever, it&#8217;s gone now, but my throat hurts, so I came to have you take a look&#8230;&#8221;<br \/>\nDoctor: &#8220;How high was your fever?&#8221;<br \/>\nMe: &#8220;Well, I don&#8217;t have a thermometer, so&#8230; I&#8217;m not sure&#8230;&#8221;<br \/>\nDoctor: &#8220;Any medicine?&#8221;<br \/>\nMe: &#8220;We don&#8217;t keep medicine at home, so I haven&#8217;t taken anything&#8230;&#8221;<br \/>\nDoctor: &#8220;Well, let me take your temperature just in case.&#8221;<br \/>\n[Taking temperature]&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;<br \/>\nThermometer: *beep* 35.8 degrees<br \/>\nMe: &#8220;Whoa!&#8221;<br \/>\nDoctor: &#8220;You&#8217;re fine. Let me see your ear first.&#8221;<br \/>\nShe shoved some weird instrument in there and peered inside.<br \/>\nDoctor: &#8220;No problem there. Next, your nose.&#8221;<br \/>\nShe stuck something like a cotton swab way up my nose and peered with the instrument.<br \/>\nDoctor: &#8220;Hmm, something&#8217;s off. You&#8217;ve got inflammation.&#8221;<br \/>\nDoctor: &#8220;Open your mouth\u2014say &#8216;ah.'&#8221;<br \/>\nDoctor: &#8220;Oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my&#8230; your tonsils are really swollen, aren&#8217;t they? Are you okay? Really?&#8221;<br \/>\nMe: &#8220;It just hurts when I swallow, and I can manage it, so it&#8217;s pretty normal for me, but I figured I should get it checked out just in case&#8230;&#8221;<br \/>\nDoctor: &#8220;They&#8217;re so swollen! Want to see? Want to see?&#8221;<br \/>\nMe: &#8220;Uh, yeah&#8230; (like I could see anything in that mirror anyway!)&#8221;<br \/>\nDoctor: &#8220;Did you see? Did you see? They&#8217;re really swollen, right?&#8221;<br \/>\nMe: &#8220;(That doesn&#8217;t really matter to me) I can&#8217;t do anything by looking at it myself, so I&#8217;ll pass.&#8221;<br \/>\nDoctor: &#8220;Oh, I see&#8230; too bad.&#8221;<br \/>\nThen she did some weird suction thing, I went to pick up medicine, and headed home&#8230;<br \/>\nBefore I left, I thought it was just a runny nose, but\u2014it&#8217;s a nosebleed!<br \/>\nDoctor: &#8220;Oh, you&#8217;re bleeding from your nose, so be careful!&#8221;<br \/>\nMe: &#8220;(You&#8217;re the one who shoved that thing way up there to the painful spot!) Ugh, ugh&#8230;&#8221;<br \/>\nAnd with that I headed to the pharmacy they recommended&#8230;<br \/>\nThis place is shabby too. Is it weaponized? Let me just grab what I need and get out of here\u2014seriously.<br \/>\nI handed over the prescription and they go, &#8220;Do you understand this? Uh, no, I don&#8217;t\u2014what should we do? Should we ask?&#8221; and they&#8217;re looking confused.<br \/>\nThey seem to be calling the doctor from earlier.<br \/>\n&#8220;Sorry for the wait. Here&#8217;s your medicine. I want to check the brand name on the back and the printed details, but\u2014&#8221;<br \/>\nI can read it okay, but there&#8217;s no ink in the printer, right? I get it because I&#8217;m cheap too, but come on\u2014<br \/>\nWell, no matter where I go, there&#8217;s always something funny going on with Decoboco. \u266a<br \/>\nThe end! \u2606<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m back at work starting today, but I&#8217;m not quite sharp yet, so please bear with me until I&#8217;m fully recovered. Earlier while eating, I had chopsticks over my miso soup and chopsticks in my other hand too! What the\u2014? Today&#8217;s been rough from the start! My throat still hurts, but the intense headache has eased, so I&#8217;m satisfied enough to decide to work. But at home, there&#8217;s a ton of stuff I need to do. First, laundry. There&#8217;s way more than I&#8217;d expect to have left from Sunday&#8230; Well, I&#8217;ve been sweating and changing clothes, so that adds up&#8230; Of course, pillow covers and sheets too&#8230; the washing machine [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pochipp_cv_data":"","swell_btn_cv_data":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1924],"tags":[55],"class_list":["post-83695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-everyday-events","tag-old-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decoboco.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}