Doctors, Friendly Men and Button Porn - Day Two in Tokyo

The morning started early with a visit to the doctor. She was lovely, understanding, caring and well worth the trip. Trying not to get into too-much-information territory, a few people have been asking me... there is a thyroid issue and now with this doctor, I've finally found someone who will treat it. I'm on a trial for a couple of months and then we'll review it from there. She thinks that there maybe something else going on as well, but we'll face that possibility after seeing how the thyroid drugs go. The whole visiting a doctor is different in Japan. I've written about the the conveyor belt-ness of it here.

I was done there by ten, which left the rest of the day to play.

My day was filled with some more secret squirrel business (which probably won't be so secret squirrel for much longer, and may not be so exciting to others, but I love saying secret squirrel business) and lots of fabric shopping.

On the train, having a bit of trouble with a couple of Japanese maps, I turned to the guy next to me. In Japanese I politely asked if he would mind reading a couple of the characters for me. He willing obliged. He was friendly, so I then asked about a particular train station that I couldn't find on any of my maps. By this time, he'd already switched to English. He not only told me which line it was on, where to change and how long it would take to get there, when we got to Tokyo station, he actually took me to the platform I needed to go to. How friendly is that!

Until today, I've been really impressed with fabric stores that have five packed-full floors and craft stores that are seven floors. Today, it went to a whole other level! Try a five building craft store! Between the five buildings, there were 15 floors of crafty heaven. Needless to say, until I almost passed out, I forgot to eat.

Do you ever have moments when you're wandering around and you see something that you know another blogger would love? I so wished Bec was with me today. I found the most scrumptious button shop you've ever seen. Close your eyes for a minute and image the candy store in Charley and Chocolate factory. Replace the sweets with buttons (and beads), place them all in jars and then organise them in graduations of colours. Decorate the rest of the area with button-made goodness. That was this shop. Sadly, I wasn't allowed to take a photo.

That was day two, one more to go and then back home.

The Silly Woman's Disease

Before I start, I do want to apologise for this self-pitying post. I've written bits over the months and deleted them each time. I'm getting to breaking point now and just need to rant.

I've mentioned a few times that I haven't been well for a while now. Since mid-November actually. For a long time I avoided going to a doctor as I haven't had good experiences with the ones here. For months I put up with the extreme fatigue, dizziness and nausea 24-7. I kept telling myself that it would all go away soon.

About two or three months ago, the tingling began. Just a strange little sensation in my toes to start with. It quickly spread and had been up to my knees for a while now. It's become really quite painful and often sleeping or walking is difficult. After a day of standing in class (luckily only three a day) I'm almost crying from the pain. About a month ago, the tingling began in my fingertips, that's now spread up as far as my elbows, a few weeks ago, it began in my face. On top of this, breathing is becoming more difficult and I get the occassional chest pain. With all of this, other symptoms have been getting worse and I can no longer make it through a whole day. Luckily my work has been really supportive and I've been able to cut down my hours a little every day.

But what gets me really upset with all of this, is the %^$#@*) doctor's here. The first one was just horrible, you can read about some of the appointment here. A couple of weeks ago I found another doctor and had some hope. Things were done at a snail's pace however, one or two tests done at a time, then a week's wait to see the results and then another one or two tests after that. All the while he'd mumble that it looked to be autoimmune, but not testing or referring me to anyone else for tests.

At this week's appointment, in my frustration about the lack of answers, I made the mistake of telling him that I was getting really down about it all. He got excited, "That's it! That's the problem! You're depressed!" He'd set his mind to it and I could not convince him that I was depressed BECAUSE of the pain and inability to do things. In Japan, women are often considered to be silly hypochondriacs, so of course, (male) doctor knows best. He's now decided on my diagnosis but has indulged me with one last test.

After I get those results next week, I have to look at trying to find another doctor and go through it all again, in the hope that someone will listen to me and to get me back to my usual self.

Of course, while some positive results are scary, the not knowing can be much, much scarier.