Dear Newsletter Readers,
I hope you are all well and welcome to this week’s edition of our newsletter.
What with all the issues that are currently going on in the world, not least of all the continuing Covid pandemic, Christmas this year, as it did last year, had pretty much gone unnoticed in my household. It wasn’t until only very recently when my daughter asked my wife and I when we were going to put up the Christmas tree this year that we realized it was time to try to get into the festive spirit. Being a bit of a traditionalist, I always follow the 12 days before and 12 days after rule, so our tree went up on December 12th and it will come down on January 6th. The only problem we found when it came to decorating the tree was that a lot of the baubles that my wife and I bought when we got married (22 years ago) had started to fade, some worse than others and they actually didn’t look good enough to put onto the tree. The other decorations like the star for the top of the tree and other various ornamental decorations have managed to weather the test of time, so we decided to just invest in some new baubles and one or two other decorative bits and pieces. The only problem with going out to buy Christmas decorations in Tokyo is that there isn’t much choice in terms of the type of baubles you can buy, so in the end we were forced to go to the internet and see what we could find on Amazon. Fortunately, my daughter found some very good European made baubles that were reasonably priced, so we ordered a couple of boxes of them. I am happy to say that our tree is now up (see picture attached) and not looking too bad at all, the only thing missing are presents beneath it, which hopefully will be resolved after my wife, daughter and I all go out and do a bit of Christmas shopping this weekend. Until next week, please keep safe and enjoy your weekend.
Now, back to concluding the story that I started last week about my trials and tribulations connected to having my yearly health checkup and then finding myself having to return to hospital several days later to have some emergency treatment.
After having all the tests done inside my health check (12 in all), I made my way to the front desk in the hospital to announce that I had finished all the tests and as usual I was given a couple of laxatives to take, which under normal circumstances should have ensured that the barium swallow mixture and myself would part ways within a short space of time after taking them. However, in this particular case, it didn’t quite work that way and hence my visit 4 days later to the hospital ER to have an impacted barium stool removed. I don’t really have an explanation for why the laxatives did not do their job this time around, it probably had something to do with my nervous system being all out of sorts due to the terrible experience I had in the Ultrasound examination with the operator.
From the day I had my health checkup (Saturday 08:00~10:30) to the day I had to go back to the hospital for a consultation with the doctor to talk about the results of my health check (Wednesday at 3pm) I could not think about anything else apart from the ultrasound examination I had had and worry about what medical problem had shown up during the scan. On the Tuesday evening I complained to my wife of a few pains in my stomach and also mentioned that I had not had a bowel movement since my health check and at that point I decided to take a couple of laxatives in the hope that they would free me up. When Wednesday morning arrived, I did not feel very well at all; I can remember making an attempt to have a bowel movement but the only thing I passed was blood due to trying to force out something that clearly did not want to be parted from me. I suspected that my blockage problem was the result of the barium swallow mixture not having left my system and I immediately asked my wife to arrange some transport to take me to the hospital. We set off for the hospital at just after 8am.
Upon arrival at the hospital, I had my blood pressure checked and after filling in some forms I was quickly take into the ER. I had an x-ray and CT scan and both showed a fecal blockage in my colon. In most cases doctors will try to remove the blockage with an enema first and then if that doesn’t work they’ll move to extracting it with fingers and various implements. However, in my case it was so hard the doctor had to go in with his fingers from the off and at one point I had the doctor’s fingers and the nurses fingers up my rear end at the same time (not something I would recommend). I was laid out on the ER bed squeezing, pushing, puffing, panting and sweating like a good un for over an hour and a half with fingers and various extraction implements regularly going into my bottom hole to try to dislodge all the bits of hard feces stuck in my colon, but it wouldn’t all come out.
In the end I was given an enema, placed in an adult diaper and left to wait until the enema had taken effect (about 3 minutes); I was told by the nurse to resist any temptation to release my bowels until the 3 minutes had expired, however, the pressure was all too much and a little over 2 minutes in and I could not control myself. Unfortunately, the only thing I emitted from my rear end was the enema water. The nurse then took me to the bathroom to see if a sit on the toilet would persuade the remaining pieces of the impacted stool out; after sitting on the hospital toilet for a good while with fingers tightly crossed, and mind firmly fixed on doing the deed, I finally had a bowel movement and the relief I felt when I had it is difficult to put into words. Unfortunately, not all of the stool came out, but I was reassured by the doctor that it would eventually clear itself out of the colon with the aid of a laxative or two. I have to say that my bottom felt as if it did not belong to me after having so many fingers and other implements pushed into it, but the relief of now being relieved of the impaction helped to ease the pain a little.
In the afternoon, on the same day, I was scheduled to go back to the hospital to get the results of my health check which, for reasons already explained, I was not looking forward to at all. When my turn came to go into the doctor’s office for my consultation I was very nervous and just sat there expecting the worst; however, apart from being told that I was not as tall as I had been the previous year, my eyesight was getting weaker and I could do to shed a few pounds from my midriff all was otherwise apparently well. I was not convinced I was as healthy as he told me I was due to the incident that took place in the Ultrasound examination room, so I felt compelled to ask him if he was sure there was nothing wrong with any of the important internal parts of my body and he looked at me with some surprise. I then explained to him what had happened during my health check in the Ultrasound examination and he told me that he could clearly understand my worry and concern and he apologized and said he would look into it as a matter of course.
What an ordeal, I’ve been a week without being able to sit down squarely on a chair (please don’t laugh) after having an impacted barium stool removed, the pain has just been too much to bear at times; also, the worry and concern I’ve had to go through due to the incident that happened in the Ultrasound examination room ahead of having a consultation with a doctor to hear my health check results. All I can say is that I am relieved beyond words that all my major body organs are as they should be and although I cannot compare the pain involved in having an impacted stool removed with giving birth to a child, I feel can empathize just a little bit more with my wife Akiko and any other woman that goes through all the pain and discomfort that goes with giving life to a child – they’re all heroes in my book.
