Second report

Not much has changed since I arrived at the hospital.  I continue to get my finger pricked 6 times a day but I think the doctors have decided that I DON'T have diabetes and therefore I have a green light to get on with rheumatism treatment.  No one seems to know why the numbers were so off and they say that I'm an "unusal case" but isn't that true of any of us that are in the hospital because something has gone haywire with our inner workings.  I'm very happy though to have that worry erased from the slate.

So, as things go, I'm rather a healthy patient in this hospital...

I'm still eating the diabetic diet and that looks like it is going to stay in place the whole time I'm here.  It is enough food for me though I miss crunchy things and sweet things of course.  It is getting kind of boring and is rather bland, but as I'm not having to do the cooking and cleaning up I'll just be grateful for the healthiness of it.  Noodles for lunch yesterday, with carrot shumai, vinegared greens and mango chunks...

Dinner was rice, salmon, boiled vegetables and grated radish.  Yogurt cup for dessert.

As for painting...When Tetsu was leaving the hospital grounds he took a picture of the hospital from the parking lot and sent it to me and it seemed like I should try painting it.  As you can see, this is a major hospital, and people are here from all over the prefecture to get help.  I feel I'm in good hands.

This was my painted rendition of it.

And a doodle in my bullet journal reminding me of all the blood tests I had the first day I was here.

I'm hoping to be able to go home on Monday!  Two days away!

First report from the hospital

I have successfully been admitted to the hospital and already one day of my stay is finished.  I don't really think I'm going to be here all that long...

I had been given a margain of between one or two weeks stay and had no idea what I might need while I was away despite the list that was given to me.  I've brought my computer you can see... I have two pairs of everything even though it is possible for Tetsu to make the trip and drop things off.  My largest amount of luggage was taken up my drawing and journaling things which is ridiculous but I figured I'd have the time if not the inspiration (there is very little immediately around me worthy of drawing...  curtains?  pill dispenser?

Tetsu and I were directed to the 9th floor of a newish building and though he wasn't allowed in the room, he snapped a quick picture of my new surroundings for the week.  It is a quad room and I have the bed there on the left, by the window.  For a couple of hours I was the only one in the room but later another youngish woman joined me and now there are two of us here.  She chooses to keep her curtains closed tightly around her bed so I actually haven't talked to her and I'm not even sure of her name...  Whether having a single room or sharing, it seems to be much the same as the hospital asks us to spend most of our time in our own quarters and when talking with anyone or when patients go out in the hall we are to wear masks.  It is just easier to be in our own little cocoon.

The set up is simple but efficient.  A hosptial bed, a closet, drawer, refrigerator and TV set.  A hospital table, and curtains that reach around the whole bed.  

The nurses are young and very pleasant, so far two female nurses, one male nurse for me (different nurses for my roommate).  

Meals have been good... what I've had so far...  I guess I ought to clarify that I'm in the hospital so that my I can be checked for diabetes which was like a bolt of lightning.  Never once did I think I'd get caught on diabetes and even now the doctor isn't sure why the one number is so flukey when the rest are normal.  So while I'm here I'm on a diabetic diet and having numerous blood tests to determine if the problem is really diabetes or not.  Once that is cleared up the rheumatism treatment should begin.  Anyway... meals are simple, to say the least.

Let's see...  Lunch yesterday was seaweed rice, a piece of white fish in broth, two tofu shumai, spinach and pineapple chunks.  

Dinner was rice, pork and onions, beansprouts in vinegar and simmered seaweed.  Also a sweet yogurt like drink.

Breakfast was cut today because of the numerous blood tests that had to be done every 30 minutes and the intake of a sweet drink was carefully monitored.  But lunch was rice, a hamburger patty, carrots, simmered icicle radish, pickled radish and two orange sections.  Supposedly this is a 1400 calorie a day diet.  One would hope I'd lose the extra 5 pounds I'd like to get rid of but as I don't move at all, I doubt that even a week of eating like this is going to make much difference...  

The view from my window is lovely and I look out on Mt. Nantai, the same mountain we can see from our bedroom window.  So actually, somewhere in the far distance Tetsu is working in his garden looking up at the same mountain.

And though I can't splash around paints very well from my bed, I felt I had to make a try at painting the scenery (after I brought all these art materials with me!)

So that's what my uninteresting day has been like.  I doubt much will change from day to day but I have to justify bringing this computer with me too so I'll try to check in again.

Ready, Set, Go!

Well, I'm headed for the hospital tomorrow and I have no idea if I'm going to be able to blog from there or not so I thought I'd get a couple of my regular end of the month posts in today.

Artwork...  

This was from a lesson on spontaneos watercolor but it wasn't very spontaneous on my part.  I'll have to try this again.

We woke up to the most beautiful scenery from our bedroom window and Tetsu challenged me to paint it...  It didn't work out as I'd hoped but you get the idea.

This was the photo.  Dark skies and brightly lit greenery in front.

I showed this as a photo a couple of posts back.

Chip eating dinner.  Tetsu even recognized her!

Okay... Enough of that.

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This was a surprise card that came in the mail for me from Sandy Allnock, the art teacher I've been taking online classes from!  So cute!

This was a surprise visit from...  Yuma-kun!  The little boy whom I'd taught English to from 1st grade!  He is 21 now and off and on working.  He is a generous and outgoing as he always was.  He brought us 7 icicle radishes from his family's fields!  I've cooked up three but I don't know what Tetsu is going to do with the other 4!  So nice to be remembered by Yuma-kun.

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And I guess I'll post what photos of Luka-kun I have this month...

Luka has a few sentences now up his sleeve.  "I don't wanna go to sleep."  I don't wanna go upstairs."

At a pumpkin patch!

And here's the family.

I didn't get any photos from Julieta this month so I'll have to ask her for some...

Okay... I've got to pack my computer now if I'm going to take it with me...  The Kindle is ready to go.  The earbuds are packed.  The tatting shuttles and thread are in my bag.  Even a couple of books.  I guess I'm ready!

The University Hospital

Let's see if I can write a little about the two hospital visits I had last week.

Because I was headed for a university hospital, I knew it was going to be jammed with people and even though I had an appointment for Wednesday, that is just for the day, not for the time.  I had never been treated at this hospital before but Tetsu had regularly taken his mother there for many years so he knew the drill.  

The hospital is a little over an hour away from us so I took the day off from my crosswalk duty job and we left home at 7:00 and arrived a little after 8:00 and though the doctors wouldn't be seeing people until 9:00 there was still a LONG line of people filing into the hospital when Tetsu let me off at the entrance.  I joined the end of the line which took some time to get past the doors because of the temperature checks and hand sanitation.

Once inside the hospital people fanned out in all directions all seeming to know whether they were to go to the automatice appointment machines to get their number, or to the many lines leading to the counters where receptionists were accepting insurance cards, handing out files directing people to other parts of the hospital etc.  All very efficient!  

Tetsu got in the line for first time patients, verified that I had an appointment and was given a file and told to head to the rheumatism department where we waited until sometime after 9:00 when a nurse called me in, asked my name and birthday and then recorded the basics about the trouble I've been having all these months.  She then returned the file to us with added papers and I was sent to the lab for blood samples and a urine sample.  We decided at this point that I was not going to be able to walk back and forth across the whole hospital throughout the day so Tetsu picked up one of the hundreds of wheelchairs that were at a loading zone and the rest of the day he pushed me around the hospital.

At the lab, more slips of paper came spitting out of an automated machine at us, and even the cup for the urine sample plopped out of the dispenser with a label with my name and further information all in place already.  At EVERY encounter with a nurse, a lab tech, a doctor, a receptionist, ANYWHERE at all, I was asked my name and birthdate!  I probably answered those two questions 50 times during the day!!!  They really are careful about not getting wires crossed!!

From the blood lab I was directed to the X-ray department, (let's see... I interacted with at least 4 people there so was asked my name and birthdate at least 4 times) and had to change into a gown and then wait in a line of wheelchairs until my turn.  After that was done it was about lunch time so we went back to the rheumatism department, turned in my file, was given a paging device and told to go have lunch as it would be awhile til the doctor saw me.  We had lunch that day was at the hospital restaurant and had tempura donburi which was delicious!  There were also obento booths and convenience stores for other choices of food.

Finally my pager called us back to the original department and I met my doctor for the first time.  She is a young doctor, a specialist and she was very attentive and kind and sympathetic and easy to understand, all the things that I hadn't felt I was getting from the doctor I'd seen before.  She felt that yes, I probably had a form of rheumatism and treatment should start as soon as possible HOWEVER my blood tests had revealed some odd numbers that were quite out of whack and she felt it would be unwise to start the rheumatism treatment until I'd talked with an endocrinologist.  That was why I suddenly needed to be back the next day to consult with another doctor!  And she also set up another appointment to see her again a week from that day.

In my eyes, things had gone from bad to worse and everything was still up in the air!  On my way out, I had to get a CT scan which meant another change of clothes and more technicians but finally around 2:30 we were on our way home... rather subdued.  

The first thing I did when I got home while Tetsu took John for a potty run, was to call the city hall and the elementary school to ask for a leave of absence til the end of the month.  Next I called our vet and asked if she would take John for the same length of time.  John had spent nearly 24 hours in his kennel with just one potty run in the morning, the next day would probably be longer, and the next week would be the same.  At this point I started getting teary as I hadn't wanted to give in to taking time off from work and I definitely felt like I was abandoning John.  We took John to the vet, but as his usual ornery self, he wouldn't let Tetsu take him from the car (he'll let me though), and the vet very understandingly said that John could stay with them as long as it took.

The next morning was a repeat...  leave the house at 7:00, stand in line at the hospital entrance, go immediately to the endocrinologist and check in there while Tetsu went back to the rheumotology department to make an appointment for an MRI.  I waited till nearly noon to see the endocrinologist who had seen the tests from the day before and he too thought that the whacky numbers needed to be resolved before rheumatism treatment began and that was when the word HOSPITALIZATION came into the conversation.  

To me, that was a good step because I'm so tired of not knowing what's happening and having all these different doctors who don't have anything to do with each other guessing at my problem.  Daily Tetsu asks me if I feel better or worse than the day before and I just felt it would be simpler to let someone medical worry about me for awhile than the way we were going about it.  So I'm rather pleased at the turn of events.

Next I had to have an electro-cardiogram for admittance purposes and get the low down on admittance and what to bring and what things cost etc.  For example, I chose to stay in a four person room but a single room was an option for $250 a day.  To have unlimited use of a personal TV and refrigerator it costs $5 a day.  Gowns and towels and toothbrush and shampoo sets are available or I can bring my own...

I also had to have a consultation for admittance with a nurse and a nutritionist.  What are my normal sleeping and waking hours?  Any allergies?  Any food that I can't eat (they were especially concerned if I could eat fermented beans which is a standard for Japanese breakfasts and most foreigners don't like them.)  I was told I can't bring scissors, nor pins nor needles for safety purposes so that cuts out any sewing I might have wanted to do.  I guess I'll go back to tatting for awhile...  The hospital needed an emergency number in case they can't get in touch with Tetsu and so I gave them Marlene's as we have no family in Japan.  The nurse cautiously asked if Marlene speaks Japanese...  Maybe the greatest inconvenience is that no visitors are allowed during my stay, this is for protection from Covid, and so I won't be having daily visits from Tetsu for the week or two that I'm in the hospital.  But with iPhones I'm pretty sure we'll be keeping in close contact!

The final examination for the day was an MRI and we had to wait until nearly 5:00 for that test which took an hour!  What an exhausting day!  I was so glad that John was with the vet instead of being stuck in his kennel alone all day! 

For two days worth of all those tests and consultations the co-pay was about $400 which I think is pretty good.  We'll see what a true stay in this hospital is going to be like!

Middle of the story

I had planned to have a different ending to this story before I blogged but unfortunately I don't have an ending at all, so I may as well begin writing the post.

As you know, I've been having problems with my hip since back in May.  So many doctors I've seen between then and now!  Some I gave up on, some I was referred to, some I trust, some I shut down on immediately.  The medical world is filled with all kinds.  I could gripe about the doctors I left by the wayside for numerous posts on end but anyway...

My family doctor is someone I feel I can talk to and whom I trust but he is sort of a "let's see what happens" sort of doctor, and his advice runs along the lines of "go spend a couple of days at the onsen."  "Eat lots of yogurt!"  Some of his advice I take to heart, some I ignore but we do seem to understand each other.

I settled (I thought) on an orthopedic doctor recommended to me by a friend whom I really liked (not so much the first orthopedic doctor I'd been seeing for months) and he got me on some painkillers that seemed to work and set about scheduling some physical therapy which made me hopeful.  However, he also suggested I see a rheumatologist which I felt was a disaster of a consultation.  After seeing him twice I was groping around in the dark, NOT wanting to continue treatment with him but not knowing where to turn.  The orthopedist highly recommended him if rheumatism was a cause but there I dithered.  

Another friend (Mrs. N!) came to the rescue when I had to tell her I wouldn't be able to help her with her patchwork for awhile as I was trying to get on a path to rheumatism treatment and SHE immediately got her husband, a retired doctor (not just any doctor, the head of a major hospital in the next city over!) to call me and give his recommendation.  Dr. N. asked many questions and listened to my symptoms which I'm sad to say have continued to develop adversely all these months.  

I now have swollen knee joints, sore elbows and wrists, fingers, neck etc...  Thus the rheumatism diagnosis...

Dr. N then got in touch with his son a current doctor at the major hospital who then directed me to the city's university hospital where there was a more advanced rheumatism department.  And that's where I've been the day before yesterday and yesterday.  

God certainly sent a lot of knowledgeable people into my path to help me these past couple of weeks!

And now, for reasons I'll maybe post about later, I'm scheduled to be hospitalized next week for a week or two and we've told our kids so I felt that I could finally sit down and write about the health journey I've been having.

I no longer walk well.  I've taken off time from my crosswalk job as standing for an hour was getting difficult.  We've even asked the vet to board John for awhile as the visits to the university hospital ran 6 hours the first day and 10 the second!!!  Poor John stuck in his kennel all that time and then put back in for the night, just seemed cruel!

So, I don't know how much blogging I'm going to be able to do for awhile though Leiya encourages me to write a couple of times about the hospital experience.  I haven't yet thought about what I'm taking with me to the hospital...  And no visitors due to Covid precautions so Tetsu won't even have too much information though I'm sure we will be texting a lot...

The entrance to the university hospital.

Though not moving very much, my hands are busy.

Tetsu and I just happened to wear matching sweatshirts and hats this day.

More later!

Crosswalk guard meeting

Yesterday I had to attend a crosswalk guard meeting at the City Hall.  Or rather, I had to HEAD a crosswalk guard meeting at the City Hall!  How did I ever get into this predicament!

Years and years ago, I read a funny article in the Japan times about a foreign woman married to a Japanese man and whose children went to the local elementary school.  Every year the school has to choose a PTA  president and vice president and every year, practically at any school you go to, there will be a long drawn out meeting trying to find volunteers for the different jobs, the last and most feared being the PTA president.  Even for class duties, the process would be long and drawn out with everyone looking at the floor and studiously ignoring the pleas for volunteers.  Everyone is always willing to "help" but no one ever wants to be the leader of any group.  (This problem is seen even in the Home Owners Association.)  I lived through this annual torture in each school my kids attended and the threat was always if a parent didn't attend the meeting he/she would automatically be given a position and so that was why we all went to meetings and looked at the floor!

Anyway, in this funny story, the foreign mother finally had had enough of the meeting that was getting nowhere and she raised her hand and said, 

"Okay.  I'll do it.  I'll be PTA president this year."  

Everyone was shocked into gaping stares and then they all ignored the foreigner and went back to trying to convince one amongst them to take the position.

"I said I'd do it.  I'll be the PTA president and since everyone is so willing to be "helpful" then you can all help me."

The poor vice PTA president who had already been chosen looked forlorn as she now had the bigger responsibilty of helping out and "controlling" this wild foreigner who had no idea what she was getting herself into.

I think the story went on to the year long experience and how all the meeting notes and announcents which the foreign PTA president took had to be translated for everyone, how she would boomingly announce "Well, if no one wants to run the bazaar this year then I declare it canceled." and everyone would step up waving their hands saying that the bazaar couldn't possibly be canceled and now that they thought twice they'd be happy to oversee the project.  (The vice president did have an exhausting year as I remember.)

In my crosswalk guard case, I was approached about becoming a member of the central committee and I politely turned the offer down laughing and saying that I was the LAST person they would want on their committee as I don't speak in front of a group well (not in Japanese) that I couldn't read Japanese nor write it at all!  

"I want to be "helpful" (there's that tricky word again) but I hope you'll be able to find someone else and that I'll only be thought of as a last resort."

I guess I'm the last resort, or maybe my polite refusal wasn't taken seriously.  The next thing I knew I'd been accepted into the committee as Vice Chairman!  

"WHAT!!!!!!  Are you all nuts!!!!!??!!!"

Because of Covid, the regular meetings have had to be held in smaller groups and being the chairman of each group is part of the central committee members duty and therefore, yesterday I got to head the meeting...  Sigh.

The City Hall staff went to a lot of trouble to get the written agenda to me in simple Japanese that I could read and understand myself but I knew from the beginning that I would not be able to follow word for word the four pages on the agenda.  Instead, I stood up and painstakingly read off the first sentence in Japanese to the group.  

"The meeting of the Nikko City Traffic Instructor Contact Meeting Autumn Workshop, will now commence.  I am the Vice Chairman, Watanabe and this is the Treasurer Mrs. S."

And then I laid my agenda down and played it by ear.  THAT too is not done in Japanese meetings.  Everything is always formally written out, everything is read aloud word for word and everyone reads along quietly.  I have always wondered about this boring way of leading meetings especially as I was the only one who couldn't actually read the papers being handed out!  But who was I to complain?!

Our meeting was about bicycle safety and we explored ways to teach children about checking their bicycles before ever beginning to ride them...  The crosswalk guards will all be called on to teach 6th graders later this year about bicycle riding as most of them will be going to middle school on bicycles next year.

I guess our meeting went alright.  No one seemed to mind my adlib way of conducting a meeting.  I wonder if anyone regrets that they put the foreigner in charge this year....

I was also featured in the school newspaper.

Tanya Watanabe

67 years old

Originally from America and came to Japan as a missionary 45 years ago.

Has been working as a crosswalk guard at the school for 12 years and before that did voluteer crosswalk duty for 8 years.  Altogether 20 years of being a crosswalk guard.

Took an interest in crosswalk guarding when my daughter was in elementary school and realized cars didn't stop for the children.

Message to the children:  People can communicate without words with a smile or a greeting and it is such an easy way to add a bit of happiness to someone's day.  I'd like the children to learn the power of a smile and a greeting.

John Among the Leaves

Someone asked me for an update on John.

We are going on our 4th year with John and he is as unpredictable as ever...  Or maybe I can say he is predictably in a bad mood for whatever reason he thinks is good.

When we first got John, when he was already eight or nine, and he would lunge and attack and had me jumping up onto chairs to stay out of reach of his teeth.  He growled when we walked by, he tried to bite when we picked up anything from the floor, he barked constantly and he couldn't be touched.  The vet who had given us John heard of our plight and she started coming to the house weekly to help us train him...  though I think the ones who got trained were the humans!  The vet still comes weekly but we don't need to spend much time talking about John anymore and just enjoy English time and coffe.  Tetsu and I no longer take John so seriously when he growls or feigns biting and he quickly changes back to a better mood.  I think the humans have got the upper hand! 

I feared for our cats' lives for the first few months, but the cats too showed John who was boss and after three years, he leaves the cats alone.  Barking has never been resolved and while he could be considered a great watchdog as he barks when someone comes to the door, drives noisily down our street or calls on the telephone (the last isn't so endearing), he barks when he is put in his kennel while we eat meals.  Better than having him beg and getting angry when we don't pass him something, but not much better.

We discovered early that John considers the kennel his territory and he would growl whenever anyone walked by, when we would fill his water dish, when we touched the door.  For the first year John would try to bite the person who closed the kennel door locking him in, but we noticed a few months ago he now happily goes into his kennel and waits expectantly for treats which he always gets when he's behaved obediently.  And for proof that John's behavior has gotten better, he is getting very fat with all the treats he is getting!

We still can't really touch John though if he sidles up to me, he will allow me to pat his head and on my braver days or when I read his mood as good, I will pet his back and neck and...  FACE!!!  My what progress!  That's only me though...  Tetsu still can't touch John.

Here too, John has decided that he will accept me as his superior and he rarely growls at me and will follow me around the house to sit at my feet, but if Tetsu steps into the room a growl rumbles.  John KNOWS that he's not supposed to growl at Tetsu and so immediately after the growl he will disgruntedly head for his kennel providing his own punishment.  A few seconds later he decides he's done his penance and comes back to sit beside me.  

John hates going for a walk (another reason for his increasing girth) and as he doesn't want to go with Tetsu and I can't walk him now, John is not getting much exercise... which he is happy about.  John loves food; his food, cat food ("Don't eat that!  That's expensive cat food!  That darn dog just ate ￥500 worth of cat food!) and the cats' milk, but he can actually wait patiently until whichever cat is finished before lapping up all the milk.

John can still be a handful, but we would be very lonely without him even with the heavy cat population!

Tetsu was so overjoyed to have John actually slip under his arm and rest on his leg.  "Take a picture, quick!  This is a first!"

The actual photo.  Even their smiles are the same!!

And here is a small quilt I just finished up this afternoon.  "John Among the Leaves".

I was just in the mood for autum and I pulled out some scraps.  John and the leaf proportions don't match up but it has a cute cartoony effect.

Up on my wall this season!

That's John these days!  Onery but loved!

Things from the past

Oldies...

A friend of mine visited for a few minutes last week bringing us cake and old photos that she had found in her album.  More than twenty years ago, our family and this Japanese family used to travel to California and back in the summers.  The kids and I spent the month at my brother's house with my mother and the S family spent the month with their grandparents in a nearby town.  Our kids were about the same age and everyone enjoyed traveling together and we even let Leiya and the daughter sit together on the airplane and Takumi and the son sit together, and Mrs. S and I would hand off their baby to each other allowing one of us to eat or sleep etc.  It was a wonderful arrangement much like a private field trip for all involved!

Another interesting thing about our traveling together was that while we've been friends in Japan we all spoke Japanese to each other and even on the airplane everyone conversed in Japanese.  But once we'd step onto American soil, for some reason, Mr. and Mrs. S and I (usually Tetsu wasn't with us in the summers) would switch to English and whenever we met at one of the grandparents' homes during the summer, the language would still be English.  On the airplane home I think we still spoke English but once our feet hit Japan we'd all switch back to Japanese for the rest of the year.  It was never decided that we'd do this, it just happened...

I sent these photos to Leiya and she was overjoyed!  From left to right.  The S family's youngest.  Their daughter and then Mrs. S.  MY MOTHER!!  Yes the same frail grandma in the later years of my blog!  That's me, and Marcy!  And there's Leiya in glasses still and short hair.  And down front is Kiana, my niece who just got married, and my nephew Colin.  How we all have changed!!!  It looks like the year was 2001.

Hah!  This must have been an even earlier photo with me, Leiya, Takumi, two of the S family's kids and there's my mother again!!!   I don't know how that date is supposed to be read.  Leiya must have been only 6 or 7...

Look at those sun bathing beauties!  I remember how every summer we'd be so amazed at how within minutes Leiya's skin would darken, just like photosensitive paper!!  I bet neither girl is still soaking up the sun like she did in her youth!

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More things from the past.

Marcy sent me some old crewel embroidery pieces she found in a back closet.  Wow!  We may be looking at the beginning of my love affair with hand work!  When I was 11, my parents began taking our family overseas for the summer and the first year we visited Japan and other Asian countries.  Another year we went to Europe, another year we went to Mexico and the Yukatan Peninsula.  One year we hit Alaska and another year we visited Spain and Morocco.  Knowing that the plane trips were going to be long and the waiting in airports and at hotels was going to be boring, my mother began buying me crewel kits and I think these were the first two I ever did.  I so looked forward to doing the handwork... probably more so than visiting far away countries.  

In later years I did larger pieces during our travels but I'm pretty sure they succumbed to time and moths.  I don't know how these survived (though the yarn has frayed in some places.)  They were up on the wall for a number of years and then it looks like my mother had them dry cleaned.  Marcy found them in a plastic bag and yesterday I mounted them on cardboard and stuck them into some old frames that were just the right size.

I'm so glad to have these back in my life after maybe 55, 56 years!