You can check out the previous one of this story here. From October 2023, I was on a working holiday in New Zealand. I was working full-time, I got injured and had surgery at a hospital. I’ll write about my experience in these sentences.
I got injured
Every day, I walked home from work. I usually close our restaurant except on weekends, so I went out of the food court at 8 or 9. I wanted to go home and to bed as soon as possible. Sometimes, I ran on the street.
On that day, I closed the shop and started to run as usual, but what happened to me next was unusual and unexpected. I stepped on a piece of glass which I believe was a piece of a Coke bottle. I’m not sure because it was dark. I felt a bit of pain in my foot. The piece penetrated my sneakers and stung into the bottom of my foot. I took the glass from my foot and the shoe. I didn’t want to run anymore though the pain was not huge, seeming not serious.
I didn’t take the injury seriously, so I walked to stairs close to my home and sat on them. Then, I phoned my friend with who I had been talking long to speak English. I didn’t want to disturb my flatmates because they could hear what I said in my room. I talked with her for a while. I shouldn’t have done that because my foot was still bleeding, which I was not so sure.
Right after I went home, I rushed into the shower room. In Japan, people need to take off their shoes before they enter their homes, but here in New Zealand, I didn’t have to. I removed the foot injured from my shoe and stuck it into the room. I realized the foot was soaked with blood. I took off my sock. At this moment, I remember the foot hurt intensely. I washed off the blood and hoped it would stop bleeding. Looked like it would never stop. I called one of my flatmates. I put some ointment he gave me and the speed of the bleeding got slow. He gave me a long cloth. I wrapped my foot tightly following his instructions. Finally, I stuck the foot in a plastic bag so as not to make my bed dirty.
I informed my manager of my injury. Maybe, I would need to take days off. The restaurant was getting busy. The Christmas day was approaching. I was sorry. I went to bed though my foot was hurting.
I went to hospital
The next day, I woke up and found out my foot was still bleeding. My flatmate took me to a small hospital. He didn’t think my wound was serious. My wound was checked and turned out to be too deep and they recommended me to go to a bigger hospital because it was still bleeding. I didn’t join any health insurance systems in New Zealand. I hadn’t been to hospital except when I got COVID. I thought I was healthy enough to pay money for health insurance. Thus, as far as I remember, I spent a lot of money which was less than 100 NZD. I considered it expensive for how they treated my wound. They sterilized it and changed dressings.
At the big hospital where he took me, my foot still bleeding and hurting, I passed through a cold nurse and was led to a bed. I waited for a doctor for a long. What I was thinking was when I could come back to work. I was afraid of being fired. My foot was checked again here with a machine as well. They told me I needed to have surgery. I was shocked. I could be going to be fired. I told my manager I was going to have surgery and needed to be away from work for a while. My manager called me and said he didn’t know what our boss would do to me. He meant he could fire me. I wonder if he believed that I got injured. I guess he thought me to be pretending to be a patient. I don’t know why people in New Zealand didn’t trust me.
I was waiting for surgery. I took some pills. I was lying on a bed. I didn’t expect this situation. I reckoned I could go home.
While I was at the hospital, I talked with lots of people. I asked them to repeat what they said many times. I tried to understand them. It had been approximately 3 months since I went to New Zealand, but my English was still not good enough.
I had surgery
I was half-naked and surrounded by doctors. I was about to have surgery. Finally, I got unconscious. I woke up and found out I had come back to the bedroom. They sewed up my wound and I got stitches on my foot. I was in a wheelchair, a nurse took me to a pharmacy, and I got medicine. Luckily, I was insured by the government. I didn’t have to pay any money.
I took rest
I needed to avoid pressure on the wound. I couldn’t walk normally. I drew my foot to walk. Apparently, I couldn’t work for a while. Doctors advised me not to work at least for 2 weeks. After that, I needed to go to hospital and they would decide when I could come back to work. If I remember correctly, I was away from work for about a month. My manager wanted me to come back as soon as possible. I sent him a document of the doctor’s advice to make him believe me.
I basically stayed home otherwise I went shopping at the nearest supermarket. I was advised to minimize putting pressure on my foot. They wanted me not to move.
After 2 weeks, I went to hospital again and they removed the stitches and gave me another 1 week off. Honestly, I was happy that I got a long holiday. I was working hard and a bit struggling because of my poor English.
I came back to work. I was kind of excited. It was boring to stay home for long. People at work were welcoming. I didn’t get fired. I could continue to work there.
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