Toast to Life 2

The operation began at around 3 pm on June 26th, and ended before night. It seems that I was put to sleep in the ICU, and when I realized, a digital clock with red letters in the private room was in front of me, which vaguely told the current time (I have poor eye-sight). I remember waking up around 2 o'clock in the middle of the night, and then woke up every 40 minutes. Oh, I looked at the red dial, wondering when I could get out of here.

At that time, I was not aware that my symptoms were serious. The moment I returned to my room the next day, I remember it vaguely, but after all, I felt like I would go and become a bakery when I was improved, and I didn't even want to go back to my industry. In May-June, when aphasia was severe, I tried my best to return the parrot to what my family said. On June 12, two weeks before admission, I had a hiring interview (telephone) with the head of Asia Pacific region of a world prominent risk consulting firm for the head of the Tokyo office. With him I had met twice in the previous year and knew well each other. At this time, however, I could hardly respond to the British guy in Singapore. After leaving the hospital in September, I apologized through email to him and a former colleague (in Hong Kong) who connected me to the firm. I was sorry about what I did at that time. I received a heartwarming reply individually. 

So, June. On Monday, the 29th of the week, there was a separate meeting between the neurosurgeon at Raffles Hospital and the oncology surgeon in charge of the lungs. Just like when I was hospitalized, my wife was present in place of me, who was still speech-impaired. Although my mind was far from clear, what surprised me at that time was the detailed explanation given by each of the doctors: such as water suddenly came out of the affected area when the craniotomy was opened; cancer cells develop in a particular way causing these symptoms; sending biopsies to two US laboratories for molecular diagnosis; possible turcot syndrome, etc. All explanations from the cellular level were that medical information was of the patient's own. It was hard for me to explain everything in English, and even my wife, who had lived in the United States for a long time, relied on Google on her smartphone to understand some of technical & medical terms, but it was still "jaw dropping" for us the couple who were/are accustomed to Japanese medical care. Anyway, it was unlikely in Japan that a person's head will be opened on the day after his/her hospitalization. At the time of sigmoid colon cancer in 2019, I was examined at a clinic in the city of Singapore in the morning, and the same doctor was operating in the afternoon of the same day (this will be described later in this series because it involves the medical system in Singapore).

Tumor biopsies will be sent to two laboratories, Tempus and Caris in US. A biopsy of sigmoid colon cancer was stored at another place in Singapore and was also sent along together with the two. The results would later confirm the certainty of treatment at Narita Hospital, but we had to wait until  September 4, through zoom video call connecting us in Japan with a hospital in Singapore.

(The photo was taken on January 6, 2020 in Hakuba, Nagano. Continued)