happylife

Sore throat

I have a cold for a few days now. The fever has gone, but still remains the sore throat. It's painful to cough. As I don't like a doctor, I did several other things to recover except for taking medicine or seeing a doctor. I know sleeping is the best treatment and I'm sleeping and sleeping these days. I hear that cocoa is good for a cold, therefore I drink a cup of cocoa almost three times a day. Boiling a pan of water to generate much steam looks good for my sore throat, because my dusty and dry room has got humid and I feel easy to breathe. I think my cold is on the last stage and it will go away in a few more days.

Body crisis

My body faces a crisis after I came back to Japan because of too much food. I'm clearly gaining weight day by day. I'm scaring of measuring my weight. It might be heaviest in my life. I feel myself heavy while moving and sometimes find something excessive and soft around the belly. Sure every food in Japan is delicious, but if I keep eating everything served I would be as heavy as sumo wrestler. I know that too much food is not the only reason for this crisis - I don't get enough exercise. I have to do more exercise to burn fat. It's quite right to say no exercise no food.

"Healing Back Pain"

This morning I still had backache and it was hard even to get up. My friend recommended me a book whose title is "Healing Back Pain" written by John E. Sarno, a professor of New York University. I drove to Chapters in Downtown and got the book and read it roughly for an hour on my bed. Of course I have not understood all of the contents, but what I guess written in the book is that backache is a kind of mental problem rather than physical one. From my hard experience about my backache last year, I agree with this theory. There was no obvious symptom in my back, however the pain was terrible and unbearable. It was not in my back but in my mind where the cause of the pain was staying. Sure this theory is not a brand-new idea because an old Japanese proverb says "worry is often the cause of illness", but at least I could recognize the importance of mind against body owing to this book. Fortunately I've almost recovered from the backache mind.

Backache's back again

The season changed from summer to autumn, and my backache has come back again. A few days ago, I carried heavy baggage and it was the trigger of this backache. When I carried it, I didn't have any kind of pain in my back except for tire, however the feeling of tire changed gradually into pain. This morning it was too painful to get out of bed. I'm very afraid that the nightmare of last year comes back again. As I am living alone in a foreign country, it is critical if I can't get up and walk around. This afternoon, I went to see a shiatsu therapist in Yaletown and took an hour treatment. Although I told him that I have terrible pain in my back, he massaged mainly my legs. I guess he was afraid of getting my back worse, but I wasn't satisfied with his treatment. I'm now thinking about seeing the same acupuncturist who treated me last year. My backache repeats itself just like history. I hope to say good by to it forever.

Walking

This afternoon, I walked to the Takatababa station which is located about three kilometers from my home. I feel no pain both in my back and legs by now. I'm surely recovering. But it was a little bit hard excercise for me and I feel very tired. So I'm now taking a rest in a cafe having a glass of iced coffee. I'm thinking about reading around a bookstore and going back home before dark. My rehabilitation is now to be ended up. Instead, I need more excercise to get muscles back and reduce fats.

Contact lenses

I've been nearsighted since I was a child. As I get older, my nearsightedness has got worse. I can't even see my own foot fingers clearly without glasses or contact lenses. I've used my eyes too much gazing at computer displays for a long time, or reading small characters on books too much. I believed that sailors live in a good conditions for their eyes because they are always seeing far away in a vast sea. But I found that it wasn't true after I learned sailing last year. Sailors have to watch small characters on charts in a shaking boat. Furthermore, their eyes are always exposed under the sunshine. The UV lights are known to affect eyes badly. Sure it is a sad thing to live with bad eyes, but I barely feel the sadness in my everyday life owing to contact lenses. I'm using soft contact lenses which can be used for one week (or more) with no care. After one week I only have to dispose them and put on the new ones. It's fantastic. As I have been wearing the same lenses for two weeks, they've got fogged. Now I have to change them and feel the sadness of being nearsighted.

Which is better?

I went first to an orthopedics when I got slipped disk on the end of last month. The doctor said that I may have a hernia and an MRI scanning would make it sure whether and where I have it. As I am not a resident of Japan now, I have no medical insurance and the MRI would cost several hundred dollars. So I didn't take an MRI. The doctor took some X-ray pictures and gave me a lot of medicines which include pain relievers, packs, suppositories, and digestives. Different than Canadian doctors, Japanese doctors like to give a lot of medicines that help them earn much money.

After two-week visit to the orthopedics, my pain didn't get better. Then I went to an acupressure. Fortunately the treatment was nice and I recovered in the next two weeks. The next doctor said that an orthopedics is not always effective because it just looks at the patients' bones. In many cases there are problems not in bones but in muscles, and in order to take care of the muscles, an acupressure is more effective than an orthopedics. He also said that my muscles were twisted like a hose and his massage would help adjust the twisted hose. I felt his explanation was easy to understand and that relieved my body and mental hardship.

Spa in Tokyo

Today I drove to a spa near my office. This is the first visit in three weeks after I got a slipped disc. I stayed there almost half day enjoying bubble spa and sleeping on a full reclining sofa. I felt happy and relaxed almost forgetting the pain in my thigh. According to the accupressureist, taking spa is good for backache because it releases the muscles and promotes blood flow. I really think so. My backache is apparently recovering.

Wasted air tickets

I was thinking about going to Hanoi in Vietnam this month. I should have been enjoying traveling now. But the backache attacked me less than one week before the departure date. So I have wasted my air tickets which were discount tickets and not refundable. I am spending all of my time in my dusty room in Tokyo instead of warm air of Hanoi. I feel very sad, but I try to think that this is a test for me to enjoy my life in any cases. If I could enjoy this painful situation my happy life would be more stable and strong. Every thing is in my mind.

The really important thing

The condition of my backache is getting better very gradually. It seems to be stepping three steps forward and two steps backward. At first I couldn't even sit down on a chair, but now I can face toward my lap-top computer for a very short time. Unfortunately I can't walk even 20 meters yet, but it is enough to take a round trip to the washroom in my house. The doctor said to me to keep a complete rest. I don't know exactly what that means. Should I always keep lying down on the bed? If so, it is a hell for me because my muscles are shrinking painfully. While the pain is overwhelming me, I can't do anything. And when it went away for sometime, I really think that health is the most important thing. I won't forget it that without health I can never live a happy life. I have to be more careful for my health. I have to accept that I'm not young and I can't overwork.