Health Update (Toast to Life ver. 2-1)
By taking this opportunity, or actually by taking a close friend advice, would ask you to allow me to send Tsuyoki's health updates. For the 1st episode (of the 2nd series) was an excerpt from my piece written for JBTA, dated on 4 September 2022, where I journaled the family summer vacation. By taking this opportunity, or actually by taking a close friend advice, would ask you to allow me to send Tsuyoki's health updates. For the 1st episode (of the 2nd series following the Note blogs) was an excerpt from my another piece for JBTA, dated on 4 September 2022, where I journaled the family summer vacation. Sorry for some of the duplications as all the JBTA readers are the first to read my experience.
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In June 2020, I was diagnosed as brain tumor at Raffles Hospital in Singapore, the country where we the family had planned to be settled in a long time. At the time of the diagnose, my health conditions were fierce as having aphasia, incontinence, as well as headaches attacking several times a day.
Worried about my face losing color and expression day by day, wife brought me to the hospital the day before our departure back to Japan, then the next day was set for the emergency operation to my brain. Lucky enough, the tumor was completely removed. But at the same time, a metastasis of colorectal cancer in the previous year of 2019 was found in my lung. The six cancer cells, each in different rooms of lungs, will have been found in Japan.
Having said that, health condition was/ is quite good enough to have capacity to drive a car without paralyzed extremities or epilepsy, and possess another to do business as before. In June 2022, I purchased a car for the first time in the last ten years, which is the second hand one, though. Sitting on driving seat is myself of course, and also wife who earlier this year got licensed at last.
For summer vacation, we made trips, 1st one for driving between Osaka & Anjo (安城) of Aichi and Tokyo, with various reasons to each of the visits, such as watching Yoshimoto New-comedy, or meeting close family friends. I was really happy even to sit in a driving seat.
The 2nd was for Okinawa for scuba diving. By leveraging daughter's intern at wife's former workplace (her then workplace was in Tokyo, though), son at last had made his decision to get licensed. I, as crazy for diving, was really happy with his decision. Am still pasting at home the poster map of Micronesia's Jeep Island in 2002. I visited there for twice in the year (photo down).
Afraid of my brain surgery residual deteriorated against water pressure, I went to see another doctor of DAN Japan (Divers Alert Network Japan), who, too, specializes in brain tumor. I cannot forget the arm-crossing posture of the doctor at my entry into his office, glaring my brain's MRI pics reflected into the computer screen. "Hmmm..." "What?" "You are survivor of brain tumor, aren't you? Normal patients are suffering from extremities somewhere in physics..." At the end, he gave the green light for diving with a few of minor conditions.
At the same time, however, the doctor's word could not stop me thinking about a patient in the Narita Hospital back in July 2020, where I was admitted for two months. Next to me, lying on a bed in a four-person compartment, was also a brain tumor patient. He, several years younger than me, had multiple extremities, and therefore, he often made phone calls home from his bed. From the conversation, I "saw" many things inside his family, with each of his words reminding of future difficulties of him and his family as well.
Now, my reach to family, especially with kids, are by scuba diving in summer and by skiing in winter, two sports that requires decent lung capacity. Investigating options to cure further to the lung only found that nothing would fit my life style, except once 4-week chemo what I am receiving right now, because all those options have possibility of decreasing the lung capacity, a critical element to connect family and myself in doing the two sports.
(Next issue unscheduled)