In April of 2003, I went to the Dr. with an index finger swollen out like a big fat sausage. I was still in my 40s. While I was there, I mentioned some other aches and pains all over my body, not thinking there was any connection at all. After telling me about some scary diseases, like the possibility of the autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis, and after doing some initial tests, he fluffed it all off. He told me that I just needed to accept the fact that I was getting older. Yeah, right, I was only about 10 years older than him! Just to show how unconcerned he was, he asked the nurse to jot down my home phone number so his wife might call me to ask about teaching his 2 kindergarten aged children English. Excuse me here, but WTF?! I could see the nurse nervously titter and probably couldn't wait until break time to share this next bizarre story about that Dr. with the other nurses on staff! Me, well... I certainly wasn't feeling like he was taking me seriously... A month later, I wound up in the hospital with a totally unrelated emergency surgery and he just happened to have a patient in the next bed. So, he stopped by my bed to ask what had happened as he'd remembered me -- not that I would be easy to forget as I'm not Japanese. A few weeks later, my random aches and pains, that felt like someone had a voodoo doll out on me, ratcheted up quite a few notches. So I was soon back in the office of that first Dr. to plead my case yet again. At some point, I even drew a diagram to carry along with me to show just which joints had swollen and were now in pain. Looking at the pattern that was developing in that drawing, the fact that I had a low grade fever each afternoon that lasted until morning, pains in my feet each morning that made it difficult for me to walk and lasted for a couple of hours before they eased off, and so on and so forth, he finally picked up and started to listen to me.
He started to tell me that the likelihood of me having rheumatoid arthritis was increasing and started scheduling appointments closer and closer together to follow me. Then, one day, with his eyes staring at the wall as he couldn't bare to look me in the eye, he said that given the pattern of my signs and symptoms there was just only one disease that I could have and it was rheumatoid arthritis. He sent me off into another room to get my first of bi-weekly gold injections that I was to start with, wrote out a whole slew of prescriptions for me including steroids that he said I'd be on for 6 months as a bridge until stronger disease modifying anti-rheumatic medications (DMARDS) took effect. Ha, the 6 months on steroids turned into 6 years before I was finally able to be weaned from them! The body isn't designed to have metal injected into it, let me assure you. I woke up the next morning with the worst metallic taste in my mouth and barely able to stagger down the hall from that first rubbery legged action the steroids gave me!
My files show that first heavy duty date of the prescription meds when the diagnosis was finally made that would become a part of my new definitely unimproved life-style!
I was issued a booklet, in Japanese, that explained about the illness.
Don't let that cheery pink cover fool you, though! It's a book of horrors!!! Looking at it now, it doesn't upset me as much as it did then. But, really, who thought it would be a good idea to start off with showing you how your joints would disintegrate like rat bites so show you pictures and diagrams of joint replacement surgeries as an introduction to your disease; or how to remodel your home for your new handicapped condition; or tell you about all the blood tests you'll be needing now that your new medications will destroy every thing in your body that the disease doesn't?! Page upon page of insensitive horrors!
Really, I shouldn't have been sent off from the Dr. that day alone as I might have just as easily walked in front of a bus or driven into a wall just to get the whole horrific ordeal over with at once! Eight years later, when I got a diagnosis of cancer it didn't even phase me! Everyone knows cancer and many mistakenly still think it is a death sentence at any stage but almost nobody really knows much about autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis. No, it's probably not the same disease as your grandma has. She more than likely as good old fashioned osteoarthritis and I probably have both.
Well, anyway, yesterday I had a standard follow up appointment. I hobbled in with a sore heel. I've been in really good shape over the past couple of years so it is a bit depressing to have my toes start aching again and my heel start throbbing. Dang, exact same places as in that drawing I made 10 years ago! As much as things change, they stay the same... It was the final visit with Young Dr. #6. He's leaving the hospital or maybe he's quitting now that he's discovered that all those years of study have resulted into a job he really doesn't like and isn't suited to. Next appointment, I'll be meeting Dr. #7.
I did some shopping afterwards before going home. Retail therapy just isn't the same when the only shoes you get to gaze at are the few hideous selections on the orthopedic granny shoes shelf. But, I did buy some new socks. What the heck, I even got some glittery ones!
Japan still has wonderful stationary stores. Loft is big chain and found all over Japan. Scrap booking hasn't taken on the level of popularity here as it has in the USA. However, I have been seeing more signs that it is becoming more mainstream. I indulged in some rolls of fun and colorful masking tape to try out in some future craft projects. My hands and fingers still work. Use them while I can!
I've started collecting cool 3-D postcards for sending off to my little granddaughters when the mood strikes. So, here's another one for them to enjoy at some point down the line. Anything Disney sells well in Japan, especially the classics like Mickey and Minnie Mouse. I know someone with a birthday coming up so got a card too.
Every now and then, I remind myself that I really need to be collecting more Japanese things. (Japanese people themselves prefer Western-style things!) Some day someone in my family will be thankful I did, I tell myself. They won't appreciate it if the things are too big and bulky and take up too much space, though. But, they probably won't mind inheriting some beautiful and useful uchiwa-style fans. So, here's another to add to the assortment I already own. This mini-sized one is a first. The stickers might come in handy if I ever do an album on Buddhist temples I've visited.
I was hoping to browse women's magazines in English yesterday. I know a bookshop that has a very, very, very meager selection of fairly current English language magazines that are ridiculously overpriced. I'd buy if they weren't page after page of advertising and fewer and fewer meatier articles of interest. Apparently I'm not the only one who feels that way as the last few times I've stopped by there are no magazines geared at women past the age of about 20.
I moved on to browse Japanese magazines. I'm sure somewhere online there must be information about just how many magazines Japan puts out in a week, or a month, and probably I'll find the data that says no other country in the world puts out so many. Here you can buy a magazine devoted to absolutely any subject you can think of! Off the top of my head, I recall seeing magazines yesterday on the subject of pets, not just pets in general but each kind of pet has many selections of magazine the owner can chose from, gardening and just just generalized gardening but for vegetable gardens, rose gardens, and on and on, weddings, fashion both Western-style and for kimonos, magazines about designer brands, airplanes, self-defense, cars, motorcycles, trains, travel, racks, and racks, and racks of magazines that hold as many as bookstores generally hold books in the US. That doesn't even begin to address the manga section!
The magazines don't even seem to heavily rely on page after page of advertising. I once found a really nice magazine in that store -- "Kateigaho -- International Edition -- Japan's Arts & Culture". I was hoping to spot another issue to buy but with so many magazines the search seemed hopeless and I gave up after awhile. I looked at the patchwork magazines but nothing really caught my fancy. With so many magazines on the shelves, many distributors have taken to including a freebie affixed inside the magazine and held in place with a specialized rubber band sort of thingy covering the whole works. You can't buy the freebie anywhere else and little carry-all bags seem to be a popular item given out as the freebie. Many of these types were downright heavy! One patchwork magazine was offering 1 piece of a specially printed cotton fabric inside the cover as their freebie and words on the cover stated that a certain number of issues offered a coupon to win more fabric inside.
Finally, moving on to the arts and design section of the bookstore, I found 2 issues of a new series on old classic woodblock prints. Oh gosh, something more to start collecting! I don't need the cheap looking trading cards inside and probably won't be hanging the posters they've included of some well-known classics. They are educational in nature and even with my spotty kanji reading ability (or lack of) I'll learn some new things from them. But, they aren't something to be shared with young readers as they have a few pages for mature viewing only. Oh, my!
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