State of Myself 私の年頭教書

私の年頭教書

　昨年は心臓のカテーテルアブレーションをするかどうかで、困った。日赤の医者もかかりつけの医者もカテーテルを強く勧めたが、私はカテーテルが失敗して死んだ患者や、肺に血液が流れ込んで苦労した友達を知っている。それで、最後のチャンスとして２４時間心電図検査（ホルター）を手術の直前にしてもらったら、異常がなかった。その後、一か月後と三か月後にもホルター検査をしたが、その結果、健康な人の脈拍と変わらない事が分かり、カテーテル手術をしなくて済むようになった。万歳だ。
　今年の目標は読み応えのある日本語と英語の短編を書くことである。日本語では数回賞をとっているが、英語ではないので、是非今年中にとりたい。（英文の要約）

State of Myself from 2018 to 2019

I conquered my fear and reclaimed my liveliness in 2018.

   During the previous years from 2015 to 2017, my doctor repeatedly recommended that I undergo cardiac surgery because I had been diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat and had been taking medicine called Amiodarone.  

“If you continue taking Amiodarone for a long time,” he said. “It will produce various dangerous side effects on your lungs, thyroid gland, liver, and other organs. It could be fatal in some cases. So why not undergo catheter ablation?”

Catheter ablation is a procedure in which the doctor threads a flexible thin tube called a catheter through the blood vessels to your heart to ablate abnormal electrical pathways.

I feared to have catheter ablation. I had heard that a patient in a renowned hospital in Nagoya had died due to the failure of the catheter ablation surgery. Furthermore, a friend of mine who had unsuccessful catheter ablation had to undergo the same surgery three times. He said to me, “I’ll have to undergo yet another catheter ablation soon.” That would be his fourth time in surgery. Another friend told me that his surgeon made a mistake during ablation. The doctor penetrated his lung with the catheter and blood flowed into it. It took half a year to take out the blood from the lung.

Considering these bad cases, I chose to take Amiodarone rather than to undergo catheter ablation. However, every time I saw my doctor, he strongly recommended the surgery.

   “You had better undergo ablation surgery before you are 75 years old,” he said. “Because it is difficult to operate surgery on people above 75.”

   In January, 2018, my family discussed whether I should have surgery. And I at last decided to undergo ablation surgery and told my doctor my decision, but I asked him to monitor my heart with an electrocardiogram before the operation. He consented and monitored my heartbeat for 24 hours just three days before the scheduled surgery day. The result showed that my heart was as normal as any healthy man.

   “This is because of Amiodarone,” the doctor said. So I stopped taking the medicine and after a month, I again had my heart monitored with an electrocardiogram. The result indicated that I had no irregular heartbeat. Three months later, I had my heart monitored again. And again I did not have any cardiac problem. The doctor was surprised and said:

   “Unbelievable. You don’t have to undergo catheter ablation. Also, you don’t have to take Amiodarone. I will prescribe a mild medicine.”

   Thus, I didn’t have to undergo the dreadful catheter ablation. Now I don’t feel any irregularity in my heartbeat. Thank God. I have been saved. I climbed from the bottom of fear to the top of liveliness.

   My plan for 2019 is to write worthwhile short stories both in Japanese and English. I have been working on writing short stories. Several of my Japanese stories have won prizes, but I have never won a prize for my English one. So, my dream for 2019 is to win a prize for my English short story. For this purpose, I have been attending three YWCA classes: Writing, English Short Story Reading, and Advanced Reading & Discussion. I will have to work hard with grit as Dr. Duckworth, a neuropsychologist, advised in her TED Talk.

  Most importantly, I have to stay healthy. Without health, I can’t accomplish anything.