Dear Newsletter Readers,
Welcome to another edition of our newsletter and as always I hope that you find something in it that is of interest to you.
For all of us that are living in Japan we are seeing quite a drastic spike in Corona virus related cases; as of today, 4th February, there are over 100,000 reported cases all over Japan with 90 deaths, so I think that tells us all that we should continue to remain that extra bit vigilant as we continue to live side-by-side with Covid.
I would like to continue on with my story from last week, so here goes………
Upon my return home, my wife asked me how I was and enquired if I’d seen the ENT voice specialist that she usually sees to which I replied: “I’m not sure, but I think so”. I explained that I was not aware there were 2 ENT departments in the same hospital and as such I had visited the Jibika department and was seen by a Dr Kitagawa to which my wife then told me that I should have asked to see Dr Hasegawa (her regular voice doctor). I told my wife that I had been given another bag full of medication (which bothered me somewhat) and that this time there was no mention of post nasal drip, laryngitis or pharyngitis, but I had been told that I still had Rhinitis and because my throat was red and sore the doctor I saw thought I had Acid reflux. After listening to my story, my wife apologised for not giving me enough information and suggested that we go back to the hospital the following day to see Dr Hasegawa to which I agreed.
The following day my wife and I went back to the hospital to see Dr Hasegawa in the ENT voice department, which as it happens is on the very same floor as the Jibika (regular ENT department), but firmly tucked away right in the corner. As it is a different department to the regular ENT department I had to go through the usual process of filling in an array of forms, including a form asking me for my temperature and to state that to my knowledge I was free from the Corona virus. After about a 15 minute wait my name was called out and I went in to see Dr Hasegawa; I was asked if I needed a Japanese to English translator which I politely declined, but I requested that my wife be present in case there was something I could not quite understand. Actually, as my wife knows Dr Hasegawa really quite well, she took it upon herself to explain my symptoms to him and asked him if all the medication I had been given was required. Before answering my wife, Dr Hasegawa explained to me that he wanted to examine me first to try to diagnose my condition and then proceed from there.
I was then asked to relax in the chair, pop my head back and Dr Hasegawa proceeded to check my throat and my nasal passages; after that, he squirted some anesthesia up my left nasal passage, he waited a few moments and then slid an endoscope up through it and into the back of my throat to check to see if he could diagnose the root cause of my issues. He concluded that my throat was sore, I had no sign of post nasal drip, but my nasal passages were swollen, particularly the right one which indicated that I probably had Rhinitis. He looked at the medication that I had been given by Dr Kitagawa and suggested that I continue to take the PPI (acid reflux medication) she had prescribed as he agreed that the redness of my throat was due to acid reflux, but he did not think I should take some other throat related medication she had prescribed. I mentioned that my mouth and the back of my throat was very dry in a morning and Dr Hasegawa then asked if he could place some special medicine at the back of my nasal cavity as he thought it would be helpful for my problems to which I agreed. This process involved placing some paste like medicine on to the tip of a cotton wool covered wooden stick and inserting it to the very back of the nasal cavity and depositing it there. Actually, I found this procedure a little uncomfortable and not sure what he benefits of having it done were, but I went along with it. I then made another appointment to go and see Dr Hasegawa in 10 days and bid him a fare-thee-well.
I left the hospital with the understanding that all the symptoms I had (a bad taste in my mouth, bad breath, dry mouth and throat, feeling of something stuck at the back of my throat, a bad feeling of nasal and chest congestion, headaches, stiffness in my shoulders, a tightness in my chest and some bleeding from my nose when trying to clear it of mucous) were all connected to acid reflux and the PPI’s I had been given by Dr Kitagawa would cure all my ills. I was just not convinced that I had acid reflux because I was not suffering from any of the other telltale signs of having it such as sleeping problems – acid coming up from my stomach during the night making it impossible to sleep, waking up in a morning with a painful throat, a dry cough, regurgitating food, burping a lot and heartburn.
I continued to take all the medication I had been given, but without any change in my condition; I started to think that the problems I have would stay with me permanently and as a result it was beginning to get me down to the point where I was becoming irritable with myself and those around me. Not only was it affecting my quality of life, but it was beginning to affect my home life, relationships with my family members and also my work life to a certain extent – health concerns can easily do that to the best of us, especially when you can’t seem to find a doctor that can pinpoint exactly what is wrong with you. Also, I was spending way too much time scouring the internet to try to get information from forums and other sites to try to pinpoint what could be wrong with me, but that was just making matters worse. I just felt that the doctors that I had seen up to this point were all just throwing medicine at me and hoping that something would do the trick, but I was tired and I didn’t want to continue on with that. That was when I reflected on what Dr Kitagawa had said about having an upper GI endoscopy to confirm whether or not I had acid reflux and I pretty much decided there and then that I would make some arrangements to have this procedure done.
In between my last visit to see Dr Hasegawa and my next visit I had been experiencing bad headaches (particularly across my forehead and around my eye sockets) and stiffness in my shoulders and neck which can be indicative of sinusitis related issue which is what I had initially been diagnosed with by the first ENT doctor I visited. After taking the antibiotics I had been prescribed by the doctor for sinusitis the headaches abated and that seemed to be one less problem I had to worry about. However, upon visiting Dr Hasegawa, I explained how I had been suffering with headaches and shoulder stiffness of late and he suggested that I should have a CT scan of the area in which my sinuses are located just to rule out the possibility of Chronic sinusitis. He checked me over again, looking at my throat and inside my nasal passages and this time he commented that my right nasal passage was narrower than my nasal passage on the left which he mentioned could be the reason why I have difficulty inhaling through my right nostril.
Dr Hasegawa concluded that my throat was still red and sore and that my nasal passages were still swollen. When I asked him what he thought was casing the feeling of a lump at the back of my throat and a dry throat and tongue he explained that it was more than likely gastric acid that was coming up from my stomach into my esophagus and then sitting at the back of my throat burning and drying it out. If it wasn’t acid then he suggested that it could be diabetes and recommended that I have a blood test to rule out that possibility to which I replied that I had had a full medical check very recently (2 weeks prior to my visit) and the blood tests I had had showed no indications of diabetes. He then asked me whether or not I had ever had a barium swallow or an upper GI endoscopy examination to which I replied I had had a barium swallow, but not an upper GI endoscopy. He then suggested that it might be in my best interests to think about having an upper GI endoscopy as that is the only way to determine whether or not a person has acid reflux or not.
With no pun intended this gave me additional food for thought as I had already been advised to do the same thing by Dr Kitagawa, not as directly as Dr Hasegawa, but advised nonetheless. I was given the date and time to return for the CT scan of my sinuses and off I went. I left the hospital feeling like I was paying a lot of money for medical care and treatment but my health issues were not improving and now I was scheduled to have a CT scan to see if that would get me any closer to a cure, if anything the stress I was feeling at that moment was making my problems worse. To be continued next week.
Stay safe until next week.