Kelly Azuma

My sister-in-law is a beautiful soul. That is Yasu’s sister, A. Her and I have always gotten on like a house on fire. We always email each other, write letters and send gifts to each other during the year, but in general I get on better with her than any family that are blood related, and consider her a real sister.

Early last year she suffered what the doctors thought was a stroke, she went numb down one side of her body and was hospitalised, and required numerous hours of rehabilitation.

Then, earlier this year, just before her 30th birthday she suffered the same thing again and this time the doctors found out that it wasn’t actually a stroke she was having but a nerve at the top of her spinal cord was acting up. I’m not sure what the disease is called, but basically when the nerve acts up it sends a shockwave through the body and causes stroke-like symptoms of temporary paralysis down one side of the body.

The doctor’s said there is no cure for the disease and to combat it, she would have to inject herself with medicine twice per day for the rest of her life, and if that isn’t enough, she would still suffer these stroke-like happenings up to 6 times per year!

Anyway, last night we called mum and dad in Japan as we hadn’t called them for a while. We both had a sense that something was wrong because A usually messages Yasu for his birthday and she didn’t.

We were shocked to learn that A has been in hospital for the last 3 weeks. She had another happening which has left her blind in her left eye! :(

She’s in a major hospital in Obihiro, one which doesn’t have much experience in treating her disease. She is being treated by steroids through an IV, but that hospital only has experience of treating steroids by IV for 3 weeks maximum and now she is on her 4th week, so is actually making history at the hospital in some awful way.

When we got off the phone I just burst into tears because I couldn’t hold it in anymore. She’s over there being so brave, even when she has lost half her eyesight. She’s only 30 for crying out loud!! This is so not fair!!! Why is such a beautiful person like A going through all this shit??? :(

There’s nothing we can do from here, the only thing I’m doing every chance I get is sending reiki long distance and hope that it can help somehow some way… I wish I could do more.

I don’t know why the good people in this world have to go through so much shit. I look at the evil people in my family and they seem to be getting off scott-free and yet, someone so nice, and still with the world at their feet has to suffer in this way.

:*(

I know life is not easy but why does it have to be so bloody cruel?

Happy to report in only 5 days of treatment I’m experiencing lots of progress. Last Thursday I had to sleep 4 pillows high and even then couldn’t really get any rest, now I’m happy to report that last night I only needed one pillow and slept through the night without waking up.

The main thing was that the pressure in my throat was so bad and was burning, so it was very difficult to lay on any angle than sitting up, and even that wasn’t nice.

The pressure in my throat has reduced significantly, and the burning is not there at all. I haven’t had any pains in my stomach since Sunday and I don’t have any acid pain in my throat or stomach either.

The only thing is I have to watch the food I eat. I can’t eat raw fruit like apples, oranges, or tomatoes because they seem to be too acidic and upset me. I can eat fruit in syrup or juice though without problem.

I also can’t eat cucumber, capsicum and onion. I can’t eat hot foods, can’t even eat pepper on my food. I also can’t eat chocolate as something about it makes me feel really bad. Really unfortunate as chocolate is what I use when I have a bad head day – when I have less seratonin that normal, but what can you do? Luckily I haven’t had any of those days lately so I’m doing okay without chocolate.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to eat those foods above in future. It’s a real pain as I love fresh fruit and veggies and I’ve been craving biting into a big juicy apple for weeks! But we’ll see what happens.

I’m really happy to have made such great progress this far. My quality of life leading up to last week was really awful, such that I thought it would be better to be dead than to have to live every minute of every day in agony like I was.

Thankfully, I found something that works and a doctor that knows what he’s talking about.

I talked with Yasu last night and we decided for me to still see the gastro specialist because I think it’s worth still having a scope, who knows if the acid has done damage to my stomach or not. I would like to at least get the all-clear on that.

So today I’ve done the washing, and I’m about to clean both bathrooms and toilets. OMG, how good does it feel to get back to doing every day chores? I mean just having the ability to do normal things… :) Thank you TCM.

Sorry for keeping you all in suspense. I haven’t been near the computer at all this weekend as it makes me feel worse when I am near it.

Friday morning when I was in the shower I had a sudden epiphany that my problem could be to do with my thyroid and I checked online and the symptoms seemed to match. Anyway, I went off to the chinese medical centre and spoke to the doctor there and when I described all my symptoms he said that is a thyroid problem.

Can you believe that my doctor and the hospital doctor didn’t even pick up on this? All this time I have been pointing to the exact place where my thyroid is and no-one even guessed. (I think they all need to be shot)

Anyway, the energy in my body is meant to run from head to toe but in my case it’s running from toe to head which is why the gastric juice is flowing back up to my throat (so he says) and so I had acupuncture for my thyroid. 2 of the acupuncture needles were actually stuck in each side of my neck, and 2 on either side of my cheek bones, 1 between my eyebrows (for sleep), 1 each in the inside of my elbow and wrist, 1 each in between my thumb and forefinger, 1 each in my knees, 1 each in my inner calf, 1 each in my ankle and 1 each in between my big toe and next toe. This is the meridian for thyroid and is how the energy runs, so by sticking the needles in those points it’s getting the energy back to normal.

By the end of the 25 minutes of laying there I was sooo sleepy. I couldn’t stop yawning! It was great to be able to get a good night’s sleep after nights of tossing and turning!

The doctor said my not having a period for 78 days was due to the thyroid problem as it has to do with the regulation of hormones so I got given herbal pills for the thyroid and for my menstrual cycle. The pills for menstrual are small round balls and I have to take 50 of them twice per day! haha…it’s not so much fun counting them out though.

Anyway, I felt a bit better after the acupuncture and on saturday after lunch I noticed a difference, I didn’t have the intensity of burning that I usually do in my throat, so it seems to be working.

At the moment I’m battling extreme exhaustion and fatigue, I am so tired and just want to sleep, sleep, sleep. I’m sure it’s another sign of the thyroid having problems, I just hope I will be able to right it somewhat through this chinese medicine.

I am having acupuncture again at 11:30 am today so I hope that gets more of the energy moving about.

This weekend was nice and quiet. I shouted Yasu lunch as a kind of pre-birthday event on saturday and saturday afternoon we wandered around a new shopping precinct, had a look at some homewares stores, found this really unique porch light which we bought and is getting sent over from Melbourne.

Then on Sunday it was Yasu’s birthday (a big 35!) and he was happy to receive some different varieties of cup noodle (cheese curry, meat king, and spicy grilled chicken) which he hadn’t had before, and some of his favourite Japanese snacks like Takenoko no Sato and Chocoball and he also got some no alcohol beer – Kirin and Bar Bi Can. We tried the beer last night, the Kirin was nice, but the Bar Bi Can was so watery we ended up pouring the rest of the can out.

For dinner I made roast pork with really crunchy pork crackling (I finally found the way to make it good after watching someone do it on tv) and roast veggies, and for dessert we had Vienetta which Yasu chose and it was yum! He hadn’t had it before and I hadn’t had it for years…

Anyway so it was a good weekend and thanks to the acupuncture I didn’t have to dwell too much on the way I was feeling. Even though I felt sick, it wasn’t right there in my face annoying me, I was able to do other things.

Well last night because I knew that I would be having acupuncture today and getting herbs to take, I decided not to take the medication (Nexium) that my doctor gave me as I have been telling him for the last two weeks that it doesn’t make any difference. He kept insisting that I take it because according to the medical profession, Nexium or Esomeprazole is the only thing that will reduce gastric acid. It’s like he has this tunnel vision and no matter what I say he doesn’t listen to me.

Anyway, so last night I didn’t take it. I usually take it at night after dinner and I usually get a really big burning lump in my throat when I take it and it’s sooo uncomfortable that by the time I go to bed I can’t sleep. But last night I didn’t take it, and there was still a lump in my throat like always, but it didn’t develop into a big lump like when I take Nexium after dinner. I was able to lay down normally on 2 pillows instead of 4. I didn’t have to lay on my back to fall asleep, I could lay on my side, and I actually slept through the night. When I woke up this morning I actually felt like I had more energy than usual and I was kind of amazed.

I find it completely amazing, why I didn’t think of not taking it before. I did what I was told and seems it wasn’t the right thing to do anyway.

This is a lesson for me in trusting my own body. Trusting that I know what is right for my body, like no-one else does. I said previously that I was sick of the medical profession, yet once I got a problem I went straight back there but it didn’t pay off because they have this set of guidelines that they blindly follow, rarely do they think outside the square.

Maybe he’s just a dud of a doctor. However, this is like the 5th doctor I have had and they all seem to be the same here. Not sure if it’s because in Australia they’re just all money grabbers or what, but it doesn’t matter where I go, medical clinic or hospital, they all seem to have the same tunnel vision approach.

Anyway, we’ll see how I feel this afternoon.

The news we all didn’t want to hear – it’s not helicobactor pylori.

I was less than impressed, let me tell you. I had banked all my hopes on it and when my dr. said it wasn’t well the flood gates opened. And the stupid guy had the stupidity to ask me why I was crying! Some people just don’t get it.

Anyway, then he referred me onto a gastroenterologist at a private hospital in the city. The reason being so I could claim it on my private health insurance. I called the hospital and the earliest appointment I could get is for 8th October, and the worst part is that you can only use your private health insurance there if you’re an inpatient, meaning I can’t use it for the consultation so I will be $180 out of pocket.

I was pretty much fuming, that’s like 7 weeks I have to wait. He’s purported to be one of the best specialists in Perth so I can see why I would have to wait that long, but geez louise, I never expected to wait that long.

Anyway after lots of thinking about it all today, I’ve decided to get treated by Chinese Traditional Medicine in the meantime. I’ve had it in the past,  after I had a painful gall bladder removal that wouldn’t heal and eczema and both times it worked wonders so I figure it’s worth a try. I have 7 weeks to go…so I can’t sit around doing nothing. Who knows, it may get better before then and I may not have to see the specialist. Such is my faith in TCM.

The best part is, I just called the clinic and I have an appointment for 3pm tomorrow afternoon! Can you believe it?? I was so elated! I mean after all the stuffing around with doctors and stuff and waiting for appointments and here I get this appointment straight away, which is unusual itself as the clinic is usually booked up like a week in advance as I remember.

I try not to get my hopes up too big but I do have a bit more positivity than I had this morning at least. :) Another good thing is that my private health insurance covers alternative therapies like acupuncture and herbs (my idea) so I can claim it all on my insurance! :)