Happy birthday!

Dear Letha,

Happy birthday!  How have you been since you sent me an email last spring?

I think I wrote to you last April.  Here is my update.

With my doctor's advice, I quit working in May of this year.  I have been relaxing at home since then.  I started taking Online English lessons at RareJob last August.  RareJob is a Japanese company which has a variety of Filipino tutors who have excellent command in English and full of hospitality to Japanese students.  I take one lesson every day, and I enjoy the lessons.

I am fine now.  But I have some problems with my nerves which is just a small matter.  My doctor says my parasympathetic and sympathetic nerves don't work well.  In fact, my body cannot tell how exhausted I am.  I always feel tense and cannot relax.  I keep on working for hours without taking a short break.  I have been to a small clinic nearby for these 5 years, and my doctor prescribes Chinese herbal medicine every month, and I feel relaxed with the medicine. 

I may have written this to you before, my husband retired from his work on March 2012.  He retired at the age of 60.  He stayed home for 6 months doing almost nothing, and I got tired of being asked to do everything such as make coffee, prepare meals three times a day every day.  So to avoid him, I started working in July 2012.  I worked 4 hours, five times a week, as a caregiver trainee at an elderly home in my neighborhood.

I really enjoyed it, but I thought the job was too strenuous for me.  As my doctor knew about my conditions, autonomic dysfunction, I told him about my job in the elderly home.  He said he doesn't recommend me to keep working in the elderly home.

My husband stayed home for a while, but he got bored finally.  So he started working as a part time employee in November 2012.   He still continues working as a teacher in a local junior high school.

One day in the middle of May, I felt an intense and sudden pain on my right abdomen.  I thought I could not perform the chair-to-bed transfer as a caregiver at that time, so I explained to my colleagues about my condition, and asked them to do it on that day.  They accepted my request, and I didn't do it.  I felt sorry for them, but I was honest because if I did it under such pain, I may fail to do it properly and an accident might happen.

The next day, I was scheduled to work from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in the elderly home, which meant I had free time in the morning.  I rushed to a big hospital at 8:00 a.m., which is 40 minutes by bike. 

The hospital opened at 9:00 a.m. and I was called in to a physician's room at first, and I spoke to him about my condition.  He asked his nurses to check my body temperature (38 degrees), measure my blood pressure (150/78), and take some of my blood.

After some minutes, the physician called me in to his room.  He also asked a surgeon to come in.  Both doctors discussed for a while, and then I was asked to be CT scanned, and had my echo done.

Surprisingly I was diagnosed with ileocecal diverticulitis.  I was immediately asked to be confined for a week.  It was my first experience to be hospitalized and I was really shocked.

I came there by bike, and I parked my bike at a shopping center next to the hospital, and I was scheduled to work in that afternoon, and I had do some errands at home, how could I possibly be hospitalized so suddenly?

On the other hand, the doctors and nurses were so surprised at my actions, how could I get there by bike under intense pain, and some fever, etc.  "And you are still trying to work in the afternoon?
Are you crazy or workaholic?  Are your nerves working alright?  Generally, we take some rest under such conditions."

As a result, I made a call at the elderly home, and I took a day off.  In fact, I couldn't come back to my place until 4:00 p.m. because I had some nutrition by IV.  

I strongly requested that I should go back to my place on that day, and the surgeon eventually allowed it.  But he advised me that I must not have a meal for a while, and go back to the hospital the next day.  With a promise, he allowed me to go back that day.

When I returned home at 4:00 p.m. by bike, I was scared and packed my daily necessities.  I didn't like to stay at the hospital for a long time.  When my husband returned at 7:00 p.m., I told him all about it in the hospital.

He shouted "Why were you concern so much about your work, and came back from the hospital by bike.  You were supposed to be confined at the hospital now.  You must go there tomorrow morning.  I'll have a day off tomorrow, so that I can take you to the hospital." 

I said, "No, you will have your classes tomorrow, so you must attend your classes."

So the next day, I went to hospital by bike.  Then I met the surgeon again.  He said "Are you now  ready to be hospitalized?" 

I said "I came here by bike but I packed everything in my bag and left the bag in the entrance of my house so that my husband can bring it here later, just in case." 

I was hospitalized and was NPO (nothing per orem) for a week.  It was the worst thing in the hospital.  The doctors and nurses and other staff members were nice to me, and I really appreciated their work.

My husband is a typical, traditional Japanese husband, and he asked me to stay home instead of going out to work.  Nowadays, I try to clean our house and prepare supper.  I am glad that my husband works at school in the daytime. 

I take online English lessons in Rarejob everyday.  One lesson is 25-minutes.  This is good because I have an opportunity to speak to someone in the daytime.  I have some friends to talk to.  But if I go to see them, I have to go to Himeji Station at first, which takes about 15 minutes.  The bus is available only every hour, so it takes a lot of time going, chatting, and coming back. It would be good for sometimes, but I don't want to do it very often.  I prefer to stay at home and relax. 

Well, I guess I wrote about what's happening in my life recently.  I hope you'll have a wonderful birthday celebration with your family.

Love,