Aug 25th – Not many know, but during my time in Hong Kong, my previous roommate, Jeff, introduced me to a fellow CS/Engineering major a year below me by the name of Ethan Chen, connecting me with him after he said he was also interested in doing the CUHK engineering exchange program. Well, that prophecy has finally become fulfilled, as this afternoon, I called him to check in with him one last time before he departed on Saturday, giving him all the tips I could and updating a google doc I had written as a guide to the following year’s exchangees. That (and his subsequent travel over the next two days) really set off my own nostalgia again, digging into memories that are now almost a year old.
Since I’ve decided to start immunotherapy treatment for my allergies, I’ll need to get an epipen. Even with Dartmouth health insurance, it cost $146 (normally $690). Neat. (The “drop” immunotherapy itself also costs $700 for a half year supply since it’s not covered by insurance, despite the “injection” version of the same treatment being FDA approved and covered). Along the way, I also grabbed my contacts which finally arrived at the doctor’s office, and brought the run-down bike I plan to sell into my local bike shop for a quick cable change. I spent the evening with Ethan Bird, eating dinner with his extended family members, his cousins, and his girlfriend Selena. I finally got the chance to show him and everyone else the oculus quest 2, indulging him in Google Earth VR (since he’s a geography major).
However, this evening proved pretty bad for my health. I recently tried some pain relief patches (like Salonpas) that used traditional Chinese medicine at the behest of my great uncle in order to “reduce the wind-dampness getting into my arm”. I just so happened to still be taking Zyrtec for the week I was applying the patches, so for that week, I didn’t notice any problems. As soon as I (mistakenly) stopped the Zyrtec to prepare for my allergy treatment, the places on my arm where I used those patches became red, inflamed, and extremely itchy, simultaneously swelling my entire arm and making it super puffy and stiff, while also reactivating the pain I was trying to alleviate. It basically feels like the world’s biggest mosquito bite, and I even woke up many times at night because of the itchiness.
Dad started his fourth adjuvant cycle of chemotherapy this evening.
Aug 26th – I guess it’s just my luck to have the arm pain become an allergic reaction. I went into my allergist’s office to get my medicine today, and they were shocked at the severity of my arm, though they still let me begin my unrelated immunotherapy treatment. I rapidly scheduled an appointment with my primary care practitioner again, where the nurse practitioner filling in for my doctor prescribed a steroid regimen to help reduce the inflammation. I really hope it works because it’s super uncomfortable and painful, and my skin was even blistering at places from the itching. Chemo for dad again. This month has been quite the torment, and I had a text conversation with Jeff about both of our worries of disability and chronic pain.
Aug 27th – I dragged my dad out in the morning to take more pictures of the BMW for the listing. As a parting gathering, I spent all of today with Ethan Bird, his girlfriend, and his family before they departed for his senior fall at McGill. This included a vegan lunch near Cleveland, taking his dad’s boat out onto the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie, and a homemade KBBQ dinner, courtesy of Ethan and I. Along the way, I had some friendly banter and reminisced about high school after meeting some of his younger sister’s friends (who are currently HHS seniors) and hearing about their HS drama. Today also marked the end of my bike loan from him, as I left my bike at his home after riding it there in the morning. In other news, Ethan Chen just arrived in HK. His first few messages were a tale as old as time: “everybody expects me to speak canto or Chinese” (he’s an ABC)—so nostalgic right now.
Aug 28th – Wilton won a local chess tournament, and afterwards, wanting to flex on me, beat me and drew me in two games of chess with him.
Aug 29th – The start of my last week of summer at home. Overslept for the Artemis launch, but at least it was a scrub anyways. The arm swelling has now been replaced by the ever-present tendon pain. I arranged some plans to visit Ethan in Montreal during the start of my fall term. Half of our house AC decided to finally die after the original repair.
Aug 31st – Begin packing for my internship trip and return to Dartmouth.
Sep 1st – Pain worse, mostly RH.
Sep 2nd – Pain Better. Returned my ergo keyboard, it wasn’t helping. My mentor left for vacation during my last week at Amazon lol. More packing. I got some of my favorite Indian food as my send off dinner.
Sep 3rd – More packing. My aunt in HK has covid—grandma is with her in the same apartment, and she’s 80 years old. Called her this evening. Turns out my aunt and youngest cousin got it last Sunday and were already coughing for 3 days before they tested positive. So if my grandma was still asymptomatic by today, signs are looking good for her (I spoke too soon, she was symptomatic the next day, as I found out later).
Since today was also my last full day at home, my dad wanted to have another heart-to-heart before I departed for fall, reflecting on how grateful he was for having another 6 months in him after initially thinking he was a goner back in February, which was the last time he wanted to personally confide in me (in a much less stable mental state). Of course, we talked about many of the same things, this time in a more level-headed context, but persistently reminding me of my Chinese heritage with the ever-present emphasis on familial piety. On that topic, he also told me that even though I may think now that children are a nuisance (which he did too), I could only appreciate after the fact the kinship of raising a child (which he says after having Wilton is when he had his change of heart).
Sep 4th – After lunch, the whole family decides to come to the airport on this rainy day to send me off to Minneapolis. Being in public alone again is such a weird feeling after 6 months. Just checked in at my hotel and got pizza at a local restaurant after getting there. opting to save my exploration for tomorrow.
Sep 5th – Labor day gave me the chance to explore the city on my own for the day. Minneapolis is pretty dope! Downtown can be a little sketchier at night, but oh how I’ve missed a walkable/bike-able place. For lunch, I visited the U of Minnesota campus for some Pho, and dinner likewise was at a Hong Kong StirFry place, with a Boba shop next door. Pics of: Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and Light Rail. Minneapolis’s bike share program has now finally expanded to include e-bikes! (Validating my want for my own).
Sep 6th – First day in the MSP12 Amazon office. The only person that showed up from my team was my manager, who was there for half the day, so I got lunch with people from the team that another intern was on. I ran into last minute deployment bugs on my project, but my presentation is tomorrow, so I worked until 11pm trying to fix it with no luck… rough day.
Sep 7th – Woke up at 6:30am to be in office to try to fix my project before I had to present to the big wigs at 11am. With the help of the best SDE III on my team, it was finally working 30 minutes before my demo 😅. Afterwards, all the managers and higher-ups liked the project so much they wanted me to present again in the afternoon to even more big wigs. This evening, I also (un)fortunately stayed up until 1:50am watching the latest ever US Open finish by Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, watching them make history and the start of a new rivalry to the likes of Nadal v. Federer (and I was right, Alcaraz won it 5 days later). Too bad with this hand injury I can’t act on the inspiration I got from watching them to pick up my racquet again (even though I packed it for Dartmouth).
Sep 8th – Last full day here. Project documentation and wrap-up. My manager tells me I got an inclined offer for a return internship, but I’d already been debating whether or not to take it or even attempt to recruit for next summer for a multitude of reasons. After work, I visited the Mall of America; my first (and only other) time there was 5 years ago with friends from a local piano camp. For such a small transit system, Minneapolis light rail isn’t half bad, at least hitting the essentials like the airport, downtown, and the Mall.
Sep 9th – I fly back to Cleveland this morning. Before that, I have my last daily standup with my team and talk with an enthused coworker about my project to hand it off before I hop on a bike to drop off my badge and take the train to the airport. I almost missed the blue line train but hopped on an ebike and caught up to it at the next station. Got home, did a rapid covid test to make sure, and had some 馄饨 (wontons) for dinner. Finish packing for Dartmouth. This is when I find out my grandma did in fact get covid and is now on the recovery after a week.
Sep 10th – This return to campus will mark the first time since freshman fall that I’ve had two consecutive terms living on Dartmouth’s campus. It’ll be crazy coming back as a senior now, because it certainly doesn’t feel like it. I get on an early morning plane on 中秋节 (mid-autumn festival) only to get off and find my friend, Tim, standing in line for the coach as well. Pretty much every ‘23 I see will have been for the first time in 1 year because of my schedule. Got my key and walked into my single in Morton, a throwback to my housing situation in freshman year (what comes around goes around) on the fourth floor of the same building. By happenstance as I was checking out my controlled storage area, I find the lady about to head out and get my 4 boxes from them. Chester peeps (Jeff, Leigh, Grace) bring the rest and I receive a fridge from FB Marketplace. I pick up my bikes. After opening my big box of sheets and clothes, I nearly pass out from the intense mold smell in there. The most I can do this evening is buy detergent and wash some sheets. My weekly call with my grandparents allowed me to see my grandmother was recovering well from covid (good job sinopharm vaccine, I guess?).
Sep 11th – I spend the day doing 6 loads of laundry. My Professor missed our scheduled meeting. Dinner with Charlie. Club fair. Gave Jeff my bike helmet. Visited North Park Apartments.
Sep 12th – Fall term begins with a doctor’s visit and physical therapy scheduling. Only taking two classes (with one being an NRO) should give me no excuse not to heal from my RSI. However, yesterday’s laundry and unpacking and table-moving really strained it again. Spent my mostly free day today catching up with old friends and exploring the new CS building (“peak tech campus”). So many people today made eye contact with me but didn’t recognize me (“I thought you were a 26!”) because of the contacts and new hairdo. Mission accomplished, I guess? With that said, since I’m no longer at home, this will mark the last blog post for a while unless major developments happen or I feel like one is necessary. Welcome back to the ’23s for our final year and may good fortunes continue.
As for my hand healing, it will be a very slow process. The healing curve looks a lot like this:
I encourage anyone who hasn’t ever dealt with RSI to watch this video, it describes my situation very well:
Wendell! It’s been super long since we’ve been able to catch up, but just want to let you know that I love reading these and keeping up with how you’re doing.
Hoping all improves with the allergy situation, and also wishing your dad the best in his chemo treatment. Although I’m not gonna be on campus this term, I’m wishing you the best Fall.
P.S. the food pics always look insanely good, I’m jealous