Toast to Life 3

It wasn't until August 2020 that I received the report from the US two Research Institutes. My wife forwarded them that had been sent from Singapore through an email attachment (picture: Caris on the left and Tempus on the right. Partially masked). Based on this, on September 4, a video call was conducted with a doctor in oncology in Singapore through Zoom. The doctor joined from Singapore, my wife from my home in Tokyo, and me from Narita Hospital. There was some time between the time the two reports reached to the doctor and that of the video call, so I had thought it wasn't a big deal.

The reports were full of jargon. The doctor commented that it was not necessary for us to scrutinize everything. Although his explanation was limited to pages 1 and 2 of the main description, it showed that the treatment I received in Japan was on track. Still, his explanation was detailed. When I was hospitalized in Singapore, he told me I was suspected of having Turcot's syndrome, but the reports did not point it out. The doctor, therefore, was also interested, and as a result, he over the call was saying to me, like, "your symptom met the previous definition of Turcot, but it may not", based on the exchange of additional emails with his acquaintance researchers at the institutes. The doctor continued saying, "it's very a rare case, so I want to contribute your case to the British Medical Journal, if you don't mind?" I agreed. Later, a personal information provision agreement was sent to me, and again, it was an electronic version attached to the doctor's assistant email.

One thing that Singapore's medical community has in common is that mostly everything is done via electronics, not through paper, hard copies and chops. E-mails and attachments are commonplace in message exchanges, and many comms among patients and medical staff are via SNS. The Digital Agency of Japan? I think it is ten years behind the world standard. I still remember that in late 2018, when my wife was talking to a doctor after her breast cancer surgery, we told her doctor that Japanese would have to wait for more than a month in Japan depending on the cancer conditions. The doctor who had studied in Japan himself earlier in his youth was surprised to hear that, with his word "unbelievable" spelled out of his mouth, followed by his comments hat breast cancer could double in a month. My wife actually had had the operation the next day after she was admitted to a hospital in Singapore, so I could imagine the doctor's surprise.

I also received my 2019 S-colon cancer treatment in Singapore. At the time, I was taken care of by Japan Green Clinic, a long-established clinic for Japanese residents in Singapore, through which I was introduced the next day to a well-known doctor who has a clinic alongside Orchard Road in Singapore, which turned out to be in the same building as JGC. For this, I was very much thankful that I had been acquainted with Mr. Ken Mitsuoka, Director of the JGC. 

After completing a series of examinations, the colon cancer doctor asked me, "I heard you're in a hurry, but when do you want to have the surgery?" I thought he was silly at the first instance, but he was serious. So, I replied such like, "the sooner I can...", "then come to this hospital at 3:00 pm today", pointing out a particular one in the island. One of his staff told me to drink three liters of laxative-containing water in 30 minutes, but I was sick in my heart as I drank the same one the day before. "I would need diaper", I chuntered.

The designated hospital was on the opposite side of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in Singapore (JCCI), and turned out to be the one in which the nurse lead my wife to her breast cancer doctor in 2018. She later said with disappointing eyes, "you were this time." The next day's afternoon after my operation, I was sleeping in my room at the hospital, when I remember an insurance agent coming in and leaving me a bouquet. I couldn't get up. I was struck by her words, "stay as you are. Keep sleeping." 

The same day, the doctor told me, "you can stay here for three days. It's better for you to move." I ended up staying for five days. 

For us as typical Japanese, everything looks quite speedy in Singapore. It cannot be denied that the speed is linked to private medical insurance system. In a country without universal insurance (such like Japan), those who cannot afford to pay premiums have no choice but to wait long hours in public hospitals. However, the annual premium paid to a private insurance company (NTUC in our case) is much lower than Japanese health insurance for a couple and two children. In particular, foreign nationals could not get in the country without it. During the eight and a half years in the country, there was a moment when we the family did not posses any of these, but even so, I gave a second thought to it upon my wife's breast cancer in 2018, and bought the insurances for the rest of us three. We are foreign nationals, and our living base is fragile and the government's support is probably weak. It was because of the vague anxiety.

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