For the love of Corning

Rush, rush, rush... Well, 2 years have passed by and I haven't given this blog much thought! The time to just sit, reflect, and leisurely sit down to write more than a pressing email never seems to open up in the mad dash to get everything done in the day -- especially with our current family dynamics. 

The past year has seen me spending lots of time in the kitchen and attempting to make healthy food for my extended family. One of our kids boomeranged back with 2 kids in tow. Suddenly, the need to child-proof our home cropped up again. Once again, I needed to think about food safety too and what that means with young children in the home. We are no longer former empty-nesters back together with family 24/7, but now our grand-kids have weekly sleepovers and sick-day visits. I've probably made more waffles and pancakes in the past year-and-a-half for them than I had in the past decade total! The casserole dish I was given as a wedding present back in 1981 was once again getting a lot of use as I tried out casserole recipes to find just what my granddaughters liked. I discovered that they loved cutting, mixing, and stirring the ingredients for bread pudding. Oh, and they really loved eating it too! So my freezer was filling up with left-over bread for the next round of baking. But, one evening, in the mad rush to get the dinner on the table, the casserole was bumped, slipped off of the counter, and shattered. Oh no, where could I get another? Japanese cuisine isn't heavy on baked foods and definitely not on the kind of casserole recipes that call for a can of soup of this and a soup packet of that. Many homes here don't even have an oven! So finding another baking dish would be a problem with my limited shopping choices. I looked here and there but couldn't find anything to replace it. So, in this more modern era, I turned to the internet to order something new.

Not ever really having thought about buying a casserole dish in the past decades, I discovered there were so many choices and designs that I'd never seen before than that old Cornflower blue CorningWare (or Corning Ware) casserole that everyone in my generation knows so well. I got a major shock when I learned that Corning of New York was no longer in business and had been sold out to World Kitchen Incorporated, located in Rosemont, Illinois! Not only that, but it happened years ago -- at the turn of the 21st century in fact! The old formula for the nearly indestructible pyroceram that came on the market in  1958 was just too good  or perhaps lifestyles had changed and people were no longer were making the same sorts of recipes they once did. By the mid-1990s, the market was saturated and the company was struggling to survive it seems. They were churning out one design after another in what sounds like a frantic struggle to survive and re-captivate cooks with their amazing products. Also, business dealings led to diversification into things besides cookware and dishes. Business problems in different sectors of the company also fueled the bankruptcy. How sad is that? An ingenious revered American brand, discovered during the space age in a mistake during the process of making missile head tiles, gone with the changing times. 

As I read more online, I learned that the new owners of the company had changed the classic CorningWare pyroceram (freezer-to-stove top, oven safe, or microwave safe) to stoneware and many people online were complaining about their brand new casseroles, produced by the new company, shattering in the oven while baking dinner or easily breaking in other strange circumstances that would have been unthinkable to the old CorningWare that people in my generation grew up with. I also read that the formula for Pyrex had been changed to something that is now much more breakable. (The old Corning Pyrex is written as PYREX while the new formula put out by World Kitchen is written in lower case letters as pyrex, just in case you want to check which type you have in your own kitchen.) I saw a lot of recommendations to buy the vintage product instead.

Hmmm.... new or old, new or old? The new designs of casseroles certainly are attractive with large wide handles, pyrex now has "easy grab" handles, but these new designs seemed just too large and randomly-shaped to easily store in my limited cabinet space. I'm not opposed to using second hand goods that still have life in them. The old CorningWare was always a "green" choice, it's eco-friendly and safe from threats of leaching hazards. It is definitely BPA-free too. I decided to look at vintage products too and compare which would best meet my needs.  I needed to sit down and think about what I wanted in a "new" baking dish. First off, that white pyroceram casserole that I'd been using for nearly 35 years had been the bane of my life when it came to getting it clean. Decades of stubborn baked on gunk hid in the deepest tiniest recesses. My casserole wasn't actually sold as CorningWare but rather something that seemed nearly identical but it was made in Japan. Sadly, I didn't really take note of the manufacturer as I wasn't yet obsessed with casserole dishes. It might have been Iwaki, which long had a tie-up with Corning here in Japan. Although I'm a big fan of blue and white chinaware, I was never as enamored with the plain old blue and white Cornflower CorningWare so I didn't really want that pattern as a replacement.

Thirty-tree year old casserole on the upper left.

I came across the Symphony pattern online. It was a rare and very short-lived line of beige casseroles and dishes with a gentle floral pattern. Great, something that wouldn't always appear dirty and look nice on the table! The old Corning made many styles of casseroles but only produced 2 beige-toned patterns. They were Symphony and Forever Yours. They were both released in 1990 and sold until about 1994. It's a pity they didn't make more patterns in beige.

As soon as I'd ordered the Symphony casserole, I discovered there had also been a whole line of Callaway casseroles in French White! Wow! I'd missed the whole French White line of Corning during my years in Japan. But, when I discovered those, it was instant love! Elegant, sophisticated, and best of all, my everyday Western dishes just happened to be Callaway!  These casseroles were only on the market for a mere 2 years between 1998 to 2000. They were made during the final days of the old Corning company as we knew and loved it. It seems that World Kitchen does still sell the French White line but now the pieces have handles and probably are made of stoneware. I had worried about removing the baking dish from the oven without handles but it's never been a problem as the ridges are fine for gripping.

To the left are 2 pyroceram ramekins made by Narumi of Japan that I've had for several decades. To the right is the 2.8-liter French White Callaway roasting dish. 

Why stop at just one? After I discovered how beautiful the first one was, I was then able to locate some new-old stock that had never been opened! I worried the 1-liter size might be too small but it actually gets use as a serving bowl and for fresh pickles that steep in vinegar. Most casserole recipes that I use call for a 2-liter (2-quart) sized dish. All 3 sizes are good for their various needs.

Well, next I discovered that the very first CorningWare casserole came out when I was a baby in 1958! No wonder I've always known it! Online, I was able to find a first edition that was still in it's original box, that was billed as a "skillet", and had a detachable handle, and a trivet. It also had a pyroceram lid just like the standard casserole. How cool is that? Wow, that lid really makes the piece as far as I'm concerned. Maybe they decided they'd never sell any more pieces once everyone owned a nearly indestructible dish AND lid? Certainly, the first thing to bite the dust decades before my first pyroceram piece broke was the glass lid.

So, then I had FIVE casseroles in various sizes while I'd spent more than 3 decades using just one! There's nothing like telling you that you can no longer get something to make you rush out and grab everything in sight!



Well, it seems like you can't read about the downfall of Corning without also reading about the boom in a younger generation going wild over vintage PYREX. I was scratching my head over that, at first! That hideous old stuff that every household had a piece or 2 of in their kitchen when I was a kid? I'm sure I must have broken more than one Cinderella mixing bowl in the tacky Amish Butterprint pattern while learning to cook as a child. Ah, but times have changed and Mid-Century is now cool! Not only that, since the stuff is "vintage" and fairly easy to find on the cheap second-hand, people are collecting it as groupings of decorative art as decor rather than for the functional use it was first intended for. It's come out from the deep recesses of the cupboard to be displayed in pride of place. As the old folks would say, while shaking their heads, when I was a kid, "Wonders never cease."! But, pictures I've seen online really do look attractive with so many pieces grouped together and color coordinated.

Maybe I shouldn't let this fad pass me by, I reasoned. The Snowflake pattern caught my eye online. I don't recall ever having seen that pattern at any potluck in my childhood. But it is very pretty and snowflakes are always classic. I was amazed to read it came on to the market at the time I was born during the Christmas season of 1956. So we were both in the oven at the same time, so to speak! The charcoal version was the shortest lived and retired in 1960, the turquoise on a white background in 1963, and the white on turquoise background in 1967. Along with the Pink Daisy pattern, they were the first printed patterns on the opal line of PYREX. I was saved from the Pyrex buying bug though just because I just don't have much storage or display space in my very tiny Japanese kitchen. But, learning the history around this particular pattern and having 2 granddaughters, I decided to buy 2 pieces to hopefully pass on to them someday. 

1950s turquoise Pyrex gets a new life for the Frozen generation!

Well, the third product you think of when you hear "Corning" is Corelle. In 1976, I told my mother I had decided to get married. Besides arguing that I was making a mistake and should wait, she promptly went out and purchased a set of Old Town-Blue Onion Corelle for me. That relationship didn't last, heck it didn't even get as far as the wedding, but 40 years later most of that set is still around. For the record, I really, really hated that pattern too. But, some years later, when I actually did get married, I brought it to Japan with me. Something about it just never attracted me so I was happy to fob most it off on my daughter when she left home and needed a starter set of dishes. 

Christmas 1989

Birthday 2015

I've read online that some 2,000 patterns of Corelle have been released since it was first launched in 1970! 

The first Corelle I ever spotted in Japan is a pattern that was most likely never released in the USA. Replacements.com lists it in their unknown patterns as COR 143. I was only able to buy 3 soup bowls in this pattern as that was all that was in stock in the store I purchased them at and they were sold individually. They've seen a lot of use over the past twenty-some years, though. 

In 1995, I made a trip to the USA and found the brand-new Callaway pattern in a store and purchased several pieces. I think I added a few extra pieces to expand the set on my next trip to the States in 1997. The pattern looks nice in all seasons and the light swirls and ripples make it look so much more elegant and suitable to use along with real bone china than the stodgy original Corelle ever did. I also have several Japanese everyday dishes that look nice together with Callaway.

Callaway pattern

 

Well the buying spree continued. Although I already had my original Old Town-Blue Onion platter and a Callaway platter, I decided to add in a Forever Yours platter. 

Although the online seller described this Forever Yours platter as having normal light utensil marks it actually looked like the previous owners must have carved roasts on it several times a week over the past 25 years!  Rustling up some white lacy paper seemed to do the trick in making it look OK.

The more Corelle patterns that I viewed online the more patterns I saw that I wanted! I was completely addicted! I saw Holly Rim and wanted one large 10-inch dinner plate in that pattern too as it would mix and match well with a holiday serving plate I already owned. Holly Rim was a pattern sold between 2006 to 2008 by World Kitchen. It's such a whimsical carefree pattern that I look forward to using and was surprised that it had such a short lived time on the shelf.

Oh, I shouldn't be greedy, I reasoned. My daughter has a summer birthday, she loves sunflowers and checked patterns. Sunsations would be perfect for her, I thought! It sold for only 1 year between 1996 to 1997. I found some sellers online and picked out 2 different sized plates for her. Sadly, when the first 2 plates arrived from the first seller they showed very heavy utensil use and I didn't feel right about giving her something that was so obviously second-hand. Actually, I think the overall design appealed more to my American tastes than it would to her Japanese ones. Anyway, the pattern makes me so sunny and happy so I ended up keeping it and find it's perfect for cheerful breakfasts!

Do I dare admit that the buying frenzy continued? Corelle is in some ways perfect for a tiny Japanese home. It is so slim that it stacks away neatly, using little of one's precious shelf space. One plate placed over one dish makes refrigerator storage easy so I don't need masses of Tupperware or other space taking plastic storage containers. I've always considered it my insurance plan for when we have the next Big One so we'll hopefully still have something to eat from. There's just one big problem... Well, maybe more than one. But, one thing is design. Japan is a food culture. Food here is not randomly mounded onto one 10-inch dinner plate. Instead, each serving of food is artfully placed in it's own individual serving dish or plate. For each meal, we might have 1 soup bowl, 1 rice bowl, 1 small plate for fish, a couple of small plates for vegetables or tofu... Yes, we easily use 5 or 6 dishes, per person, per meal! Not everything is in the exact same pattern and there might be a mixture of wood, chinaware, stoneware, and so on. So, that was part of my problem with the Old Town-Blue Onion original Corelle pattern. It just didn't look attractive when serving Japanese food and the blue printed pattern just looked odd mixed with handmade ceramic or china pieces. 

So, dare I admit that just when I thought I'd spent way too much money on casseroles and table dishes that we didn't urgently need, I discovered a Corelle pattern that perfectly suited my everyday Japanese dishes! Behold, Botanique! World Kitchen came out with the pattern between 2007 to 2009. The indigo blue on white could easily pass for something created and fired in a kiln here in Japan! Quality control doesn't seem quite as good on these plates as on the vintage Corelle, though. Between the 4 bread plate sized pieces I now own in Botanique, there are variations in color tone, placement of pattern, and other slight imperfections that I never saw on the older ones. But that actually suits this particular design so I won't quibble. 

Really, that should have been the end of this addiction. My cupboard space is seriously limited, after all. But, then one day, I happened upon a Corelle pattern being sold in a local Do It Yourself home center store. What, Corelle here in my little town in Japan? I rarely ever see Corelle here and I know only one store some distance from home that usually has a couple of divided Corelle plates or Winter White serving bowls in stock. But here was a full patterned set in a variety of sizes being sold individually! Oh, come on, it's such a rare event to see this here and I can always make use of some more mini-mini sized plates. Yes, if only they'd been in Botanique indigo blue and white they would have been perfect! But, I loaded my shopping basket with a few, and then put them back on the shelf as being a frivolous purchase, but in the end I walked out of that store carrying some Sweet Strawberry Corelle. It's a pattern that's sold only here in Japan. These were much pricier than the vintage Corelle I've been buying up online but I didn't have to pay for shipping so it worked out about the same in price. Hopefully, this really is the end. Who would have ever thought that breaking one ugly old casserole would have ended up like this?!

P.S. Of course you know I have no affiliation to either the Corning or World Kitchen companies. I just love dishes!

Back from the Dr.

Yesterday was my Ear, Nose, and Throat Dr. (ENT) consult. I came away from it much more relieved than I had been since this whole thing started.

The Dr. told me that my fine needle biopsy results were a gray zone. (I had already heard this from the endocrinologist last week and then spent the next few days searching the web to understand just what that means and why is surgery warranted.) As there is a good chance that the thyroid nodule is benign, they will wait until it has reached the size of 3 cm before progressing on to surgery. It is currently 2 cm I've been having CT scans related to my endometrial cancer at a scheduled pace and nothing had ever turned up in them that I'd been informed of so one of my concerns was just how long I've had this problem and how quickly has it been growing. The Dr. was able to access my 2011 CT scan as the earliest one and said that the nodule showed up in it and it was 1.5 cm then. To my ears that sounds hopeful that I won't need surgery anytime soon. Whew...

I asked about surgery just so I can mentally prepare for it. He explained that the operation takes about 2-and-a-half hours. First, they remove the side of the thyroid with the nodule. Next, they do a quick check to see if they can determine cancer or not. If there is no cancer then the surgery is finished but if they find cancer then they remove the other half of the thyroid. The time spent in the hospital is 7 days. On day 7 they remove the stitches and release the patient. Normal life can resume from day 10.

One piece of good news was that if they only take half of the thyroid I will not need the hormonal replacement therapy. That was another big relief. I was happy to hear that the treatment all in all is conservative as I'd been reading online what I could in English. It sounds as if the treatment plan in America is much more radical and aggressive for people over 45, even though about 80% of people with this inconclusive result prior to surgery only have a benign condition that really doesn't warrant removal of the entire thyroid and life-long hormonal replacement.

Next, I wanted to know about radio-iodine treatment if it should prove to be cancer. I have 2 small grandchild who may be moving in with us in the future and I read a lot of scary stuff about that treatment and wanted to know how things are done in Japan. He said that it's taken in pill form and that I won't be able to have contact with small children for 3 to 6 months afterward but my grandkids could actually be grown up by the time I get to that stage of things. He said that treatment is selected according to patient.

He did mention that the type of cancer I might have can metastasis to the lymph and lungs.

Anyway, I felt much better knowing that I won't have to have an aggressive surgery soon so can start start making plans for some fun things in the coming months. I'll have my next follow-up appointment in 6 months, with an ultrasound first, and then seeing the Dr. soon afterward on the same day.

Fine Needle Biopsy Results

Yesterday was my scheduled appointment with the endocrinologist to hear the results of the fine needle biopsy that I had on May 20.

The appointment was scheduled for the late hour of 4 p.m. I don't recall ever being scheduled for such a late time-frame even when I was still being evaluated for problems that lead up to my endometrial cancer surgery. I was the only person who got off from the bus when it stopped at the hospital and the waiting room was nearly empty when I got to the section for endocrinology. As the minutes ticked by I eventually found that I was the final person in that massive area and even the staff at the reception desk was picking up and leaving as it neared 5 p.m. But, eventually I did get buzzed back to the inner waiting hall where there were actually a couple of other patients waiting. It was around 5 p.m. then. But, as more time ticked by I was the absolutely final person there and a nurse had even popped out of the exam room and removed her name from the board.

The time spent with the Dr. when I was finally called in was fairly short. She seemed a bit flummoxed on how to speak with me. But, I hadn't wanted my husband to come along as I didn't want to be diagnosed with what I term the "Pet at the Vet Syndrome". That's when a Dr. sees my native speaker of Japanese spouse and then suddenly I get sidelined and must mutely sit there while everything is then directed at my spouse as if I can't speak for myself. That can be really annoying and frustrating as he has a tendency not to pay much attention to any of my medical issues and really doesn't understand what's going on so he isn't a good advocate for me at all!

Anyway, for me, the result was the worst one possible. The results came back "inconclusive". The Dr. said that in 85% of cases a clear diagnosis of benign or malignant can be made with the fine needle biopsy but in 15% of cases the verdict isn't clear. That is basically the same as what I'd read online. She said that thyroid cancer grows slowly so I can probably decide to have surgery soon or wait another 6 months to a year. Anyway, she said that it's the thing I'll need to discuss with the Ear, Nose, and Throat Dr. (ENT) on Monday.

I've needed some time to read up on just what an inconclusive result means and why surgery is warranted. As I understand it, in the case of Follicular neoplasms or Hurthle cell neoplasms they can only be diagnosed after surgery when the entire tumor has been thoroughly examined under the microscope. The major problem is that in about 80% of cases it will prove to have been benign and only 20% of cases will be malignant. So 80% of these patients will have undergone a surgery that removes either their full thyroid or 1/2 of their thyroid and will then need thyroid replacement for the rest of their lives! Goodness gracious how behind the times is that?! I've been reading online about new developments in gene testing to improve the chances of a better diagnosis before such a drastic surgery and that certainly can't come fast enough for me, I'd guess!

I've also been reading online about radioiodine  treatment post-surgery if the tumor proves to be malignant. It sounds really miserable as I won't be able to have contact with children (i.e. my grandkids!) for a certain time period, I could set off radioactive detectors in airports so can't fly for awhile, have to use separate utensils, can't cook, need to double flush the toilet after use...

So, Monday is the day I'll hear what the ENT Dr. thinks about the next steps. This weekend I'll need to think about life planning over the coming year to decide when might be the best time to go ahead with surgery and post-surgical treatement with radioiodine if need be.

I've had an appendectomy and that surgery was a "no brainer". I did have to go into my hysterectomy not knowing for certain if the atypical cells had progressed to cancer yet or not. I remember feeling relieved when I did hear that it was cancer as then it felt like a reasonable justification to lose my uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries. But this?! Two months ago I thought I'd be getting a "routine" CT scan as standard follow-up for my endometrial cancer to mark 3 years post-surgery. I certainly never expected this strange outcome.

Memory Lane With Betsy McCall

Long before the flashy commercialized scrapbooking of today, I had an old fashioned scrapbook in childhood. It was just brown paper sheets held together in some sort of simple binder as was common in those days. With just a jar of paste, I could save the ephemera of my time though. I don't think I filled the pages up completely because at some point a quarter century or more ago I only removed some pages from it to ship to my home here in Japan.

Gee, just HOW old was I when I decided on that page title for my scrapbook?! By the way, isn't my hair cute? I woke up on school picture day with bed-head. In a moment of panic about sending me off to school like that, my mother borrowed some of my big brother's Brylcreem! I was horrified that I had to go to school sporting a "Little dab'll do ya!"!  It was decades before mousse and the only hair wax anybody had ever heard in those days was "butch wax" which was used by boys to make the front of their flat tops stand on end! Anyway, the glossy look sure hadn't become fashionable yet so I was just plain m.o.r.t.i.f.i.e.d!

Anyone else remember waiting and waiting for the next issue of your mom's McCall's magazine to arrive in the mail when you were a kid? I was born in the baby boom generation and McCall's was definitely on to a good thing when they thought up the Betsy McCall paper dolls that took up a page in each issue. The artists who drew the dolls changed from time to time. But I definitely think the artist who rendered the dolls during the time that I was in to playing with them was one of the best. I can't recall my older sisters ever even mentioning Betsy McCall paper dolls once we'd moved beyond childhood. But, I still think of sweet little Betsy. When I discovered a link online to see just what the artists were rendering in her imagine when my older sisters were small I can understand that they probably didn't develop the same affinity for her as I did. She just wasn't as cute in the 1950s!

Not only was Betsy McCall a wonderful paper doll series featured each month in the magazine along with a little story of her adventures with her mother, dog Nosey, cousins Sandy and Linda, friend Sukey, and then later the arrivals of new twins Kerry and Merry, she also had her own paper doll and dolls in her likeness. The series were also brilliantly subtle advertising. In the fine print there were often listings of where her fashion could be purchased or just which McCall's pattern number she was wearing so that mom could stitch the same thing up at home. Many months an address was listed and for a fee of 25 cents you could get the paper doll on sturdy cardboard with extra outfits. Also, the little story that went with the paper dolls might even be a bit of advertising for things such as charitable donations for UNICEF. It was all very cleverly conceived.

Before I was old enough to read the little stories that came on the page with the paper dolls, I remember having some nice lap time with my mother curled up against her warm belly while she read the month's story to me. She probably was hoping there was nothing of interest on the backside of the page too. Then, I could rip it out quickly once we'd finished the story and I sit down for some play while she read her magazine in peace before my older siblings got home from school and the baby slept. The build up to the arrival of twins came just as my mother was expecting another baby too. Oh, what a warm glow of nostalgia it all brings back.

I could identify with Betsy with her short brown hair and closed mouth grin. I had to endure a lot of teasing by my siblings before I broke the habit otherwise I'd still be smiling like that for the camera today!

Would you like a trip down memory lane too? I found this nice link to view pretty much the entire series of Betsy McCall paper dolls.

http://www.thebleudoor.com/betsymccallhome.htm

Peaceful day

A quiet day at home can be so ephemeral. But, I feel as if I got lots done today while still taking time to relax and enjoy the moment.

After the morning rush of making o-bento and getting my husband out the door. I took a quick look around the yard to enjoy the May flowers. 

            I've grouped some reds together in planters and they are looking pretty.

I was actually hoping to get this amaryllis to bloom out of season at Christmas but there was no such luck. It certainly is pretty now, though!

Hey, there's a first bud on this morning glory! Last year I planted just one morning glory and it certainly didn't thrive. In fact, it only put out a couple of blooms before dying off. I think I moved once too many times after transplanting and that seems to have been a no-no. This year, I've tried 3 different colors of morning glory. Two of them were labeled as "unique" so it will be interesting to see what happens when and if they bloom.

We opened up a new space this year for some transplanted garden plants. Here we put shiso, goya, morning glories, parsely, basil and a mini tomato. The basil already looks smaller than it did the day we transplanted it! :-(

I moved bearded iris plants around some months back and unfortunately there have

 only been a few bloomers this year. This one has come on later than the others that had different sunlight conditions.

This area looks cheerful now.

This particular rose has done really well this year. It had one very long floppy stem that we tied down horizontally in the winter and that caused it to put up lots of new flowering stems this season. It doesn't hold its petals long, though.

Rainy Season will be here soon enough, as evidenced by the hydrangea starting to show color. With rainy season comes mold. Mold. MOLD...

For now the fine days of May still reign, though. Although the forecast suggested there might be afternoon rain or even lightening and hail, a gentle breeze and a clear blue sky encouraged me to do several loads of laundry this morning anyway. First, there was the daily load to hang on the line. As things still looked as if they would dry quickly today, I started washing wool sweaters to put them away fresh and clean until the autumn. I ended up doing 11 sweaters and they all dried quickly! Scratch that job off the do-to list. I'll still need to get some non-scent moth protection packets to put in the closets and drawers as I discovered that I was down to my last little packet when I started putting the sweaters away in the late afternoon.

The entire bath, walls, tiles, and so on also got a good scrub this morning, too. It's a prime spot for mold so a pre-Rainy Season scrub hopefully will discourage some of the early nastiness from appearing once the humidity cranks up several notches.

While I was sorting sweaters to decide which to wash today, I also moved my summer and winter clothes between closets.

I got the kitchen sink scrubbed down, too. By the time those jobs were nearly completed it was noon. As I was brewing a pot of water for a cup of tea with lunch, I spotted the first centipede of the season crawling around on my lace curtains on the kitchen window above the sink. So, my cup of tea was put off a bit longer so I could splash some boiling water around the window frame and hopefully I got the centipede in the process. They are one of the nasty critters that I really hate in the warm/hot months as they do have a poisonous sting. I'll leave a spider alone in the house as I figure it will hunt and kill other insects but a centipede needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible!

As I folded up the big pile of laundry when 2 p.m. rolled around, I discovered an interesting documentary on TV about the Rolling Stones. Keeping an eye and ear on that I also started to arrange some fresh flowers from the yard as the I discovered the gentle breeze was turning into enough of a force to knock down the lone iris that bloomed this morning and was whipping my roses around pretty good too.

Yes, it was a nice day! 

To top it off I made inari sushi for dinner. 

The predicted rain is finally pelting down heavily now. Cracks of lightening proceeded it. There's nothing like enjoying the comforts of home during a rain storm. 

Biopsy -- One day after

In the interest of keeping a timely log, just in case I need to refer back later on, here goes with how the biopsy mark looks one day on.

Not a very nice photo, I know. I don't have a feature to draw little circles to give emphasis on what I want to show, and this photo gives the most contrast. So, in lieu of a prettier picture, I'll stick with this one. The red circle in the center is easy enough to spot as one of the biopsy points. As for the second one, it appears to be the rather tiny pinkish spot to the right of the photo. But, that would suggest one problem... My large hard nodule is actually on my right. So that pickish spot should appear on the left of this photo, correct? Remember I said I heard that young Dr. become flustered with the second needle prick and ask what to do? I could be totally wrong, of course, but I'm guessing she made a mistake in the placing of the second needle prick. Oh great...

With a fine needle biopsy there are 4 possible results, I've read.

1) benign

 2) malignant

3) indeterminate between malignancy or not

4) not enough cells taken so the test needs to be repeated

Well, I sure hope she got enough cells because I sure don't want to repeat this test! I still feel like I got a karate chop to the windpipe when I move my head up or in some other positions. The little red dot might not look much worse than a bug bite and touching it doesn't hurt but still... ouch!

I checked out a few more YouTube videos last night on thyroid fine needle biopsy for comparison. The first one that Google popped up with sort of seemed like a lesson in everything you, the patient, aren't supposed to do during one! There was a rather silly-ish young woman having it done and maybe her friend was recording it with an iPhone in a Dr.'s office. The needle was in her neck and someone starts re-arranging the pillow under her, for starts. She's chatting from time to time while the needle biopsy is on-going. I can clearly see her swallow, too. I think she even waved at one point. Anyway, absolutely every thing I was warned against during the procedure she did during the short video. It must have been hell for the Dr. but I guess he should have been in better control of the situation.

One point was very different between the videos or imagines I saw online and my experience yesterday. In all of the things I saw online, you can clearly see what the syringe looks like. I didn't have an anesthetic and I really don't see the point as that would still be a needle prick. But, yesterday what I saw was just a white, wrapped in toweling sort of thing in the Dr's hand and it was placed on my neck the entire time just like that. Surely that must have been done to ease anxiety over seeing a syringe coming at me, the patient.

Well, I'll know the results, whatever they might be on May 29.

Fine Needle Biopsy

I returned from the fine needle biopsy a short while ago so I want to get my impressions down while they are still fresh in my mind.

I was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and arrived at the hospital's lab and ultrasound section about  5 or 10 minutes early. I was called soon and given a big plastic card to hold and told where to wait. There were at least 7 other people with the same type of cards waiting too so I thought it might be a while. But I was called within a couple of minutes and taken to the back of a long lonely hallway and directed where to sit. I was right near a doorway to a closed off section for non-hospital staff. A couple of times personnel came and went from the room that I would be having my test, and I could hear voices inside, but I continued to sit in the hallway waiting to be called in. More than 15 minutes ticked by, many hospital staff passed by on breaks, others wheeling trolleys of things, a couple of other patients were directed into other "echo" rooms... Tick, tock, tick...

Finally, the door opened and another patient left and I was immediately called in. There were a lot of people crowded around in the room! Oh, perhaps they were that troop, of what appeared to be newly graduated Drs., that passed by while I was still in the large reception area as they had all headed down this same corridor. 

A young woman directed me to put my belongings in the little basket at the end of the table. A pillow was already set up in about the middle of the bed. I was to lay down with my knees bent and then positioned into place with the pillow somewhere between my lower neck and upper back, I'd guess. It was kind of uncomfortable on my neck to hold the position but no turning back at that point. The lights dimmed and the show was on the road! 

I'm taking a guess that the young female who preformed the test was a new graduate as there was a middle aged guy standing next to her giving advice. (There were no introductions made but I doubt this sort of test would be made by a technician so I'm guessing they were all Drs.) 

There was no generalized looking around of the thyroid this time, the ultrasound was immediately placed on the area of suspicion that would be tested today. The color Doppler ultrasound was switched on and I was doing my best to eyeball the screen. I could see them looking at the areas of vascularity and the middle aged man deciding that she should place the needle at a 45 degree angle.

Ready to begin, I was told not to swallow, speak, or move from this point on. Ok, a couple of quick nervous swallows and I signaled I was set to start. As the name suggests, I could feel a fine needle prick and pressure over the area. I was busy trying to avoid swallowing as that's about all you want to do when you know you can't! But I was also trying to count how long this would take as I'd been told a count of 10 last week by the endocrinologist. Well, I got to 10 and it wasn't over, then 20 and it wasn't over, maybe it was closer to 30 when it stopped. But I was fighting so hard not to swallow during it and then told: "Ok, finished, now we'll do the next spot". The second prick was over in a flash. But, I'm pretty sure I heard the young Dr. get flustered during it and say something along the lines in Japanese of "What should I do? Somebody tell me!". Hey, what was that all about??!! Next, she told me we'd take a short break and she retreated behind a curtained area where many other of the young Drs. had been standing. It was probably to check if there was enough fluid extracted in the sample because she came back very quickly and said that I was done. Oh, and as she was wiping me off, she said that some isojin (iodine) had been spilled on my shirt. I was cautioned not to do heavy sports or drink this evening. I can take a shower but not a deep-water bath. I'm to leave the bandage on until tomorrow. She told me to go home and just rest.

I stopped by the restroom to check out how I looked and to see the isojin spot on my fairly new blouse. It's one that I really like, too. It seemed to be back near the collar and not too noticeable luckily. But, it was then that I discovered the blouse doesn't have a top button so the bandaged area was very much visible to the random eye, so a little embarrassing to go out in public with.

(Took this photo moments after arriving home. Excuse the bad hair day!)

Although the test wasn't really painful, afterward it does feel a bit weird. I'd describe the sensation that keeps coming back every once in awhile as feeling like I got a karate chop to the windpipe. I wonder if I'll see bruising tomorrow?

A closer look at my blouse and the isojin (iodine) showed this stain on either side of the inside collar. Soaking it for a bit in warm water and some detergent at home later took it out, though.

Before I'd paid and left the hospital, another woman came along who seemed to have just had the same test as me. She also was sporting a bandage in the middle of her lower neck. I wanted to strike up a commiserative chat with her but Japanese don't really talk to strangers so I didn't. I wonder if we'll be seeing each other again...

As I waited in the accounting area, I couldn't help but notice a boy who probably wasn't much older than 15 or 16  who was with his mother and there to settle a bill at the end of a hospital stay. Well, I may or I may not have cancer. I'll know more in 9 days time what my future holds. I've already had cancer once and it was no where near as bad as people fear when they hear the C-word. I also have RA, it took a good decade to finally feel that it was under control. But it is and I'm doing things that I love and want to do. Oh, but what about this teenage boy I've just mentioned? From the looks of him, I'd guess that he left school when jr. high compulsory education finished. That's at age 15 in Japan. He probably went to work in a factory or some other sort of hard and dangerous manual work as that's about the only work open to a boy who leaves school too soon. So there he was, with his bags on a chair digging around for the paperwork to hand in at the counter. But, the thing I noticed about him first was that he was missing the tops of all of his fingers on his left hand, in a straight line across, down to the top joint or so. There were bandages over the tips, and possibly the pinkie was still intact. But what an awful fate for someone so young and with so many years ahead of them! I've seen horrific new hand injuries on a few other young boys here and each time I've guessed it must have happened during a factory job. It breaks my heart afresh each time, though. Anyway, I don't think I'll put him out of my mind soon. There's nothing like a hospital to make you realize that there is always somebody or a lot of somebodies that are dealing with far worse things than you are. For me today, it's a young boy who has had a serious accident resulting in multiple amputations. Last week, it was a waiting area adjacent to another waiting area of babies and young children with serious birth defects. Really what could be worse that an infant, small child, or young person suffering so much?