Toast to Life 1

I got cancer. It was in Singapore, where I had been to work independently. I developed aphasia (later discovered) around May of this year (2020), and my wife initially suspected that I was depressed, but the symptoms were getting worse and worse. Immediately before returning to Japan at the end of June, my wife persuaded me to finally have an operation at the hospital.

Visited a major private hospital called Raffles Hospital on Thursday, June 25, and was hospitalized on the same day. The next day, 26th (Friday), I had an operation to remove a brain tumor, called glioblastoma or GBM (glioblastoma multiforme). Generally, the 5-year survival rate is about 10%, and it is a well-known disease with a poor prognosis. Surgical wounds still remain. In addition, metastasis of sigmoid colon cancer that developed in July 2019 was discovered in the lung, and there are currently four tumors. Still now I remember being dumb in the waiting room of the hospital, but only my wife gave me a crying explanation.

After that, I returned to Japan with my family on July 14. I just entered the large hospital "International Medical and Welfare University Narita Hospital" near the airport. About two weeks ago, on September 11th, an American friend came to Narita with my wife and picked me up. While thinking that it was the day when the terrorist attacks in the United States occurred in New York 19 years ago.

While receiving treatment across Singapore and Japan, I have been pondering the speed and quality of medical care. From the next time onward, I will write this down first.

(To be continued)