HOW IT HAPPENED
DECEMBER 17TH, 2012
I have a job for a pachinko commercial. The job itself is an absolute cakewalk and would be great except that the building it's in has no central heating. As a function of that, my buddy Ricky and I are given a waiting room with a oil heater. Unbeknownst to us, the heater is malfunctioning (or running out or oil?- we don't know because its instructions are all in Japanese kanji, so we can't really operate it). The room eventually gets smokey. Even with a cotton mask on, I start coughing. I leave as much as I can, but within a few days, I have a full flown respiratory infection, and can't so much as lay down without coughing up half a lung.
CHRISTMAS
Moms introduces me to this amazing thing called a Neti Pot (will blog about it later) that gets me over the respiratory infection in a matter of three days. The coughing goes away, but combined with the Jetlag, (unbeknownst to me), my immune system is still seriously compromised and will, be for a while.
Around this time, my role in an upcoming suspense movie is confirmed. It is being directed by one of Japan's biggest and most successful indie producers, so I accept it for the chance to work with him, and solidify our relationship for future projects. (We have been acquaintances for years, but this was the first time he ever contacted me about working together.) I am warned it will be a very cold and hard shoot. Also, won roles in 4 other back-to-back multi-day shoots after that as well. For the first time ever, I will be absolutely booked solid when I get back to Japan. Will be able to meet my minimum 3x rent quota for the month in a week and a half, and won't have to worry if I dont get work for the rest of the month. WORD. Super excited to get started.
JANUARY 14, 2013
Im up at 4am (despite the jeglag coming back to Japan) to start filming on the suspense film in the mountains of Ibaraki. Starts off fine, but the temperature suddenly dives. Rain turns to snow, and we are stuck there. The director decides to use this extra time keep filming. Despite the cold, we film all night. It's freezing so I bundle up next to the exact same kind of oil burning heater that gave me the respiratory infection. The only sleep comes in short naps when I pass out waiting for my name to be called to get back in front of the camera. As a function of the snow, there is a wicked traffic jam heading back to Tokyo the next day. I get home 35 hours after I left. Jetlag is aaaaaaaaalll screwed up, and I feel like hell.
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| The Mountain I got stuck on overnight... and probably where I got the virus. |
JANUARY 16th
The director gives me the day off to recoup. (He only needed me for one scene, so it would be expense to bring me all the way out to Ibaraki just for that anyway). Teach my business classes at night, but rest all day before then. Figure it's enough.
JANUARY 17th
Up at 4am again to head back up to Ibaraki. Same scenario, but this time it's colder. -7. We are behind on schedule, and need to film all night again. I'm really starting to feel like hell. Getting headaches,but agree to finish my scenes for the film. Director gets me out on the first car leaving in the morning, but I really really feel awful. Serious headaches and neckaches set in. i assume its from spending large amounts of time in crowded location bus seats that are way too small, and falling aside in horrible positions. Home by noon on the 18th, sleep all day. Still haven't readjusted from Jetlag cause of the all night shoots. One job down, three to go... And Im already sick. Damn.
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| Exhausted production assistants sleep in a waiting room after filming all night. |
JANUARY 19th
Doing a historical reinactment of the Hurricane Carter story. Would have loved to played the lead,but find out instead I am there to play the kid's drunken father for a single scene. Feel like hell, and can barely concentrate on anything, so I take it as a blessing. Do my scene and ready to go home by noon. The director decides to keep me on as an extra at the last minute. (Without asking my a--). We spend all day driving from location to location in the hyper crowded location bus, with no really healthy food around. We finish at 3am. Even the main actor was done by midnight. Definitely not a blessing.
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| One of a multitude of sets we were on during the shoot for the Hurricane Carter reinactment. A few actors relaxing in a jail set while we waited. |
JANUARY 20th
Was supposed to be in for different scenes that day, but they decide they don't need me. Thank god. Also asked to come in for a rehearsal for a commercial the next day, but I told them I was busy because of the reinactment, so I had already told them I couldn't make it. All Sleep all day, but the headaches and general awful feelings persist. Didn't really notice, but I m starting to lose my appetite, and have low level nausea.
Shooting a commercial with Ken Watanabe. As I couldn't make it to the rehearsal, Im relinquished to the role of an extra far off in the background. The assistant director points me to a chair way off in the distance, and tells me to sit there. I feel like hell so that's fine with me. I sit there, and pass out for god-knows how long. (Which is actually fine because its supposed to be an airport scene and people pass out in airport chairs all the time.
The shoot finishes in time for me to get to a clinic, so I can get myself checked out. The doctor tells me I have a fever of 40.5 C (105F). He gives me a ton of medication and says as long as I take it, I am okay to work. I take it, and I start feeling a lot better. Word. Back to work.
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| The medicine the doctor gave me to keep my fever down so I could get back to work. |
JANUARY 22nd
Motion capture shooting day 1. This is a project I have been involved with for almost a year now, and is by far the biggest and most important thing I've ever worked on. Problem is, the MoCap suits are made of nothing but skin-tight spandex and you can't use heaters in the studio because they mess with the infra-red cameras...and it's January. It's freezing, but still, Im diligent about my medication and I feel fine and have a great day.
At the last minute, they tell me they want to start using me for another aspect of the project and I am thrilled to do it, so I agree...but they need to finish with another actor first. By the time they are done with him, the sun has gone down, and the temperature drops. As soon as I take my jacket off and I am just in the suit, Im shivering. The director for this segment also happens to be one of the slowest speaking, slowest moving human beings I have ever met, and it takes forever. By the time I go home, I am in horrible shape again.
JANUARY 23rd
Final day of the work block. The most important day. I have scripted speaking lines for the motion capture project that I was given in December, but as the script changed, I didn't receive the new ones until I was already so sick that I was too incoherent and worn out to try and memorize them. When I got home every night, I just passed out. Promised myself I would learn them before today, but never got to it. Felt too dull to concentrate on anything. Would have to learn them on set that day.
Also, have to teach my business classes that night, and the president of the company wants to come to watch that night. (Tonight of all nights). Have to show him that the $100 an hour he pays me to make and run this program is worth it.
It's a very busy day on set. Lots of physical action. Working with my favorite action director, Yuji Shimomura that day, but my condition is no good. Still I perform to the best of my abilities and no one really notices my condition until mid-afternoon or so when it starts to get obvious. Finally the time comes to deliver my lines. Never memorized them. I keep blowing them in rehearsal. Finally, I decide that if I don't nail this sh-- and get back to off set and in my jacket, Im going to freeze to death. As soon as the cameras are rolling, I nail it in the first take. Staff seems concerned that Im so cold. I explain that I have a fever. They are very understanding, and try to keep me as warm as they can while we finish the day.
First time ever in a year of shooting, the shoot runs over. There goes my rest time before the business classes... And even my dinner time for that matter. I change into my suit, and head downtown. Feeling woozy, and start having inner dialogs with whatever the hell kind of infection I have.
"This is my body, not yours damn it!!! I'M in charge of it!!!!! NOT YOU!!!!"
I arrive there with 10 minutes to spare, and hit Subway. I order an Italian BMT, and devour the single most beautiful thing ever created by the hands of man (or at least the Chinese girl working there that day). The president doesn't show, but Im there, so I gotta teach. Start off feeling okay, but soon realize that after being in the cold all day, this room temperature place feels like 400 degrees. I've never felt so hot in my life. All the layers Im wearing under my suit to protect from the cold outside don't help either.
Get home that night, and Im done. I've earned all the money I need to earn for the month, and I can rest as long as necessary. I drain the main vein and crash, but Im so wiped out, I forget to flush. Mari comes home from work, looks in the bathroom and gasps.
"Chuck, what's wrong with your pee?" I get up to look at it. It's somewhere between the color of Nestea and Coca Cola. NOT GOOD. No idea how long thats been happening. Time for another trip to the doctor tomorrow.
JANUARY 24th
I sleep in heavily, and then drag myself up to see the local doctor. It still feels like 400 degrees in the clinic lobby. My head is pounding, and I pass out waiting for him. He decides that it's time for a blood test.
I come back a few days later for the results, and he hits me with my "problem list". For starters, I've been infected with the Epstein-Barr virus*. It's extremely common (95% of Americans already have it in their system), so he doesn't know if it was 1) triggered by another exposure, (probably from accidentally drinking out of someone else's cup on the set of the suspense film) or 2) because my immune system was so compromised that it could take hold or 3) if I was one of the 5% of people who just managed to never get it before. (Either that or he told me, but I just didnt catch it because of the language barrier).
*(Epstein-Barr is the virus that causes Mono in teens and young adults- for older adults it has totally different effects. It's spread mainly through Saliva, but all it takes is touching something with someone's saliva on it, and then touching your nose, mouth or eyes to get it).
Whatever the cause though, this sh-- is beating the hell out of my system, and I also find out my liver and kidneys have stopped working properly and I have proteinuria. (A condition where you body starts breaking down your muscle, and you literally piss it out). Not good on all four counts. I also find out that once Epstein-Barr gets a hold of your system, there is no cure and no treatment. Your body just has to fight it off, and sometimes it can take 3 - 6 months to do it. Anti-biotics are useless in this fight, so the doctor takes me off of them, gives me something to help keep the fever and swelling down and wishes me, good luck. He tells me to come back in two weeks, so he can check on my progress.
THE NEXT WEEK
The next week becomes a blur as this friggin virus rips me a new one. On top of the other aforementioned problems, my fever won't break at remains at about 104. Mari reads that a sustained fever of 106 can cause permanent to the boys downstairs, and she takes it upon herself to start icepacking my crotch. I don't complain because 1) Im too tired to, and 2)... it actually feels good.
Around this time, Tonsillitis also sets in, and my right tonsil swells up to disgusting proportions in the back of my throat making any kind of speech or swallowing extremely painful. At the same time, again due to the compromised immune system, the largest cold sores I've ever seen also start forming on the insides of my cheeks making chewing of any kind excruciatingly painful. The lymph nodes in my neck follow suit and also swell up. No chewing, swallowing or talking. I start loosing about 1.5 lbs a day.
Even watching movies requires more energy than I have, so most days I just lay there. Any waking time is spent researching Epstein-Barr and ways to alleviate the symptoms. I find out that if your kidneys are malfunctioning (or even failing) you can get them back online by drinking high quantities of cranberry juice. (Which I don't particularly like in the first place). I start there, but the problem is, fruit juice is highly acidic, and if you have open wounds in your mouth, you are basically pouring acid in them. I do it anyway, three times a day. Every time feels like I am gargling with Drain-o. As soon as my pee returns to a normalish color, I move on to the next problem.
In order for your body to fight infection, you need a lot of protein, because it is used in the production of anti-bodies. Red meat isn't an ideal choice because of the high cholesterol. Chicken, fish, pork or nuts is good. I need to start eating, so I start forcing myself to do so. In order to make the process more enjoyable I stick to foods I really like, but even so, meals become the most dreaded part of everyday. Each one is horribly painful, and I can only eat about 30% of what I would normally. The light nausea doesn't help. I start hating all my favorite foods. Yogurt becomes my best friend. As do Vitamin C lozenges (orange juice burns too much to drink, and chewables hurt too much to chew). Also start taking multi-vitamins with A & B included on a once--a-day basis, as ABC is supposed to be the magic combination for a fast recovery.
** apparently, you have to be careful with taking too much vitamin A, D, E, and K. Too much of any of them can be really toxic- even to a healthy body.
At one point, I start to realize that part of the problem is that the medicine the doctor gave me to handle the fever and keep swelling down is far too weak. On average Im about 40 pounds heavier than the average Japanese guy my age (even for guys my size Im about 20 lbs heavier than they are) and Japanese medicine (compared to western medicine) is really weak in general. Every night, my fever is still spiking around 104 or 105F (40.5 C). I take it upon myself to switch out his medicine for Bufferin, which is a lot stronger. The swelling in my tonsils and throat is responsive as in the fever. I start taking 8 a day. (2 after every meal, and 2 before bed). I'm taking a risk with this, because studies have shown that Ibuprofen can be very hard on your kidneys (which are just now returning to normal), but I do it anyway.
The Bufferin keeps the fever down so my body can start concentrating on healing itself. I also start gargling with listerine 3 times a day to clear any bacteria off of my cold sores and off of my tonsils from eating. Burns like hell everytime but not as bad as the cranberry juice did. Also offers a bit of relief after every time, so I stick with it.
FEBUARY 1ST
I actually enjoy my first full meal. Mouth still hurts a bit, but it's manageable. I eat a whole medium pizza, drink a coke, and eat a snickers bar to celebrate. Im already well under weight, so I figure the fat isn't exactly gonna hurt. I can also start to enjoy conversations with Mari again instead of just laying there looking at her like a zombie. Do my first few push-ups. It's hard to do 20. (Before I got sick, I could do 80 a minute).
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| My first full meal in two weeks. Complete with a coke and a snickers bar to celebrate. |
At this point, my sinuses are still a bit weird, but for the most part things are back to normal. I'm still pretty skinny, and fatigue quickly, but that's just a matter of rebuilding the lost muscle and the lost stamina.
AT PRESENT
This whole thing has been an incredible learning experience for me. 1) because I learned an incredible amount about how the body works and how to fight infection. (As aforementioned, this virus can take up to 3 - 6 months to beat and I did it in about a week and a half or so with all day rest, and efforts to nutritionally "do everything right".
2) it has also shown me that as important as work is, rest absolutely cannot be ignored. (I thought I already knew that, but apparently not nearly well enough). Even though as an actor being booked solid may seems like the greatest thing in the world, I've come to realize that it's not. Life is a lot better when it moves a bit slower. No more working and training every single day for me. I've realized I need at least one whole day off a week. Don't know where I plan to make that sacrifice yet...but I know I need to. I've got two shootings scheduled next week, and that is enough for me. After I get those out of the way, Im going on vacation to Bali to get the hell away from the cold...and get one more week of rest. After that, I'll consider coming back and hitting it hard. For the moment, I need a vacation ;)
**NOTE: Guys, this was my personal experience with dealing with the Epstein-Barr virus, but please remember that Im not a doctor. If this thing ever grabs you like it did me, go see him or her. Chances are, they will know far more about it than I do. This is simply what worked for me, and my body. Still if you ever need it, hope all this info can be helpful to you as well.
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