Dec. 23 - The National Hospital and the Himeji Castle

My husband had an appointment with one of his doctors at the national hospital early in the morning yesterday.

He has been seeing as many as three doctors these days.  Two of them are the doctors in the National Hospital.    One is an expert of respiratory diseases while the other is a specialist in the field of prostate problems. 

My husband has been also seeing a medical internist in a small clinic.  He always asks the doctor to prescribe several medicines to relax. 

Several years ago, one of his pharmacists suggested to me that some medications my husband have been taking make him aggressive to people around him.  

In fact, my husband has been snapping people on the phone.  He gets easily irritated and ask questions which for me sounded more than neccesary.  He always asks  "Do you work full-time?,"  "What is your position in your company?,"  "I don't want to talk to you anymore.  I want to talk to your superior!,"   and "I want to discuss with him about your behavior.  I also want to ask your boss about changing your company's policy".  

Once it has started, he continues for more than 30 minutes all the time.  What an annoying man to communicate with!       

I took this picture three years ago when my husband and I

visited a large flower park in Tottori Prefecture.  It was hot
after walk, so he enjoyed the ice cream. 

He had a stroke and a heart attack several years ago.   I am now afraid that his health conditions will deteriorate, and he might have cardiac insufficiency or heart failure in the future. 

As a matter of fact, my husband went to the annual medical check up to another hospital last month.  After examining my husband's pulse, the physician said, "Your husband's heart beat is very weak."

Here's some examples of symptoms of heart failure:

"Some parts of the body cannot receive enough oxygen.  To compensate for the lack of oxygen, the lung tries to breathe faster to get more oxygen to other parts of the body."

"The pooling fluids in a certain part of the body, such as the legs and stomach often occurs especially to male patients."  

I noticed that my husband is gasping for air when he moves a little more than usual. 

One nurse suggested to me that I check my husband's high blood pressure at home regularly.  Try one in the morning and the other before sleeping.  Check his weight on a daily basis, too. 

She added, "If he gained more than 2 kilograms in one week, go to his doctor immediately.  If you notice something wrong with him on a Friday, don't wait until Monday morning.  Otherwise, he may pass away during the weekend. "

The good things are that the national hospital has assembled the cutting edge technologies.  Local citizens recommend the national hospital saying, "They are equipped with the newest technologies which enable medical experts to locate tumors even they are trivial.  If you go to a small clinic that has limited equipment, doctors may not find them until tumors become bigger.  If you doubt that you might have serious diseases, let me say, I would definitely advise you to go to the national hospital."

The bad things are that we usually have to wait for more than two or three hours even we had an appointment with a doctor.  Also,  my husband's next appointment with the doctor is in March 2016.  That means there are three months before he sees his doctor again.  I feel scared if my husband's condition might change during the period.   I feel scared that my husband's condition might change during the period.  I would be pleased if my husband would have a chance to see his doctor more often. 

* * * * * * * * * *

There were many  patients who seemed to have serious diseases in the national hospital yesterday. 

When my husband and I arrived at the waiting place to have X-ray, we immidiately noticed one patient in bed accompanied by four nurses.  His hands and legs were scarcely moved, but I noticed his heart moving.   I hope he can survive anyway.

Leaving my husband at the hospital, I went outside for some fresh air.  I enjoyed walking around the Himeji castle.  Several kinds of museums and parks are located next to the hospital.  I saw the parks were being cleaned by the street sweepers.  Unfortunately, I was not able to see any tourists.  Maybe it was a bit too cold for sightseeing.

I uploaded the four (4) pictures that I took with my Canon IXY Digial yesterday.
Which picture do you like the best?  A, B, C1, C2 or D ?

(A) The Himeji Castle with naked trees
Almost all the leaves fell to the ground because of the season.

(B) The Himeji Castle with the building of Art Museum.

(C-1)  I set the camera dark color in the garden so that the castle can be seen easily.

The Himeji Castle with flower beds of "Ornamental Cabbage" 

The cabbage flowers has two colors: white and purple. 

This is the most popular flower for the new year. 

(C-2)  I set the camera in the lighter color so that the garden can be seen easily, but the castle is not noticible in the picture.

(D)  I took this picture in the parking lot of the national hospital.